The AMA that you really don't want to AMA

Specialties Triage

Published

Specializes in ER, Psych, Telephone Triage.

i talk to the daughter about her 86 year old pinay nanay, all she knows is that nanay called her earlier and didn't feel good and had a fast her beat and nothing more. caller not with patient. i request moms number and call her directly.

it is 1am i can just picture this frail lady waking up to my call, taking off her bi pap, putting in her dentures, tumbling out of bed, running to the phone which is downstairs (old people for some unknown reason tend to live upstairs) then loosing her balance and tripping and rolling down the steps and crash landing on the bottom. hopefully she is a modern day gal and sleeps with a blue tooth on her ear (over her hearing aid).

soooooo nanay picks up the phone in this faint filipina voice with a gentle paranaque accent kumusta?

i tell her who i am and we begin to discuss how she is feeling. very sweet pleasant lady. she speaks very slowly and although work is really a "pain in the ass about time frames on calls" i spend time with her and don't rush her.

she has a hx of htn and 2 days ago was taken of corgard and placed on lisinoproil and hctz. tonight she said she experienced episodes of rapid heart rate which abatted on their own and are absent at time of call. i asked if she had any trouble breathing supine and she replied yes x 2 days. when i questioned her about pedal edema she replied that she had that also for 2 days.

our magnificent computer program for brain dead nurses reccomends ed (as if i couldn't come up with the same dispo). i give ther the "as a nurse i don't diagnose based on your symptoms i reccomend ed spiel" her response hindi! ayoko! seems liike lola ain't buying it! i explain in laymans terms the significance of new rapid heart beat, new med within past week, orthopnea, pedal edema and mature age. i allow her time for this info to sink in do you understand what i am telling you? do you have any questions? ayoko! i even offer to try and get an ambulance for her thru my hospital system. no go! faget about it! i read her the riot act, give good call backs and encourage her to call back for any questions or problems or if she should change her mind.

she thanks me for calling her back. i tell her it was an honor to take care of her

walang anuman, tulag na!

but with this not so young gal i really wish she had gone to the ed :(

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