Last Wednesday I encountered the reason for the sometimes crappy treatment I get in the ED concerning my migraines. I actually met a real life in the flesh migraine faker! :
I was waiting in the Ed waiting room, waiting for my boyfriend to get off work, and noticed a couple sitting across from me. They were chatting happily, laughing and pigging out on candy bars and chips and cokes. I noticed the hospital bracelet on the girl and after about 10 minutes, I couldn't help myself.... I asked her what brought her to the ED at 3:00 in the morning. She looked at me and says..."Migraine"
I'm in shock at this point but then I get angry!
I say" YOU have a migraine and you can EAT and DRINK? Isn't the light bothering your eyes? You do NOT have a migraine and you know it!"
I turn away disgusted. Well....guess what...she goes into "migraine mode". Gone are the chips, the chocolate and the cokes, and out come the dark sunglasses, the cold ice pack and she puts her head down on her boyfriend's shoulder and starts to grimace in "pain"
I start laughing out loud. :chuckle I could not believe it! I still can't!
I have to drag myself into the ED, feeling half dead, wishing I was, and I get the red flag because the staff encounters people like this girl!
When I finish nursing school I want to work in the ED and I'm guessing I can't do what I did Wed, but I think I'm going to have a hard time keeping my mouth shut.
Honestly, I never quite understood how the cynicism towards migraineurs came about until now. Another part of me can't see how the real thing can be confused with these obvious cases of faking it. A dilemna that shouldn't exist I suppose.
How do you handle people like this? Can you get your license taken away?
did they hida scan your gallbag?? - sometimes that is the only thing that shows the sludge..... most of the docs i work w/ will admit a pt w/ abd pain when we can't find the cause and they continue w/ pain....obviously something is there.
had a psyc pt who wanted to leave sooooo bad (etoh 420) that he eloped. he ran outside, up the hill to the community college next door. he was gone for about 45 min.
next thing we know, we get a call from the medics for a pt from an mvc.
when they brought the pt in, it was our famed psyc pt. he had gone to the college, hot wired one of the golf carts, began driving it and the wrecked it! he was ok but pi@#ed at us because we told him that he had to be npo until trauma injuries were rulled out and that we would not give him a lunch box!
i really enjoy where i work - they'll wait outside in the smoking area asking nurses for rides as they get off work - LIKE ONE OF US WOULD SAY YES?!?!?!
But don't ya love it when they come to the ER in a cab because they are so SOB that they can't even say a 2 word sentence, then stop to have a cigarette before coming into triage.....can't remember the tooth: tattoo ratio on that one..(oh, that's bad!-sorry!)
KC, we used to have that problem until recently, when our entire hospital campus was declared a smoke free zone.
Now we can tell them that they can NOT go outside to have a cigarette while they are waiting to be medically cleared for admission to our psych unit or someone elses (rehab, etc) talk about mad, there are many of them who go AMA because of this...
back to the topic of Migraine sufferers, we have those (as I am sure you all do) who are allergic to: Imitrex, Toradol, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Phenergan, Stadol, percocet, Vicodin,Midrin, Maxalt, Zomig, Compazine, etc etc... Of course they CAN take Morphine and Demerol!
when we start their triage, we can usually tell who are seekers and who are sufferers. I try to be very empathetic to either one, they usually dont require a lot of me, just giving the meds and discharge and actually it is kind of nice to not have a patient that needs the million dollar workup!
our hospital is a smoke free zone as well - they have to go across the street to a "smoking hut"
our hospital also started a new policy - if any patient leaves the floor or the ED to go smoke - they are automatically discharged and must re-sign in and start the process all over again- man do they get peeved about that....i love it.
back to the topic of Migraine sufferers, we have those (as I am sure you all do) who are allergic to: Imitrex, Toradol, Ibuprofen, Tylenol, Phenergan, Stadol, percocet, Vicodin,Midrin, Maxalt, Zomig, Compazine, etc etc... Of course they CAN take Morphine and Demerol!
when we start their triage, we can usually tell who are seekers and who are sufferers. I try to be very empathetic to either one, they usually dont require a lot of me, just giving the meds and discharge and actually it is kind of nice to not have a patient that needs the million dollar workup!
hey! are you sure you don't work in my er? haha. the only thing that can go wrong with the above is when you get a doc fresh out of residency, ususlly waiting for board results, who wants to save the world. then, unfortunatly, everyone gets the million dollar workup!:roll
well i can attest to having pain and falling asleep w/a migraine....when first diagnosed they gave me fiorinal. i got a 10/10 migraine and took the fiorinal, and just got really happy, and sleepy and tired, but no pain relief!!!! i was making christmas wreaths at the time i took the fiorinal, and man, those were some wacked wreaths!!! but the headache did NOT go away with fiorinal and i did sleep. now midrin does the job.
:
just funnin' with ya athomas91!
yeah, ya gotta love 'em!
MAGIK GIRL
299 Posts
athomas91
i agree with your post. but i have to know'
what's a gallbag? lol:roll :kiss