Just put an end my misery if...

whichone'spink, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

Don't get me started on the bariatric patients. They are killing my back!I had to hold a four hundred pound woman's gut while my fellow NSs provided wound care for a laceration near her lady parts for thirty minutes. My poor back!

400 lbs is nothing. Try close to 1,000 lbs. I had to hold part of a 1000 pounder's leg as my whole clinical group turned her and cleaned her. It was quite the experience.

nursefrances, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

I have thought about this (OP) sometimes while at work and see a real sad case. What trips me out sometimes is how old some of the open heart\cabg patients are. They seem to doing these surgeries on patients in their 80s now. What worries me when I get older is I am not able to lay flat on my back or with HOB at 45 degrees due to a dislocated tailbone that will never heal. I am 39 and I tell my husband when I am old and confused don't let them lay me flat on my back.

Vespertinas · Mar 7, 2012

yes - put me out of my misery when I have decided that it is fun to finger paint with my poop :-(

I suppose if you seemed to enjoy it I wouldn't call it misery

jbluehorseh · Mar 7, 2012

to the (op) that sounds like one of the patients i had theother night, except for the pregnancy part. take a look at this link it did not get very many responses as i thought it would have, but it is reflective to the thoughts of the op. https://allnurses.com/nursing-news/when-care-equals-676484-new.html.

to[color=#1750ff]dudette10 i respect your opinion on this issue, it is good that he still has his frame mind with all that is going on with him. for some this would be too much.

this is a quote i used in a forum once before.

without health life is not life; it is only a state of languor and suffering - an image of death.

buddha

i think this is why seeing patients on the edge of death and we are doing eveything to keep him or her alive bothers me to the core.

Guttercat, ASN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

I've only been around here for a few months, but I know enough to know that this is the best.thread start.evar.

R!XTER · Mar 7, 2012

I'd like to see AN go 30 days without a post/thread hating on fat people/fat nurses.

IMHO, no one here "hates" on fat people, (and this is totally off topic of the OP), however, regarding bariatric patients, I find them particularly difficult to deal with because very often the majority of their comorbidities come from being overweight, i.e. diabetes, CHF, hypertension, etc, and they come to us needing total care as they are largely helpless (can't walk, can't wipe their own behinds). I can't help feeling that if a lot of these people had not let themselves get to the point of morbid obesity, they would not have the majority of the issues they are facing, and I would not be injuring my back trying to care for them.

2 weeks ago I had a ~400lb patient come in for *shocker* shortness of breath/CHF exacerbation. When the Dr. said she would need a dose of Nitro the patient said "Oh I don't want that! That's the S*** that gives me a headache." To which I responded "Well, that's the S*** that's gonna make you breathe." Now, understand that I am always very kind to my patients, and I NEVER curse, but I had had it. She had given herself every health problem in the book by being obese, and then comes to us expecting us to fix her, and has the nerve to make that comment. Additionally, there is no way she can hold down a job in her condition, as she can barely even talk, never mind breathe, so it is also us who are *paying* for the honor of treating her highness. This bugs me to NO end.

Yes, I KNOW that often obesity comes from other things, psych issues, etc. and I am fully expecting the onslaught of comments telling me I'm a horrible person for thinking this way.

R!XTER · Mar 7, 2012

I've only been around here for a few months, but I know enough to know that this is the best.thread start.evar.

Thanks

Steve_e · Mar 7, 2012

Interesting scenario's presented here for sure, and while I speak of not much experience, I know what you all are saying. I work with a fellow at my part time job, and his mom is in really dire straights, has been for years it seems. She has parkinsons, can't talk, doesn't know who anyone is, where she is, who she is, or probably even what she is. He is the only person in her family that still visits her. He visits her probably 2 or 3 times a day, everyday in the Nursing home, and she is admitted to the hospital probably once every 2 weeks for infection. She either has a UTI or an infection in her peg site area almost always. From running so many antibiotics to combat those infections she almost always has C-DIFF as well. He rants and raves about how "nobody is doing anything" or about "how can they not know where the infection is coming from!" and I can't help but think to myself, why don't you just let it go man, this woman is in her 90's, probably lived a great life, and now he is prolonging this misery for her with all of these awkward hospital visits, re-insertions of peg tubes, probing this, poking that, testing this. I have never visited this dear old woman but I am certain she would be much happier if she were where she is headed already.

Vespertinas · Mar 7, 2012

You mean the slow agonizing torture families put their "loved" ones through. I will stand here to this day and say there is no greater torture than putting PEG tubes in people.

So what do you do when your loved one suffers a stroke, cannot swallow any food whatsoever, is of relatively sound mind considering, AND states that they are hungry? Lets up the ante and take out the last part. What if they didn't even have to tell you they're hungry....but they've had a stroke and are halfway decent otherwise. Starve em?

That Guy, BSN, RN, EMT-B · Mar 7, 2012

So what do you do when your loved one suffers a stroke, cannot swallow any food whatsoever, is of relatively sound mind considering, AND states that they are hungry? Lets up the ante and take out the last part. What if they didn't even have to tell you they're hungry....but they've had a stroke and are halfway decent otherwise. Starve em?

Jesus I knew someone was gonna do this. There is always an exception to every blanket statement. Would it be better if I amended my original to state that almost every application of a PEG tube I see as torture? Suite you better.

Esme12, ASN, BSN, RN · Mar 7, 2012

I get what you are saying but some of your examples may not be so cut and dry if you are ever placed in that position. As a nurse of 33 years and specializing in Trauma flight/emergency medicine/cath lab/CTPACU .......I, too, at one point thought that not being able to move would be a fate worse than death. Except I now find myself not able to walk but a couple of feet without a walker and only about 10 feet with a walker. I find the side effects of massive steroids daily disturbing as they have turned me into what some would qualify as a grotesque, fat, lazy monster........but my young teenages love me and they want me around. I find I am not so willing to throw in the towel yet and the loss of mobility and my okay figure is not a reason, however frustrating it is and angering it is, to check out of dailiy living.

I deserve to be treated fairly. I desreve to be around for my family. I deserve to contribute to life anyway I can.

DookieMeisterRN · Mar 7, 2012

In response to the OP,

I understand you are venting, I really do but I find this really disturbing for some reason I can't exactly put my finger on.

AHA, I got it!

I am going to get a lot of flack for this but you know what? I DON'T CARE because it's MY opinion. This post reeks of judgement, a gross lack of compassion/respect for other human beings.

I'm so sick of people judging others and their decisions without ever walking a mile in their shoes.