I saw a patient on Thursday with my Curtin tutor for an ongoing elbow problem, and at the conclusion of our very brief session with the patient, she mentioned that her ankle was causing her some grief. She reported that she was diagnosed with cellulitis in that ankle about 4 months ago. After a brief observaion of her ankle, which appeared swollen and warm to touch, I made arrangements to see the person on Friday, the following day.(Arranging to see patients at this particular facility can be very difficult as we require a nurse to be with us whilst treating the patient for our own safety).
We also noted that this patient had an infected ingrown toenail, which she reported she was on antibiotics for, but the severity of it was cause for concern. As we left this ward we mentioned to th patient's doctor and nursing co-ordinator that we felt she should be seen by a podiatrist for her toe. While discussing that we would like to return the following day to review the patient's ankle, they said that the patient was unlikely t be experiencing any real discomfort and that she was constructing an injury/complaint in order to get more medications (she has a history of this).
We felt that given her fairly awful-looking ankle, this may be a case of the boy who cried wolf - she may have sought additional medications in the past, and now that her foot is actually sore, she is being ignored. So we returned that next day to see her.
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