Adelphi University College of Nursing and Public Health
Hello my name is nurse amanda i’m just going to shut the door for some privacy how are you today i’m good i’m feeling very bloated really oh can i have your name and your date of birth my name is melanie ganga and my birthday is 4 18 64. okay melanie so can you tell me what brings you in today i’ve been noticing that i have really swollen feet and ankles i’ve
Been feeling very dizzy and i just feel bloated in general she’s also been short of breath recently too okay so when’s it when did these symptoms start about three weeks ago three weeks ago okay um i’m just gonna ask you a few quick questions how many pillows do you sleep with at night about five pillows okay do you sleep on a recliner or yeah you do feel more
Comfortable sleeping on the recliner because when i lay flat down i feel like i can’t breathe okay um have you noticed any abnormal swelling in your feet or anything my feet are really swollen and within the past two weeks i’ve gained about eight pounds okay does that sound about right yeah yeah okay okay i’m just gonna do um i’m gonna take your vitals i’m just
Gonna do a brief assessment on you and just real quick okay so i’m just going to listen to your lung sounds take a deep breath deep breath deep breath deep breath take a deep breath deep breath deep breath deep breath okay i’m just gonna take your blood pressure so okay okay i’m just gonna look at your your legs just for the swelling that you notice i see
There is a lot of swelling it’s a lot of edema how are her breath sounds um i actually heard some crackles do you have any history of any heart problems yes have congestive heart failure okay okay all right i’m just gonna document um the assessment and the doctor will be right in to follow up with you okay okay okay thank you melanie hi my name is dr gonzalez
How are you doing i’m good is it okay your family member is here with you it’s fine okay i’m gonna close the door for some privacy so before i tell you the medication i prescribed is there any culture or needs i need to be aware of regarding medications that you take at home or any medication in general okay great so i prescribe ferozolide which is a diuretic so
It’s gonna be 40 mg every six to eight hours if you want to increase the time or decrease it it’s up to you it’s we saw that there was a lot of edema on your legs and crackles in your lungs nurse amanda will come in later on to explain to you any side effects patient teaching and signs and symptoms that you should be aware of with the medication if something goes
Wrong or if you have any questions complications don’t hesitate to come back here i’m here and there’s amanda okay thank you any other questions no we’re good okay thank you guys have a good day hello melody knights and there’s samantha again i’m just going to shut the door for some privacy is it okay if your family members do something okay let me just wash my
Hand and you just repeat your name of your date of birth for me awesome okay so i see that the doctor came in and spoke to you about the medication that you’re going to be taking um do you remember the name of it furosemide yeah so he um first she prescribed you ferocide 40 milligrams for you to take um every six to eight hours okay so um for your roast mine
Is basically a diuretic um yeah and it’s going to help with all the symptoms you’ve been having do you guys have any any questions about the medication yeah so what happens if she like misses a dose or something okay so if she misses a dose she should take her dose as soon as possible um so basically you should be taking the medication um before 2 pm so if
You miss a dose take the missed dose as soon as possible but do not double dose don’t take two doses just because you missed one dose okay and how is she receiving medication is it injections no no no it’s a pill okay so it’s an oral pill so she’s gonna take it um every six to eight hours but take it before two pm no injection okay um is there anything i should
Look out for um your side effects wise for her or things i should know um well basically furosemide it’s also called lasix um it’s basically a diuretic so the purpose of the drug is to it acts on the ascending um limb of the loop of henle i know that sounds like a bunch of mumbo jumbo but basically it blocks the chloride sodium potassium and water reabsorption
So all that fluid in your legs it’s going to be released through your pee so it’s going to make you go to the bathroom a lot um because it causes extensive diuresis which is making you go to the bathroom a lot but the drug is used to treat edema which is caused by congestive heart failure which is what you’re experiencing right yes yeah so do you have any other
Questions about the medication um is there anything i guess food wise that can help her um okay so that actually you bring up a good point because there are some side effects of the medication that i would love for you to know and you should be aware of so the major side effect of uh furosemide or lasix is actually a fluid electrolyte imbalance so this involves
Potassium the most so it could cause hypokalemia which is a low potassium level so in order to avoid this complication you’re going to increase foods high potassium so do you know any foods that are high in potassium all i know is bananas yeah so bananas is a good one um you could also have potatoes dried fruit spinach nuts and any kind of citrus fruits you
Know that’ll really help another side effect is dehydration so you may notice you have a very dry mouth so in order to help this you could i would say increase your fluid and tape but definitely um you could provide frequent oral milk care you know you could brush your teeth and you know rinse with mouthwash that’ll help for the dehydration another major side
Effect of the drug is hypotension which is low blood pressure so for this i’m gonna really tell you to um caution yourself when you’re changing positions don’t get up out of a chair too quickly it could cause dizziness or a headache so change positions very slowly um another major side effect is auto toxicity do you guys know what that is what is that okay so
Auto toxicity is basically impaired hearing or hearing loss so you may notice that you can’t really hear as well as you know you used to before you started taking the medication but don’t worry about this because this side effect is actually reversible um and then i also noticed on the chart are you’re a diabetic right okay um this medication lasix can cause
Hyperglycemia so you’re gonna have to really monitor your blood glucose closely when you’re taking this medication so check your blood sugar twice a day once in the morning and once at night um because we don’t want any complications there but yeah do you have any other questions um my last question i’m sorry i have like no questions no um how do we know if the
Medication is working okay so basically um just the symptoms that you’ve been experiencing should be reduced so your weight gain you should return to your normal weight you shouldn’t really notice any swelling in your feet you should have a better um you should be breathing better you shouldn’t be having difficulty breathing um also you um you know you shouldn’t
Really notice any weight gain so if you notice that you gains more than three pounds in one day it’s really important to contact your doctor he needs to know that how should i do maybe like weigh her every two days or like every day just to make sure that i would definitely weigh daily okay uh especially the first week that you’re taking the medication um but
It’s always good to just keep a close eye on that um and then also um interactions with this medication um is she on any other um heart uh cardiovascular medications like digoxin or anything are you um no she’s not okay well it’s still important for you to know just in case say you go to a doctor and they prescribe it two interactions is digoxin and lithium so
With digoxin toxicity occurs when you have hypokalemia so can you tell me what hypokalemia is that’s low potassium and i could avoid it by taking by eating bananas spinach dried fruits good yeah exactly it looks like you’re learning the medication well yeah so um just know what digoxin toxicity can occur and also with lithium levels um this could also cause
Um toxicity for hyponatremia which is low sodium levels so it’s just important to be aware of that um is there any other questions about the medication that you guys would like to know um i don’t have any more so maybe after the first week should i bring her back just to make sure everything’s okay yeah yeah just some just some last minute things um definitely
It’s always important to let the doctor know if you start any new medications or any vitamin supplements you may be taking just it’s always a good idea for the doctor to know that and also um it can never hurt to go up for follow-up examinations you know after if you start experiencing any other complications just always keep in touch with your doctor and just be
Be aware when you’re taking the medications okay um so do you guys have any other concerns about the medication you’ve answered all our questions yes very feel as though both you and your family member have learned the medication well yeah okay all right looks like i’m done here guys it was great dealing with you thank you thank you for watching no problem that’s what i’m here for
Transcribed from video
Medication Teaching Video – Furosemide By MELANIE GANGAPERSAUD
