[voice over]: There’s a saying we hear a lot around hospitals… that goes like this – “Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.” But I doubt the person who coined it ever went through major surgery. Or maybe they didn’t mean physical pain. Maybe they meant the other kind, the worse kind. Maybe they meant the kind of searing, seething, boiling pain that tells you you’re a failure and a fraud. “Suffering is optional.” That person didn’t know what the…they were talking about.
“Get Off on the Pain” · Season 14, Episode 2
In this episode: Meredith Grey (4), Miranda Bailey (2), Alex Karev (1), Ben (1)
When I slept with George, it had everything to do with Derek.
I still can’t believe you did that.
Okay, we are too old to be having this conversation.
[to Jo] If you want to be a shark, be a shark. Don’t apologize for it.
[to Jo] Karev is a puppy dog. And he wouldn’t hurt a fly. Unless he thought that fly was hurting you.
I don’t want to stuff my feet into these shoes. When Webber became chief, he did not have to fiddle around on sticks all day. When Hunt became chief, he did not have to squeeze five toes into a space built for two. But I became chief and I can’t wear my perfectly comfortable surgical clogs anymore. Any you know why?
Society?
S...Society.
[voice over] As surgeons, we try to eliminate pain. As humans, we just try like hell to avoid it. When we can’t avoid pain, we try to understand it… with pithy little quotes that we can wrap our head around… like “Suffering is optional,” or “Time heals all wounds,” and my personal favorite, “Every pain has a purpose.” God, I hope that one’s true.
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