Can you come down? Mr. 2lpm is desating.
So, I walk down & the nurse tells me that he is sob & sating in the
low 90s. She also tells me that he just finished getting blood. He is
in renal failure & scheduled for dialysis in the morning.
I look in on him as he on q4 txs already. He is obviously in distress,
pitting edema, crackles like crazy.
The nurse gives him some lasix as his wife watches our every move.
Since Albuterol makes everyone feel like we are doing something, I
decided to give him another useless treatment.
As I'm squirting the med in the naebulizer, his wife says to me,
"Is that really going to help with congestive heart failure?"
Touché
Sent from my iPhone
6 comments:
That's great. lol
"No, it's really not going to do anything for his CHF, as a matter of fact albuterol isn't even indicated for it. Maybe you could ask the doctor and nurse why I need to give it because I've done that in the past."
I wish more people asked that question. Then maybe we won't have our time wasted anymore.
Thank goodness someone realizes it, except of course for the silly nurse.
"No Mam, this wont help the CHF, but it will surly help the nurse check something off her silly list and make her feel better"
"No ma'am. In fact, it's likely to make him worse because even though it's primarily a Beta 2 agonist, it does have some Beta 1 properties. Unfortunately the people who come up with these ideas haven't read a text book since Galen was an intern, so I have to do it because it's protocol".
I don't know why otherwise intelligent (I think) doctors think that the first line treatment for all respiratory distress is Albuterol.
Meh.
No kidding. Wouldn't you have loved to have said "No. No, it's not. The lasix is what's going to help." And then left the room? She said a mouthful and she didn't even realize how significant was to you..and us.
Check out my new blog; The Respiratory Cliff. :)
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