Invisible struggles: When the pain of chronic illness is met with disbelief

A friend’s desperation.

It was early within the morning after I received a call from my best friend who was crying
mad. She frantically screamed about her symptoms: “My stomach is burning, I am unable to sleep, nothing relieves this discomfort and I’m in excruciating pain.” Although she had been experiencing discomfort for the past two weeks, she initially thought the intensity of her current symptoms could be as a consequence of food poisoning. Given her not-always-healthy weight loss plan, which we have discussed prior to now, my first thought too was that she might need eaten something that triggered her symptoms.

“It hurts a lot that I do not think I can take it anymore,” she told me on the phone. “I am unable to stop going to the toilet.”

She said that despite the intensity of the pain, her family simply thought she was being dramatic. I could feel her desperation as she sobbed on the phone. Although she didn’t need to seek medical help, I begged her to go to the closest clinic or hospital and told her I’d meet her there.

Crohn’s disease: when nurses doubt a patient’s pain.

Within the emergency room, where she waited on a stretcher, she repeated that nobody could consider how much pain she was in. She lay there and cried for a full hour before a nurse got here with pain medication. I felt great relief because the nurse administered my friend’s IV dose and calmly explained her care plan. I used to be struck by her real concern and commitment to creating my friend feel comfortable. It’s one thing for a friend to point out empathy, but for the recipient to point out that form of compassion to an entire stranger is something entirely different. In that moment, I felt honored to be a nurse and to call this emergency room nurse my colleague.

The subsequent day, my friend was admitted to the medical-surgical ward. At this point, her symptoms had temporarily subsided and she or he felt able to go home. The doctor and nurses advisable that my friend undergo an inpatient colonoscopy before leaving the hospital as a consequence of the severity of her symptoms. Meanwhile, I could not help but feel uneasy as a number of the nurses on the ward giggled and teased my friend, saying that she felt higher after taking the painkiller and was able to go home; it gave the look of they didn’t consider my friend either, and neither did her family.

At my persuasion, my friend finally agreed to undergo a colonoscopy, which revealed intestinal inflammation. After three days of my friend’s stay within the hospital, doctors confirmed that she had a flare-up of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Chronic illness and the burden of invisible pain.

For the past five years, my closest friend has suffered from IBD, often called Crohn’s disease. I watched because the disease affected each her physical and mental health. My friend is usually too embarrassed to exit to eat. Has difficulty selecting food, aware that certain food groups may cause flare-ups. He struggles together with his fluctuating weight and chronic symptoms of diarrhea, abdominal pain and fatigue. My friend’s illness also caused other illnesses, infections and surgeries. To raised manage her symptoms, she visited several different hospitals and clinics and underwent quite a few diagnostic tests, screenings, procedures and coverings.

While my friend all the time stays positive about this difficult path, her experiences give me insight into the care she receives within the hospital and elsewhere. The actual fact is that navigating the medical system for a chronic disease that isn’t immediately apparent to others may be exhausting. As nurses, we sometimes aren’t sure how severe someone’s pain is. Their self-esteem is subjective and it might be difficult for us to grasp that they could be in pain once they appear to be lying comfortably in bed. My friend truly opened my eyes to the truth that every patient’s experience is exclusive.

A mirrored image on compassionate nursing care.

When my friend keeps visiting hospitals, she all the time talks about the differing types of nursing care. While she expresses concern that many nurses are unfamiliar with the extraordinary pain and severity of her symptoms, she also praises the nurses who go the additional mile to make sure her comfort. My friend’s illness and her experiences allowed me to reflect by myself nursing practice. To offer compassionate, high-quality nursing care, it is necessary to grasp chronic diseases corresponding to Crohn’s disease and the suitable nursing interventions related to these diseases.

Each patient has his or her own individual situation and experiences. Nurses play a key role in providing care and support to patients with chronic diseases. As nurses, we must reveal compassion and empathy when helping patients manage chronic diseases. We must have the opportunity to speak appropriately with a wide range of patients to handle concerns and concerns about their condition, treatment, and lifestyle changes. Although I even have a private reference to the person coping with this chronic disease and might empathize with their perspective, I need to proceed to work to consciously create nursing interventions that address each patient’s concerns and meet their individual needs.

Lilly Gareau, BSN, RN-BC