LNRMCFirst week of Med Surg

I am happy to be back at Lake Norman again and I enjoy med surg so it goes without saying that I had a nice clinical experience. My client was an 81 year old woman in with a total knee replacement. She was doing very nicely considering that her knee was only one of many ailments (diabetes, colitis, osteoarthritis, prior DVT, prior pulmonary embolis to name just a few) She had pedi-plexis on her feet to help with circulation, a polar-pak on her knee to keep swelling to a minimum and PT had her using a machine that moved her leg for up to three hours at a time. Both days she sat up in a chair and requested pain medicine when she felt she needed it. We discussed not waiting until the pain got out of control and taking before PT. She was very compliant. While there I noted in the chart that she was listed as high risk for falls but had no purple dot on her door nor did she have a wrist band to let staff know so I checked with the staff nurse and applied both. Administered my first shot of insulin, watched while the doctor changed her bandage and noted on the chart the condition of the incision. Over all a good week.
Teresa