Mistaken Identity

Well  I shall warn my readers there is some graphic pictures that I have found on Google to help with my story.  So don’t read any further if you’re a queasy one. This was a wake up call that not everything is as it seems.  Plus a wake up call for me.  Here goes  There was an evening that a lady came in.  We were told that we needed to triage a OB patient because one of the nurses on OB couldn’t come down at this time.  So when I went to see the patient I was shocked to see that there was no way that she was pregnant.  Why you ask?  Well let’s just say I was hoping she wasn’t.  I asked her are you the pregnant patient?  She replied no.  So I blew it off like someone else must have gotten her.  I asked her what her chief complaint was.  Duh can’t you see?  Course I could see she was orange, her eyes were yellow and her stomach on the frame of a 110 person was a huge “pregnant” looking stomach.  I was astounded in the size of the patient stomach who apparently was suffering from Ascites. After obtaining her history of end stage liver disease due to alcoholism and drug use.  Some would say great another user…but this was my wake up call.  I was upset that the doctor just wanted to get her out of her as fast as he could.  The lack of compassion really grind my gears.  No insurance, No doctor would touch her.  So with the history of drug use no pain meds.  She appear more than 9 months pregnant.  Carrying all that extra fluid would be painful.  She would laugh about the size of her stomach only to cry again because she was hurting.  I understand that she would never qualify for a donor.  But the only way this patient could get relief was alcohol.  She was drunk.  She was a hopeless case that pulled at my heart strings.  There with no one to comfort her because she had burned all her bridges, I listened to her confess her problems and her pains.  I wanted to cry right along with her.  I don’t know what caused her to keep using and drinking till she looked like this… but I do know  I will try to be a little more compassionate to those that drug seek.  Maybe just listen a little more and try to convince these doctors they need treatment not 5 lortabs to get the out of the ER faster.
*image provided by google search