The importance of good communication in treating patients' pain.

Friday 4 O’ Clock in the Pain Clinic Friday at 4 p.m. our pain clinic phone rang; it was the daughter of one of my patients, crying and telling me that her mother had died following a grueling course of treatment only a year before for widely metastatic breast cancer. The daughter had called me to share the news, saying she was truly grateful for all of the care I had given during her mother’s struggle with intractable cancer pain.