Bowel Obstruction Case Summary

Description Today I was placed in the female surgical ward, I was assigned to an eighty-five-year-old woman who was diagnosed with hypertension and acute abdomen R/O large obstruction secondary malignancy. Surprisingly, she was not on any medications, therefore, my plan for the patient was to obtain vital signs, empty urinary bag, perform physical assessment but focus mainly on the abdominal area, comfort her and document.
Feelings
Prior to meeting the patient, when my preceptor was assigning patients to my group members and I, she stated, “patient on bed 18 is an interesting case,” I then replied “okay I’ll take that patient.” I had no idea what I was getting myself into but I was eager to take care of her since I have heard it is an interesting
The main cause of bowel obstruction is cancer of the stomach, colon, lungs, ovary and breast in some other cases is abdominal surgery and abdominal radiation. With the patient case she had large bowel obstruction secondary to malignancy (cancer) therefore she will experience severe abdominal pain which is known as an acute abdomen. Additionally, when I was doing the physical assessment I focus mainly on the patient abdomen, first I inspect her abdomen to see if it is distended, normally when there is an obstruction in the abdomen, inflammation will occur which will then lead to the swelling of the abdomen. Second I auscultate in all four quadrants to listen for missing bowel sounds or any abnormal bowel sounds for example hyperactive and hypoactive sounds however the patient had normal bowel sounds. An obstruction can be present with normal bowel sounds at the beginning then eventually the patient can have abnormal sounds hence, her bowel sounds should be monitored. Lastly, I palpate in all the four quadrants gently then more deeply, I recognized she will move anytime I deeply palpated the right and left lower quadrants then complain of pain in those region. While palpating the abdomen