[Tilleycs]

You mean people are actually trying to GO to the hospital or doctor? Yuck. I avoid them like the plague.

[gizzy76]

Thought I'd add my two cents in here...I've only encountered one person so far in my nursing career that I have thought (as well as others) was a faker.

A middle aged man came in with abdominal pain. He was given many tests and would sit at the bedside holding his side, rocking back and forth and moaning and groaning. The minute you'd leave the room, there wasn't a peep to be heard. He would walk down the hallway as if he were you or I (with no obvious distress). He'd call approximately 1/2 hr before his pain meds were due saying that he was in great pain and needed something for it. He also called the nursing desk at one point and was making gagging throwing up sounds. I went to see him and he had some phlegm in the basin at his bedside and went on to tell me that he was dry heaving and nauseaus and in so much pain. I left to get him the Buscopan that was ordered and snuck back up to his room. I quickled walked around the corner and found him sitting at the beside with his fingers down his throat trying to make himself puke. I can't describe the surprise on his face! He was speechless. Needless to say, his abdominal pain and nausea quickly subsided to a much lesser evil at that point!

[l.rae]

gizzy, l wish l had a nickel for everytime l have told a pt....."You need to take your fingers out of your throat"...l have caught many trying to induce the old heave- ho.......we had a "migraine in the other day....walking around the room, laughing and talking loudly w/ visitors, lights on....she didn't even have the decency to fake it...... but she did get some Toradol....LOL!

[navynurse29]

Hey guys, I have actually been on both sides of the fence here. I have been diagnosed with temporal lobe seizures since about 1997. However I have been having seizures since 1994 when I was in the Navy stationed in Puerto Rico. They were so bad they thought I had a brain tumor and medievaced me to Bethesda Naval Hospital Maryland for eval. I don't remember the trip because I was pretty much out of it most ot the trip. When I got there every single damn test came back negative and I spent three lovely fun-filled days on the psych ward diagnosed with .... you guessed it.... pseudoseizures! Anyway, fast forward to two years later, two witnessed petit mal seizures later, I am driving home from work, I pull up to my apartment, open my car door and proceed to have the hugest grand mal seizure ever witnessed by the paramedics the were called to my rescue! Funny how this time both my EEG and my MRI both came abnormal this time and how I then have to take Tegretol for a long time and now I currently take Topamax. Pseudoseizures? I don't think so. Anyway, I know that there are fakers out there and I have seen my share but I am definitely not one of them.

[Little One2]

Wow, that is pathetic that people would fake being sick. Take up beds for those who really need it.

It is no wander emergencies are always full. Everybody comes in for every little cut or scrape.

[Tweety]

Originally posted by hogan4736
3rd shifter...

you stated (and quoted):"But when there are comments from a nurse like brefni's "I don't understand what the attraction is..." it bothers me. There is no attraction, there is no though process "gee, I think I'll fake seizures to get into the hospital and get some attention, drugs, or to perform". As I said before, it's a pysch illness same as depression, or phychosis, amnesia etc. "

I genuinely believe that some actually premeditate about how they'll pull their act off, for whichever "chronic" (exacerbation of) illness (seizures, pain, etc)...Is there a psych component there? OF COURSE...but I've got to be concerned about true life-threatening conditions in my patients, or actual pain, etc...
Maybe this is a stretch, but , should career criminals receive lesser sentences, because of abuse/neglect in their past. ..
Look, patients w/ psych histories, that consciously make symptoms up for attention, take care away from those that really need it, and it frustrates us all here...If someone calls 911 for what is later to be found a "pseudoseizure", and does it monthly, then, in my world, let's hand him an ambulance transport bill ALONG WITH his therapy...

sean

Again, I wasn't talking about those patients. But I read what you had to say. Thanks for sharing, you opinion is appreciated. (I never did say fakers didn't exist.)

[Scavenger'sWife]

Originally posted by deespoohbear
OMG!!! That is too funny!!

What did the nurse say back to him?

Deespoohbear......sorry...I didn't read this thread again until today!

The nurse just folded her arms across her chest and told Lou that she would be back when his seizure was over!

He was quiet the rest of the day!

[igloorn93]

When I worked in ICU on nights years ago, we had a run of attempted OD's. We had decided to write a book "Suicide... the right way to do it". People who take 15 tylenol and then complain with the mucomist treatment get me all the time. I just shake my head and want to say "DUH", esp when they are repeat offenders with the same kind of OD. You think they'd figure it out.

[nurse2002]

Okay, I work agency. I was at one hospital one night. this guy comes in claiming a history of dvt s to his upper arms. They put him on heparin gtt. So the @@S hole is yelling in pain. So, with 6 other pts, I spent half my night on pain control for him with part of this time being on the phone with the doc. To get this guy stronger pain meds. So, my night ends going home feeling sorry for this guy.
Two nights later i am in another hosp and the same guy is there with t he same complaint. But now they have him on a pca.
So I call the doc and he orders a search of all the hospitals he had visited that week and also a search of rxs he had gotten. I was mad! I asked the doc if I coul write an order for a vastectomy for this guy but he wouldnt do it. Instead he is looking at some serious felony charges. One being insurance fraud.

[nurse2002]

Ive probally had at least 20 people with "abd pain" this past year.
They want thier pain meds iv. They are "allergic" to anything po, unless it is oxycontin of course. Sorry, but I dont feel sorry for the fakers. Psych case or not.
But I do treat them like any other pt I have with "real" pain. Im not there to judge someones pain for them, I cant. I can just try to help control it. And if they need a psych eval Ill have the doc order it. These "fakers" do need help, but not on a non phsyc unit.