Tough Conversation with Princess, the Patient

So, the very unpleasant patient was back. She's unhappy, because she's still stiff.

When you ask her whether she's been doing her exercises, she says she's been doing them once per day. But when you ask her to demonstrate them, she looks at you like she's confused. When you test her hip to see if her pelvis is level... like it probably would be if she did her exercises even once a day, like she says she is... it's not level.

So we had a conversation with her. This is a master-level conversation that I watched my CI have with this difficult patient.

"____, your back and neck just are not getting better as fast as we generally see, with someone who's been doing the exercises regularly. How can we help you to get better? Do you have any questions?"

Long story short, we got evasions and inconsistent information from a patient who wouldn't meet our eyes.... for the entire conversation.

One possibility: She's a slacker.

Another possibility: She's in a lawsuit, and she's trying to act more hurt than she actually is, so she can collect a larger settlement.