okay, this could be a stupid question/story, but my degree is not in nursing - i start this summer
so, when i was in the hospital after a c-section (with my 2nd child) and my son was in NICU - i was prescribed to lortabs (2 every four hours). since i was staying in the hospital, i didn't have to go out and get a prescription - the nurse brought it to me...while i was there.
when i had my first child, i was released from the hospital the next day after my c-section - went to the pharmacy, and took MAYBE 5 or 6 pills once i was home. the rest stayed in my med. cabinet.
but with my 2nd child being in NICU and me being stuck at the hospital without being able to breastfeed, hold him, and do all the things new mothers usually do - i was a nervous wreck and stir crazy - wanting to walk to see him, wanting to walk to the ice machine, wanting to put on make up, wanting to go develop pictures - wanting to do ANYTHING besides sit in the hospital bed without my baby!
point being - since i was doing so much running around, i actually needed the pain meds this time. so, after about 6-7 hours without, i asked the nurse if i could have some and she was nice and brought them to me. i suspected that she'd bring me some 4-5 hours later. when she didn't, i asked again. she brought them to me. i asked if they could just bring them to me when they had the chance (around the time i was prescribed) because i would be needing them and i didn't want to bother them - and she said no, and that i had to ask for them. i felt like a drug addict begging for meds every 4-5 hours! i hated it. and after a few times of asking, i felt like THEY were treating me like one!
why do you have to ASK for pain meds in the hospital when they're prescribed after surgery? i'm sure there's a reason - it just made no sense at the time.
Specializes in Professional Development Specialist.
WOW - it's scary that a nurse who is assumed to be semi-intelligent would come to THAT conclusion after reading my post. you said i'm assuming a nurse has so little going on that she can remember to come back in 4 hours with pain meds? did you even READ what i wrote? i specifically said that instead of bothering the nurse, i asked if she could bring it AROUND the time i was due WHEN she had the chance SO THAT i wouldn't have to bother her. obviously, i assumed that she WAS busy and instead of me having to call for her and ask her every four hours, she could just come by every 4, 5 hours when she had a chance and bring them.
secondly, when did i COMPLAIN that it wasn't managed. it was most definitely managed. if a nurse wants me to bug them every 4 hours and have them come to my room to ask for something when they already know full well what i'm calling them for, then you best believe i'll fulfill that request. i NEVER said that "help never came and i never spoke up."
you are seriously making things up. SHOW ME where i said that. thanks.
Okay. Let's all take a deep breath. Can we look at it from the nurses perspective? You said bring it "around" the time "when she had the chance". So she has 5,000 other things going on, she must remember such a vague request? Calling her to remind her isn't bugging her, it's being nice and making her life easier instead of feeling she should remember something you said 4 hours ago. Using your call light to say "I'd like that pain pill now" is not being unreasonable as a patient.
It doesn't bother me that you insult my intelligence, I'm immune to that game. You came to a site for nurses, asking for nurses perspective. I gave you mine. Take it or leave it. You won't hear what you want from everyone here.
i think you are seeking ways to repudiate the OP's complaint.....she already said she was moving around more than the first one, and didnt have the distraction of the a baby to care for, thus being in more pain from the moving around and more aware of it d/t lack of distraction.....last time i thought about it, a Csection was major abd. surgery....would you be saying the same about an appy? gallbladder?
You're right. Giving birth to a sick baby that you can't nurse and can't keep with you isn't stressful at all.
Since what the OP plainly stated is not obvious to you, let me help you out:
From the ORIGINAL POST: (bolding mine)
"but with my 2nd child being in NICU and me being stuck at the hospital without being able to breastfeed, hold him, and do all the things new mothers usually do - i was a nervous wreck and stir crazy - wanting to walk to see him, wanting to walk to the ice machine, wanting to put on make up, wanting to go develop pictures - wanting to do ANYTHING besides sit in the hospital bed without my baby! "
So no, I wouldn't say the same thing with a gallbladder because one doesn't normally go "stir crazy" when one has an organ taken out and can't see it or hold it.
You're right. Giving birth to a sick baby that you can't nurse and can't keep with you isn't stressful at all.
