I normally don’t defend or advocate for these type of patient’s simply because I work in the ER and have seen this kind of behavior entirely too often.
But (and this is a big but), when I was in my final semester of RN school, I came down with a nasty case of gall bladder disease. So much to the point that I lost 15 pounds in the last month of school. Determined to make it through the program, I refused to have surgery until I finished. I even had several scans during my lunch breaks at clinicals. I graduated on Friday and was admitted (direct admit) to the hospital the following Monday. At that point I hadn’t had solid food for almost 2 weeks. Knowing that there would be medicine to help me and literally feeling like I was dying of starvation, I ate. A small, nasty cheeseburger that had lived it’s short life under the warming lamp in the hospital cafeteria. And it was hands down the best thing I have ever tasted in my life…LOL! That is until it made it’s return trip.
But, I knew this would happen and myself and my nurses made a sort of easy peace with it. The next day it was off to surgery.
So when I encounter patients with the good old N/V ABD pain x however many days, weeks, years. I always try to remain a little bit sympathetic. At least until I see all the diagnostics.
*Hey my first post of 2008! Yippee!
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