We have a patient that is on chemotherapy. With chemo your blood counts have to be at a certain minimum level to proceed with the cycle of chemo. If they fall short, the chemo treatment is delayed and blood work repeated a week later. If the counts are good, the chemo goes ahead. If they are still low, it's delayed again.
We have one patient that has been delayed by a whole month because their platelet count has been low. The levels had been going up, but very very slowly. At the rate they were coming up, it would have been some weeks more before this patient could have chemo.
A couple weeks ago I made a suggestion to the doctor about a medication that could help the patient's platelets recover but it's not typically used in chemotherapy for that purpose. I was told that it wouldn't work. I asked if giving the medication would harm the patient. I was told no. So I asked what the harm was in trying. The worse thing would be that it didn't work. The best would be that it did and this person could have their chemo.
So he and the pharmacist reluctantly decided to try it. Today I looked at the patient's platelet levels. They have more than doubled. Chemo is scheduled for Friday!!!
So us nurses do sometimes know things!
We have one patient that has been delayed by a whole month because their platelet count has been low. The levels had been going up, but very very slowly. At the rate they were coming up, it would have been some weeks more before this patient could have chemo.
A couple weeks ago I made a suggestion to the doctor about a medication that could help the patient's platelets recover but it's not typically used in chemotherapy for that purpose. I was told that it wouldn't work. I asked if giving the medication would harm the patient. I was told no. So I asked what the harm was in trying. The worse thing would be that it didn't work. The best would be that it did and this person could have their chemo.
So he and the pharmacist reluctantly decided to try it. Today I looked at the patient's platelet levels. They have more than doubled. Chemo is scheduled for Friday!!!
So us nurses do sometimes know things!