80yr old female admitted due to severe abdominal pain. Bowels not open for 5 days so Dr's queried a bowel obstruction. Upon opening her up they find that she has not got an obstruction but instead is full of metastases from the liver which has progressed into the other structures surrounding it.
If you are not medically minded you may be finding it hard to imagine what a patient with this kind of condition may look/feel/sound like. So let me explain.
I meet this lady whilst she is sat in a chair. She is a pretty lady with coiffed greying hair and a delicate dressing gown wrapped tightly around her so she doesn't feel the cold. From one arm she is attached to fluids which are keeping her hydrated and in the other, Intravenous painkillers.
I greet her with a smile, I introduce myself and ask her how her morning has been. In a voice as delicate as her dressing gown she tells me how difficult it has been since she has lost her mobility and independence. She can no longer stand up or walk without the help of a mechanical aid. It is at this point that her tone of voice changes and she occasionally looks blankly into the distance. I complete my list of questions and finish the task in hand, being mindful that she may not be taking in any of the information I have to offer.
She shuffles in her chair and winces with the pain. Her abdomen is distended, her thighs and lower legs are full to burst with fluid which has also travelled to her arms and hands. She is feeling heavy and rightly so. I take a glance back down at my notes and notice that she is unaware of the Surgeons findings. She asks me;
'What is happening to me? Am I going to die?'
I glance behind me at the team of people who are overseeing me and they look just as perplexed as I do.
What would you say?
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