Since what the OP plainly stated is not obvious to you, let me help you out:
From the ORIGINAL POST: (bolding mine)
"but with my 2nd child being in NICU and me being stuck at the hospital without being able to breastfeed, hold him, and do all the things new mothers usually do - i was a nervous wreck and stir crazy -- wanting to do ANYTHING besides sit in the hospital bed without my baby! "
So no, I wouldn't say the same thing with a gallbladder because one doesn't normally go "stir crazy" when one has an organ taken out and can't see it or hold it.
i like how you didn't bold THIS part:
"wanting to walk to see him, wanting to walk to the ice machine, wanting to put on make up, wanting to go develop pictures"
i was active - way more active than a typical patient would be after a c-section - way more active than i was after MY own first c-section. i shouldn't have been doing the things i was doing, but the way i dealt with the stress was by staying busy.
Okay. Let's all take a deep breath. Can we look at it from the nurses perspective? You said bring it "around" the time "when she had the chance". So she has 5,000 other things going on, she must remember such a vague request? Calling her to remind her isn't bugging her, it's being nice and making her life easier instead of feeling she should remember something you said 4 hours ago. Using your call light to say "I'd like that pain pill now" is not being unreasonable as a patient.
It doesn't bother me that you insult my intelligence, I'm immune to that game. You came to a site for nurses, asking for nurses perspective. I gave you mine. Take it or leave it. You won't hear what you want from everyone here.
i'm pretty sure nurses are supposed to check in on their patients at certain intervals and have duties to take care of during their rounds. in my case, i didn't need much assistance. my husband was there with me. i was mobile. my child wasn't in the room. they really had no responsibilities to me other than bringing medication - so, no, i don't think it's unreasonable to expect a nurse to write down what time i'm due for meds. after my request considering she had no other obligations to fulfill for ME which is most likely not the norm.
Specializes in endocrinology, geriatrics, dementia,.
Why is this wrong? I had a Res that had PRN pain meds but she has requested for us to bring them to her when she could have another. She was in constant pain and never refused them when we brought them to her. She was grateful because she would worry that her call light wouldn't be answered quickly or I'd be off doing something for someone else and she would have to wait in pain for 30 min to an hour. That way she knew I would be there and she wouldn't be anxious about it in between getting the pain meds.
If your bringing them scheduled why not contact dr and change order to scheduled as thats what your actually doing?
The nurse the OP refered to should have just done as the op asked by asking dr to clarify or change order to schd.
Sounds like the nurse was appropriate in not bringing you your medications around the clock like you asked. You've repeatedly mentioned the stress you were under by not having your child with you and in the NICU. It sounds less like you were in pain (although I don't doubt that after major surgery you did have pain, but you've already told us you can handle similar pain without much use of narcotics) and more under severe stress. The narcotics work not by actually killing your pain, but they work in your brain to make you not care about the pain (and other stressors in your life).
The nurse should have worked with you to identify the sources of stress and help you reduce them without the aid of narcotics, but it sounds as if you were using them inappropriately, though I doubt you realize this.
yes, i could handle the pain better in the exact situation without the use of meds because i was lying in a bed - not walking around the hospital, and definitely not leaving the hospital which i was able/had to do the second time. i'm sure the need for pain meds was mostly due to the fact i was active, but possibly because it was an incision on top of a prior incision - i'm not sure. however, you don't have to be a nurse to know that someone lying in bed after having their stomach cut open is going to need pain meds less than someone who is on the move.
i think you are seeking ways to repudiate the OP's complaint.....she already said she was moving around more than the first one, and didnt have the distraction of the a baby to care for, thus being in more pain from the moving around and more aware of it d/t lack of distraction.....last time i thought about it, a Csection was major abd. surgery....would you be saying the same about an appy? gallbladder?
If your bringing them scheduled why not contact dr and change order to scheduled as thats what your actually doing?
The nurse the OP refered to should have just done as the op asked by asking dr to clarify or change order to schd.
good point - and just to clarify, when a different nurse was on duty, she must've done just that. she didn't tell me that specifically, but she was very nice - gave me some comforting words and commented on my activity level saying something like "i know it's hard, but you should try to rest and get out of here sometimes, but relax." i got officially discharged, and was brought a prescription that i had to take to the pharmacy, but was offered the opportunity to stay in the hospital room to be near my child. after that, i was on my own with my own prescription, but i stayed in the hospital basically as a guest instead of a patient.
It seems to me that the OP's point in the first place was that it can be difficult for patients to have to call every time they need pain control (beyond non-narcotic means) for fear of being seen as difficult or as a drug-seeker, which is something we need to keep in mind.
Sometimes we get too busy to remember that it's time our pt's pain control would be wearing off and it takes a call light to remind us, but our default method of assessing and treating pain should be more proactive than that and also keep in mind the stigma's many patient's place on initiating that conversation.
