Hi everyone,
I just wanted to pose a question, since I ran into a situation at work the other nite. Well, we had a young woman on our floor who was about 38yrs old, chronic migraines who came in because she was suffering from numbness and tingling on her whole right side of her body. The pain was getting worse, nothing was really helping her pain. When I came on shift, she was in her room crying telling me how much she hurt. I gave her some Xanax but even that didn't help to calm her down. Tried getting some more history out of her. She's been under a lot of stress, I guess working a ton of hours, doesn't have much support, as she's single and both parents are deceased. She admitted to having asthma, and also fibromyalgia but this pain was different. The MD had come to see her and told her her tests were negative...MRI, MRA, etc. When I talked to the other nurses on the floor they said that this doc think's she needs a PSYCH consult---like she was faking her pain for attention! I was sooo mad! Why is it that alot of times when the docs can't find a substantiated cause for someone's pain they right away think it's in their heads? I've seen a lot of people in pain, and this lady genuinely seemed like she was. He had ordered her Neurontin for her and after I gave it to her she said it really helped. Then even some of the nurses on the floor were saying...OH, it's in her head, that stuff doesn't work that fast. Am I just too sensitive and naive or is it wrong to believe the patients when they say they are in pain????? I feel like, who am I to judge how bad this lady's pain is????
Thanks for your input...
Amy:confused: :confused: