Table 3.

Exemplar Quotations: Pain

Theme	Exemplar Quotations
Back pain	Q36: “[I get back pain from] working on a standing stool… you have to always think about balance… kind of like in a defensive position” Q37: “I get a lot of lower back pain… I find I’m hunching too much.” Q38: “My back is killing me sometimes at the end of the day and it’s just harder with my kids… you’re carrying them a lot and sometimes you’re just like, I cannot continue on.”
Neck pain	Q39: “Microscope work hurts my neck more.” Q40: “All of the surgeries that require you to look straight down, intra-orally, or through a very small hole… that definitely strains your neck.” Q41: “Certain headlights are terrible for your neck… they cannot be adjusted properly to shine the light in the right place. You end up having to strain your neck to see what you’re doing.”
Hand pain	Q42: “[I usually get] some hand, thumb pain from dissecting, or fingertip pain from retracting.” Q43: “After a while your hand does fatigue and your hand does cramp up.” Q44: “[For] drug and sleep endoscopies… we are holding our arms in a certain position, holding up the scope for a really long time, and my hands would shake afterwards.”
Treatments for Pain	Q45: “I’ve definitely gotten massages.” Q46: “I had to go through a month treatment of high dose steroids” Q47: “Intentional yoga, for example, to be able to kind of stretch out and strengthen that side of my body. Massage on a regular basis.” Q48: “During residency I went to an acupuncturist for a little while for my neck.” Q49: “I’ve ignored it like any good doctor.” Q50: “I do yoga because of it. To prevent it… I have to stay in shape. I feel like it’s a part of my being healthy at work.”