You should be ashamed to be a member of the nursing profession. Nurses are known the world over as being angels, caring people and I am sorry to say that you give them a bad name. It is time you sat back and took a look at your chosen profession and learn how you could be of help to those people who spend their every waking hour in chronic pain.
I do believe that from time to time you will find somebody in your ER who is drug seeking but if you were a real professional, you would know the difference between an addict and someone who is in pain.
When you have a patient who says s/he is in pain due to adhesions, I suggest that you learn to treat them kindly as statistics go this could easily happen to you or one of your family one day if they ever have to have surgery. The majority of adhesions are caused by trauma due to poor surgical technique, so if anyone should feel that adhesion sufferers are wasting hospital time. Then perhaps they should learn some preventative measures. They don't have to try very hard, they can find most of the information, Adhesions, treatment and prevention, on this site.
Your statement about adhesions not causing pain shows your very poor lack of knowledge. You should refrain from speaking about disorders that you obviously have not had any proper up to date training.
Yes...."adhesions are nothing more than layers of scarring that have no nerve endings." It is the extent of these adhesions and the type of adhesions that determines the amount of pain and risk to the patient. Loose filmy adhesions are divided fairly easily and carry a very low risk or pain. Thick, leathery adhesions present higher risk to the patient and can be extremely painful.
Sometimes adhesions are so severe that structures become fused, the adhesions attach themselves to various parts of the body and it becomes very difficult to divide these structures without some risk of damaging the fused organs. They can twist and pull your internal organs causing extreme pain. They can also cause partial or total obstructions to your intestines which causes nausea and severe pain.
You also say "Maybe instead of asking for pain medication, you might benefit from talking to a therapist who can help you deal with your "pain"? When an adhesion sufferer has to visit the ER for pain meds, s/he has already been evaluated several times and it has been proven that her pain is real. The only problem is that some Drs have not learned the difference between addiction and tolerance.
Addiction occurs when the person is controlled by getting and using the medication for the feeling they get in their head from the medication, not for the pain relief. Tolerance happens when the person in pain becomes use to the drug and it no longer gives the same relief it did when the person started to use it. This can happen with most pain medications, the pain does not go away as it did before and the person needs more medicine to have pain relief. It is almost impossible for a person in pain to become an addict.
Having x-rays, scans and other diagnostic studies, Yes.. "all those tests have been done a million times and they are always negative" The only test that will prove adhesions is a laparoscopy. Are you suggesting that they have this done to prove each time that they do suffer from adhesions. Because the other tests are a waste of money and will prove nothing.
Please don't just take my word for it, take the word of the experts and learn from it and maybe the next time you have a patient in your ER in pain, you will treat them with the dignity and compassion that they deserve.
PS. I truly hope you never suffer from adhesions, as it is a disease that I would not wish on my worst enemy. If my reply to you seem bitter, it is because due to adhesions my life has fell apart. I have lost my job, my beautiful Victorian Mansion, my dignity, and now that I am in a wheelchair, my freedom. Still maybe if I want some excitement I could go down to my local ER.
Join the real world girl and learn about adhesions, addiction verses tolerance, or do the world a favour and change your job.
In Friendship Katherine Findlay United Kingdom Adhesion Society mailto:kath.findlay@adhesions.org.uk http://www.adhesions.org.uk
-----Original Message----- From: adhesions@adhesions.org [mailto:adhesions@adhesions.org]On Behalf Of anonymous Sent: 19 June 2001 21:05 To: Multiple recipients of list ADHESIONS Subject: adhesion pain in the ER: a nurse's opinion
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.