Open Post #7- Past Experience

I recall one time when I was working at St Johns Providence when a certain patient came in that had a very interesting case. He had this abnormal bump on his elbow and it was soft to the touch but you could feel something inside of it, almost like little peices are cartiladge moving around. The nurse that I was working with and I both put gloved on and felt the protrusion that engulfed this mans entire elbow, it was about the size of a baseball, maybe even a little larger than that. I had no idea what the bump could possibly be and niether did the RN I was working with, we were both at a total loss. We asked the man how long it had been there and he Explained that it had been growing in size for about a week and that it got large enough for him to be worried so he wanted to come in and get it checked out. Since me and the RN both did not know what the soft protrusion was we brought in the Physician Assistant to check out the situation. He was also very confused by what the protrusion was and sent the man down to radiology to get some x-rays taken so that it could be further examined. 

When the x- rays came back the doctor was still at a loss because the protrusions was shown on the x-ray to be hollow but one could feel something inside of his elbow. The PA expressed his opinion to drain the protrusion, but also that he was worried that this might not be the right course of action. The man throughout all of this confusion was very brave and did not seem worried at all, which I found admirable because I personally would have been freaking out the whole time if this were to be happening to me. The PA then said before we drain the protrusion I want a specialist to come and take a look at this so we can take the proper course of action. And unfortunately that was the last I saw of this particular patient. He was shipped out to another hospital and i never heard what became of the protrusion. This experience made me realize that sometimes even the doctors have no idea what the problem is and every once and a while their are extenuating circumstances where all you can do is refer the patient somewhere else.  I just hope that he was ultimately okay and that he was able to get rid of that nasty bump on his elbow.