It was my cardio inpatient prac and I was given this pt who’d come in a few weeks prior for a lung biopsy and was back in hospital with an infective exacerbation of COPD. The results of the biopsy also confirmed the Dx of Lung Cancer.
From my initial encounter with her to the last day of my prac her health just kept deteriorating. It was like everyday I went in to see her something new had developed overnight. I found her to be my most challenging patient during this prac. There were some days when I’d go in to see her and she would be unable to do anything as just sitting up in bed made her feel so breathless. So my treatment with her on those days were just calming her down and trying to make her feel comfortable. Her SpO2 was 81% on 15L via HFNP. She was supposed to be on BiPap but she just was not tolerating this very well. By the end of 2weeks she just kept on getting more hypercapnic, no sport of intervention was helping her. At a family meeting it was decided she was to be kept comfortable meaning she was to be given morphine whenever she wanted and was considered palliative.
From this experience it brought to my attention that each patient is different and there are no ‘recipes’ or set treatments that you carry out with them. The condition in which the patient is in on a day by day basis varies and new conditions may arise and treatment for these conditions must be carried out. It is important to pay attention to the treatments rendered to these patients so as to facilitate their recovery to the best of our capabilities.
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