Not just a children's story about blind mice, this insightful book teaches an important moral for everyone to learn, doctors and their patients. The moral is especially true as it applies to the problem of pain.
The Story Is As Follows: There are seven blind mice, all named after a different day of the week and by a different color. They each go out to feel the "strange something" and comeback with their idea of what it is. The Monday red mouse comes back saying "Its a pillar". The Tuesday green mouse comes back saying it is "snake", The next a "spear", then a "great cliff", then a "fan", and a "rope". The last mouse goes out and feels the entire "strange something", back and forth, top to bottom, and all around.
The last mouse returns and exclaims, "It's an ELEPHANT"!
The Lesson to Learn
Too many doctors focus on and treat only one or two aspects of Pain. Too many pain patients concentrate on one aspect of pain; hoping for the magic bullet that will kill the pain. ALL tend to forget that pain is a complex process that involves many factors and conditions. It is processed in the brain, for sensations are just sensations until they are given meaning in the brain. Not ONE thing causes pain and not ONE treatment method will cure the process of chronic pain. We need to focus our attention on each and every aspect of pain in order to take control of it. Otherwise we remain pathetic victims in our own mind. We need to look at the whole ELEPHANT CALLED PAIN.
