MyCare Now. Changing One Life at a Time. Pain Free in Kansas

Today's MyCare Story comes out of a nursing facility in rural Kansas. Its incredible and gratifying to see the difference having access to daily onsite care can change people's lives for the better.

As part of our process, I review the facility's 24 hour report before my daily tele-rounds at the SNF. I was drawn to see a patient who was on the 24 hr report because he needed pain meds round the clock. 

The gentleman was a 61 year old who was being treated for a pelvic abscess with IV antibiotics. He was in constant pain and largely bed bound because of the pain. He was very defensive and not trusting. The patient had a distant history of colon cancer. 

Over the course of several visits I identified a deep vein thrombosis in his painful left leg, started him on anticoagulation and 24/7 pain management and garnered his trust. 

I called the patient’s urologist to better understand what the cause of his pelvic abscess was and a review of the CT scans (which had not been reviewed before my call) showed diffuse metastatic cancer of the colon. 

The patient was unaware of recurrence of his cancer and working with his Attending, I shared this information with the patient and helped him plan his next clinical steps and plan for his future.  

Albeit sad, he is incredibly grateful to us for getting to the root of his problem. The facility helped him to celebrate his birthday with balloons, cheesecake and beer (his choice).

This patient had been in pain, and treated for all the wrong reasons. Unfortunately he is terminally ill. But as of today he is out of pain and being followed in-house by Tapestry Telehealth virtual staff