I feel a bit stuck on my dx. I have a pt with an interesting situation. She came in a few weeks ago after a fall, she broke her rib causing a pneumothorax. She had an emergency chest tube placed. They have tried twice to remove her chest tube and get her to rehab, but her lung keeps collapsing. She smoked x 50 years, recently quit this year. She has emphysema. She is anemic r/t bladder cancer and sever hematuria. She has a-fib with a pacemaker placed a few months ago. When I saw her this week, she was on her 3rd chest tube. They had it clamped to see how she tolerates it, and planned to remove it. They day I cared for her, they still had not removed the tube. Her vitals were wnl, her bp was a bit low, but she had just received HTN medication. I was thinking of going with Ineffective breathing patter r/t pain in left lower lobe from chest tube AEB shallow breathing and pt c/o pain. My teacher asked me to look for problems that could be serious, cause death with her. I just feel a bit lost on this one, she has been released for a week now, they have just been trying to make sure she can tolerate her chest tube being removed. An outside perspective would be appreciated! =]