It seems to me that the OP's point in the first place was that it can be difficult for patients to have to call every time they need pain control (beyond non-narcotic means) for fear of being seen as difficult or as a drug-seeker, which is something we need to keep in mind.
Sometimes we get too busy to remember that it's time our pt's pain control would be wearing off and it takes a call light to remind us, but our default method of assessing and treating pain should be more proactive than that and also keep in mind the stigma's many patient's place on initiating that conversation.
this is pretty much correct. in the first place, i didn't really have a point, but rather a question.
however, i think the whole "drug seeker" thing is a real problem in general. i went to the ER once because i was having chest pains and was feeling dizzy. i had heard horror stories about people who drink energy drinks (which i do) having heart attacks - so i mentioned to the nurse who admitted me that i did drink those regularly just as a side note. i'm fairly young and healthy, but i also have an uncle who had a heart attack at the age of 27, and let's face it - chest pains on the left side are scary! the nurse was acting like i was crazy....i was too young to be having heart trouble, etc, etc. at one point she stopped by my room and said, "this isn't the first time you drank one of those drinks, right" as if she thought i drank ONE that day and was overreacting
anyhow, they did an EKG and when the doctor showed up and asked about my pain scale, i told him i wasn't really in pain - i was having sporatic (sp) chest pains where my heart is and it wasn't so much painful as it was scary bc it was increasing over the course of two days. in the end, he diagnosed me with something like "bronchial chest wall pain" or something even though i felt fine aside from the chest pains and sent me home with a prescription for a bottle full of lortabs that i didn't need.
my husband does landscaping work for a living and he was mowing on one of those big stand up mowers one day and hit a wasps nest. they literally ATTACKED him and his arm/hand/leg were swollen up HUUUUGE - he couldn't flex at all and was in real pain. he went to the ER that night and they told him to take benadryl - no pain meds. my stepfather who HATES drugs got accused of seeking drugs by the dentist once too. it's just amazing.
Specializes in Peds/outpatient FP,derm,allergy/private duty.
Well, backatit, you may not have realized at first that you stumbled into one of our "thickets" as nurses -- the issue of pain control. What happens is that nurses tend to develop personal philosophies over the years and since most orders for pain meds are prn we have more discretion in this area than many others.
I hope you don't take it personally and I see why you asked the question. Most of us have experienced inadequate pain control ourselves and even that feeling as though we are being give "the eye" of suspicion. Usually if you have a home prescription that says "every four-six hours OR as needed it means it's OK to take less than that if you don't need it. You should have rested more than you did on that first post-op day! Or perhaps I say that in retrospect having run myself ragged as a mother of young children. :)
Well, backatit, you may not have realized at first that you stumbled into one of our "thickets" as nurses -- the issue of pain control. What happens is that nurses tend to develop personal philosophies over the years and since most orders for pain meds are prn we have more discretion in this area than many others.
I hope you don't take it personally and I see why you asked the question. Most of us have experienced inadequate pain control ourselves and even that feeling as though we are being give "the eye" of suspicion. Usually if you have a home prescription that says "every four-six hours OR as needed it means it's OK to take less than that if you don't need it. You should have rested more than you did on that first post-op day! Or perhaps I say that in retrospect having run myself ragged as a mother of young children. :)
most often, i have taken less than prescribed and even only taken a few from a whole bottle. that's not really the issue, and this was a different circumstance.
i probably SHOULD have rested more post op, but i SHOULD have hypothetically been taking care of my newborn. instead, i got a polaroid several hours later. some people deal with stress/depression by not getting out of bed and others deal with it by doing everything they can to stay occupied. it's easy to say what you should do when you're not in the situation. i guess that's why i figured i was being helpful and the nurse who had no other duties to attend to regarding me SHOULD have been able to handle bringing me meds every 4-6 hours without a reminder.
JenniferSews
660 Posts
Okay. Let's all take a deep breath. Can we look at it from the nurses perspective? You said bring it "around" the time "when she had the chance". So she has 5,000 other things going on, she must remember such a vague request? Calling her to remind her isn't bugging her, it's being nice and making her life easier instead of feeling she should remember something you said 4 hours ago. Using your call light to say "I'd like that pain pill now" is not being unreasonable as a patient.
It doesn't bother me that you insult my intelligence, I'm immune to that game. You came to a site for nurses, asking for nurses perspective. I gave you mine. Take it or leave it. You won't hear what you want from everyone here.