When a difficult friend becomes a difficult patient.. (long) help!

Nurses General Nursing

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HELLO everyone! I'm in a bit of a sticky situation any advice would be GREATLY appreciated. I have a family friend (whom I have not spoken to in years) call me a few weeks ago basically begging for help since she was diagnosed with cervical cancer. She states that she doesn't have anyone, family is not around, no friends etc.

Well, at that point in time she was not diagnosed with cervical cancer but had an abnormal pap.. She does tend to exaggerate and has a history of attention seeking behavior. Nonetheless, she was crying so much so I was there to support her.

Turns out, after getting a biopsy and the results, she does have cervical cancer. I have been there as much as possible taking time off of work and basically my life. Its hard because I know she is going through a rough time but all she does is spit out drama and cry about problems that have nothing to do with her cancer or her trying to get better.

She cries about how she has no one ,so she really really clings on to her 2 friends. I was not able to go with her to her biopsy because of work/school and I had to listean to her passive aggressive comments all weekend!!

Lastly, she went into an appointment today and she told me that the doctor stated she will have a D&C and will be down for 8 weeks so she will need me and her other friend to come over and help her. Does this sound right to you? My instinct tells me she is exagerrating and just wants as much attention as possible but I also feel so damn guilty for thinking this. My mind is so foggy after every time I talk to her because she just spits out verbal vomit. She has no friends, no one ever sticks around for this girl but I feel I should but I am just drained from her already.

There was many reasons why I stopped talking to her years ago and I know if it wasn't for her being sick, I would have not rekindled our relationship. This girl is a DRAMA magnet and has never been able to control her emotions.

What do I do??? Please help

Specializes in OB.

People like this are basically "emotional vampires". They will suck the life out of you and then drop you like a rock when you are no more use to them, going on to the next person.

The best thing you can do here is, as others said, set limits on your involvement. Instead of becoming her "personal servant" research and give her the information for appropriate agencies and organizations for help she may need. I can almost guarantee she will have a dozen excuses why "that won't work", but don't buy into that.

Aside from that, I'd agree with others that the "diagnosis" is probably exaggerated as well, especially if the "treatment" is simply a d&c., which from personal experience I can say takes only a few days to get over and back to work.

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