Admission with abd pain & N/V/D...

nrsang97, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2008

Gross the last thing I want when I am N/V and having abd pain is a whopper and a milkshake. :barf01:

People never cease to amaze me. Maybe he paid the price later by barfing it up.

FireStarterRN, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2008

11/10 pain, per chance?

NurseCherlove · Jan 3, 2008

So I take it you were still responsible for doing the admission despite being 30 minutes before the end of your shift? At the unit where I just came from, our cut off was 45 minutes before the end of our shift - any later, then it belonged to the next shift.

Sorry you had to deal with that. Those "abdominal pain" patients just amaze me sometimes. Betcha all of his tests will mysteriously be negative - oh, whatever could it be?

Let me stop:devil:

fleasle · Jan 3, 2008

I bet the poor fella just needs a few good doses of Dilaudid and his pain will be much better. That Dilaudid does wonders... :lol2:

Tait, MSN, RN · Jan 3, 2008

I bet the poor fella just needs a few good doses of Dilaudid and his pain will be much better. That Dilaudid does wonders...

Yeah but I bet if you offered only IM he might rethink his pain.

littleRNthatcould · Jan 3, 2008

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. :eek:

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!

jessiern, BSN, RN · Jan 3, 2008

11/10 pain, per chance?

Oh no...He told me he didn't hurt at all. Hadn't had any pain. Funny how that was part of the diagnosis

Just the severe nasea *take a bite of burger* that just will not go away *take a fry* no matter what he does.

He was on an 1800 ADA, low cholesterol, low sodium diet BTW

But, the good news is that after I got home, 2 doses of advil and 2 doses of tylenol finally broke my husbands fever. And removing the 4 blankets he was bundled in probably helped too. :uhoh3:

lpnstudentin2010, LPN · Jan 3, 2008

Recently I have been having n/v. Some days I am completly fine so I will eat what ever I can get my hands on,other days I can not eat anything at all. Also so far all the diagnostics that have been done have come back negitave (other tests are still being done but so far everything is neg)

NursingAgainstdaOdds · Jan 3, 2008

11/10 pain, per chance?

Precisely what I was thinking.

As a PP stated, I do hold on to at least a thread of assuming the best (preparing for the worst), until proven otherwise. I'd still be documenting the heck out of that burger and fries, however. Heh.

EmmaG, RN · Jan 3, 2008

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.

Good point.

I was on a med for an extended period of time that caused a low-level, constant nausea. That didn't mean I didn't get hungry. But one of the few things I could eat without exacerbating the nausea were chili dogs. I don't like chili dogs, and generally if I'm nauseated just the thought of them will make it worse, but for some reason while I was on that med they were about the only thing I could eat. Ick.

banditrn · Jan 3, 2008

When I was in Ambulatory Surgery, I was at the desk taking report on a patient that I was taking when the surgeon came wandering up to the desk to tell me that the gal was eating carry-out.

When I admitted people, as part of their pre-op education, I always told people to not expect to eat when they got back. That later on I'd give them maybe some crackers and Sprite - but the day girls weren't as good about educating patients as they should have been.

I went running down to the patients room to find the gal chomping on a Big Mac. I told her it's not a good idea to be eating ANYTHING at that time, but she blew me off. I no sooner got back to the desk, than her light went on, and she was throwing up all over the place.:trout: