Pain!

Published Jan 2, 2006

543 Posts

So I had an interesting day. Right after we wheel the mother from c/s with BTL into recovery, her epidural catheter was removed immediately by anesth. necessary "because of some sterility breakdown" - I'm not really clear on the facts. 15 minutes later the mother was in agony. My preceptor mumbled something about the "stupid doctors", but it was I who went to let the MDs know that her pain scale was 8. Why nobody anticipated this, I don't know. They ordered morphine PCA. Meanwhile, no one knew where to get a pump, or even how to work one. Another 15 minutes go by and the mother is now burning with pain, and I am livid. I insist the MDs do something about this, (and I got a lot of dirty vibes from them for being pushy, but that's another story) and finally, one MD tells me I can give her 10 mg morphine SC till the PCA is set up.

My question is, in your experiences, was this 10 mg SC the right thing for this woman? Bear