Communication Work About Chronic Unexplained Pain

This essay draws upon Donovan's conceptualization of "communication as work" to explicate types of communicative work undertaken by the authors - two patients with vulvodynia, a poorly understood chronic genital pain condition - during patient-provider interactions prior to diagnosis. Uniquely positioned as patients-turned-scholars, we extend the rich construct of "communication work" by narrating the types of communicative work undertaken ourselves as patients communicating within a stigmatized health context for which a clear diagnosis is often ambiguous or unable to be reached. Donovan notes that conditions with a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity have the capacity to shift the nature of talk. This brief essay illustrates the ways in which the nature of patient-provider communication work is shifted by the ambiguity of this health context. Theoretical and practical implications are briefly offered.