Ttonight i had to bear one of the heaviest burdens that I've ever had thrown on my shoulders. Room 19 came into a satellite ER with complaints of pelvic pain, being unable to urinate for two weeks, and reported that he had stopped taking his prostate medication in the winter because he could no longer afford it.
After being there for the better part of the night he signed himself AMA because they wanted to transport him to my campus and he couldn't afford the ride. Regardless, he wanted the care so he drove himself over and was admitted under my care. We were told to put him into iso for bed bugs, which he didn't have in the end, and he was wildly embarrassed about it to the point of tears. Over at the satellite he had a CT done. Which found what the technician, the nurses, and the attending were positive was cancer. But he signed himself out and came over to us before the doctor could break the news to him. Our attending couldn't be bothered to come over so late to break the news and announce the tests that would have to be done. Once we got him settled in and his pain taken care of and the urine out of him (two whole liters) I went in to just check on him, bring him water, etc.
He was so excited that it was just a lot of pee causing the pain and that he could finally afford his meds again.
We talked for a pretty long while.
He has three kids, a wife who lost a battle to breast cancer five years ago, and 3 cats. He was laid off from his job early last winter and held off coming in for two weeks because he had finally secured a new job and didn't want to lose the spot due to illness/injury. He thanked me for being so kind and nonjudgmental, he told me that God was on my side for the line of work that I provided my peers. He told me that he wasn't used to people being so kind anymore. He told me that when he initially came in that he was worried it would be "Something terminal because of the way the doctors yelled at me when I said I had stopped taking my prostate medication". And he asked me if he should still be worried and if I thought he would be in our care for more than 3 days. He said that the last thing he wanted to find out is that his days were numbered.
And I had to look him in the eyes and rub his shoulder while Guardians of the Galaxy played in the background on his TV, the only light in the room, while wrapped up in iso gear that wasn't necessary and lie and tell him that it was just enlarged enough to block his urethra.
After being there for the better part of the night he signed himself AMA because they wanted to transport him to my campus and he couldn't afford the ride. Regardless, he wanted the care so he drove himself over and was admitted under my care. We were told to put him into iso for bed bugs, which he didn't have in the end, and he was wildly embarrassed about it to the point of tears. Over at the satellite he had a CT done. Which found what the technician, the nurses, and the attending were positive was cancer. But he signed himself out and came over to us before the doctor could break the news to him. Our attending couldn't be bothered to come over so late to break the news and announce the tests that would have to be done. Once we got him settled in and his pain taken care of and the urine out of him (two whole liters) I went in to just check on him, bring him water, etc.
He was so excited that it was just a lot of pee causing the pain and that he could finally afford his meds again.
We talked for a pretty long while.
He has three kids, a wife who lost a battle to breast cancer five years ago, and 3 cats. He was laid off from his job early last winter and held off coming in for two weeks because he had finally secured a new job and didn't want to lose the spot due to illness/injury. He thanked me for being so kind and nonjudgmental, he told me that God was on my side for the line of work that I provided my peers. He told me that he wasn't used to people being so kind anymore. He told me that when he initially came in that he was worried it would be "Something terminal because of the way the doctors yelled at me when I said I had stopped taking my prostate medication". And he asked me if he should still be worried and if I thought he would be in our care for more than 3 days. He said that the last thing he wanted to find out is that his days were numbered.
And I had to look him in the eyes and rub his shoulder while Guardians of the Galaxy played in the background on his TV, the only light in the room, while wrapped up in iso gear that wasn't necessary and lie and tell him that it was just enlarged enough to block his urethra.
June 27th, 2018 at 07:07am
I feel like I'm worse than nothing, because if I was nothing, I wouldn't be in the way of everyone.
