I walked into room 15 to introduce myself to my new migraine
patient and I found her rocking back and forth on the stretcher. Both of her hands were firmly pressed into
her forehead and covering her eyes. The
chart says my patient is 17 years old but her tiny frame all curled in a ball
made her look 10 as she rocked in pain.
An older woman sat in a chair in the corner of the room and looked at me
with pleading eyes.
I quietly closed the door and moved to the stretcher. I sat the chart down on an empty chair and
softly introduced myself to my patient and her mother.
“Hello (name), I am Bobbi and I will be your nurse today…I
promise I will get you feeling better soon.”
“Please help me,” my patient answered without moving her
hands from her head. I asked her to rate
her pain on a scale of 1-10 with 10 being the worst pain. She whispers “9”. I asked her an acceptable level of pain and
she whispers “not a 9.”
Her mother informs me that my patient has a 4 year history
of migraines since suffering a major trauma…she mouths what the trauma was to
me with a look of great distress. I nod
to her that I understand and move to my patient. I tell her that I will start an IV and hang some
fluid to get started while we wait for the doctor to come in. I turned the light off as I left the room.
I put her chart in the doctor’s rack and went to gather
supplies. My patient was fourth in the
rack to be seen~ hence about an hour. I
had one other patient at this time so I went to check on them and then returned
to my little teen’s room.
I entered her room and softly told her, “I need to turn the
light on while I start your IV but I will turn it off as soon as I’m done.” I
covered her with warm blankets and put my supplies on the bed.
She continued to rock back and forth without answering. I quickly started her IV and hung the saline
wide open for a 500cc bolus. I got two washcloths
out of the closet and ran them under cold water. I placed the cloths on her forehead and the back
of her neck. Tears leaked from her eyes. I went to ask the doc for some orders for
pain meds… the doc said, “I have to examine her first.”
I went back into her room and asked her permission to give
her a hand massage. I explained to her
that it would help relax her and ease her pain. I asked her if she was allergic
to the scent of peppermint and if she minded me using the essential oil while I
massaged her hands… She agreed. Her mom
remained sitting in the corner watching my every move.
I slowly and deliberately massaged each of her hands for 10 minutes
with the peppermint oil. After the first
few minutes she visibly relaxed and tension began to release from her
body. After the first hand was finished
I moved to the other side of the bed to massage her other hand~ she was completely still and her face was
relaxed…her mother patted my shoulder as I sat down in front of her and
whispered “thank you so much” into my left ear.
I finished the massage of her second hand and just sat quietly for a
moment observing my patient. She opened
her eyes and smiled at me.
“I didn’t believe that was going to help but I feel so much
better!” She then rated her pain a 5 on
the pain scale. I smiled, refreshed her
cold cloths and told her, “I will let the doctor know what we have done and he
will be in soon.” I left the room and
went to doc…I informed him of my nursing intervention…he looked up and said, “Cool.”
The end result of this encounter~ a happy patient~ hugs from each lady in
room 15~ and a satisfied nurse~ a patient who only required a bolus of fluid, hand massage and an
injection of 30mg of toradol before going home a very happy girl. For me ~ another example of the power of
nursing presence, alternative therapies and transpersonal caring
relationships!
