I learned some coolish things on this turn with Rebekah.
1. there is no limit to the amount of pain meds that a doctor can prescribe to a cancer patient and
2. Some nurses just don't get that when one pain med is ordered to be given every on schedule every 3 hours and a patient is changed to a new med that it too should be scheduled as well.
My daughter; those of you who have known her for more then the last month know she is super sweet and kind, was acting like someone else when I arrived requiring her leg to be rubbed just so and yelling at people. I was very worried, I had had the morphine scheduled so that she would be comfortable but not groggy I thought "oh my gosh it's not working anymore what are we going to do they said they would go up to every 3 but would they up the dose and increase the chance of side effects" then I thought "is this new guy pocketing my little girls meds?" I asked Shawn about her pain control and he told me that she had been switched to Oxycontin which should last longer. Seeing what I thought meant it was not working I asked when she was going to be getting it next. The nurse told me that she was ok to have it now, (pause for those who know what I might have been thinking) I used great restraint in not yelling at the nurse or hitting him and asked how long ago she could have had the medicine, to which he replied "oh a half hour, 45 minutes; do you want me to give it to her now?" (angry pause again)
"yes"
He gives it to her. Shawn leaves after kissing and hugging both of his girls goodbye, our hearts break a little bit, but we know he has to be with the boys. After 30 minutes or so Rebekah has returned to her sweet self and is nice to the nurse, I say "Meet Rebekah that's the little girl I know" it seems like not too long after things start to go down hill. We call in the nurse to see what time she can have her pain meds and again he says she could have had them a little while ago. GAAAHHH...... I think he can tell I am frustrated and he goes into how some parents push too much for the pain meds and they can suppress the nervous system too much and keep the kid practically sedated ect. It's close to shift change so I let that happen then tell the resident on that night when she comes in that I want her meds to be scheduled because I want her out of pain and able to talk to us and not be in pain waiting for us to get a clue and ask. She wholeheartedly agreed with me and we walked out to find out how much time was going by between doses earlier as were out in front of Bek's room I saw Dr Sato there adn she over heard us talking and she said "there is no limit to the amount of pain medicine we can give her, we want her to stay comfortable. It's not good for her to be in pain, can slow recovery" I am utterly relived to know that the doctors are on my side even if a nurse or two might not be. (it was always the ones who hadn't worked on ICS for as long that wanted us to ask for the meds after that had been scheduled out.) I hope Rebekah has a good nurse tonight that gives the meds on time or Shawn will be in for a long night again.
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