Think what was written on the patient's face, what her body posture must have been, as the dialogue proceeded. Any other action threatens to fulfill the doctor's needs, but not the patient's predicament. We'll do what we got to. Say you've got a lot going on. The patient focuses not on the present need for pain relief.
Pain control is ancillary.
His concerns are for his family, and his prospects for continuing to be able to work and accomplish what he feels he needs to set in place for them before his death. It is a deliberation on cares. By this very invitation, the doctor accepts an equivalent role in the dialogue. Role equivalence is not possible in technical discourse, nor is it usually desired in market discourse. But here, in phronesic discourse, it is essential for optimal negotiation of life-choices.