SHAME ON YOU. When I went through 3 years of Nursing and another 2 years of specialty training I was taught that pain is a SUBJECTIVE symptom but that most everyone who complains of pain has a reason to complain. Even back then, in the early 70's we were taught to administer pain meds in a "timely and appropriate manner, respecting the patient's suffering." I remember we had exactly 15 minutes grace period after the appointed hour that the pain meds were to be given and if the patient waited longer than 15 minutes our Director of Nursing was called in and we received a thrashing and demerits against our performance!!
Six years ago A "nurse" like you formed her own opinion of my pain and complaints of my adhesions. She relayed her feelings to a young surgeon in the local ER. She told the surgeon, "I feel this woman is simply seeking narcotics. Her vital signs are normal and her x-rays are negative." After that, not a single nurse or doctor returned to my cubicle to see how I was. A cluster of nurses stood within hearing distance of me and made rude comments about "bored housewives looking for a shot of Morphine to kill the boredom."
I was discharged without further examination or pain meds. I ended up in a major medical center 5 days later with gangrene of the transcending colon (hidden behind a kink in the bowel) I had 10 hours of emergency surgery and spent 31 days in ICU and step down units, suffered post op infections and sepsis. I lost 21 pounds. I lost $26,000. in wages for missed work. I lost 4 months of quality time with my family. All because some overtly opinionated nurse felt it was her responsibility to look good in front of her peers and cost me 5 precious days when I might have been treated aggressively earlier and been fine sooner.
Please find another site and post your opinions there. Perhaps you can log onto CANCER.COM and tell those patients to stop crowding your ER with complaints of weight loss, tarry stools and severe abdominal pain. After all, I suspect you'll need them to crap blood all over you first, to PROVE they aren't simply taking up valuable space.
-- Ginny Halpern, RN ARD sufferer for 15 yrs.At Tue, 19 Jun 2001, anonymous wrote: > >I found this site by accident and have read so many stories of >"mistreatment" by nurses and doctors in ERs when you come to us in pain. >I want you to think of it in our terms. > >You wander in day and night, most of you walking on your own, in no >apparent acute distress. >You register and wait, telling everyone in the busy waiting area that >you MUST be seen immediately, "because you hurt so badly." >You take up valuable space in busy trauma and emergency medicine >departments complaining of terrible pain in your abdomen, and you tell >us you must get pain meds for the pain. > >One a pain assessment scale of 1-10, virtually all of you cite between >an 8 and a ten. But you aren't perspiring, crying, vomiting, bloated, >or acting like you are acutely ill. > >Many of you refuse to have x-rays, scans and other diagnostic studies >because you say "all those tests have been done a million times and they >are always negative" but you demand pain medication!! >You tell us you have adhesions but adhesions are nothing more than >layers of scarring that have no nerve endings. How can this cause pain? > >I am told "I need 100 mg of Demerol, IM " by someone who refuses to >allow us to examine them, and when we refuse to give you narcotics you >become upset. > >What do you want from us? If every drug addict walked into my ER and did >what many of you do, they'd be booted out by Security but for some >reason, you feel we are treating you unfairly?? > >Maybe instead of asking for pain medication, you might benefit from >talking to a therapist who can help you deal with your "pain"? > >If we do an MRI or flat plate and see something suspicious., of course >you'll be treated aggressively, and receive sympathy and medication. >Otherwise, please understand, we are not a narcotic dispensing >department for everyone with indigestion or cramps.