His main coping skill utilized was humor. Humor is a powerful tool in letting go of the difficult emotions that accompany hospitalization. It helps keep negative emotions that might interfere with the quality of life from accumulating to the point anxiety and depression. The second healthy coping strategy was allowing and inviting his friends and family to be around him. Having emotional support during this time is important. Talking about a stressful event with family or friends can be an effective way to reduce worry as it provides an outlet for thoughts or emotions. Suppressed emotions may have negative effects on one’s mental and physical health. Another coping strategy used by the patient is proactive coping, proactive coping is when someone reduces the stress of a difficult situation by anticipating complications and preparing for how one is going to cope with it. When the patient elected to have knee surgery he knew that DVT’s and pulmonary embolism would be a risk considering the surgery and his risk factors. He still went forward with the surgery after weighing the risks and the benefits and being ready to face the complications if they …show more content…
Due to his chronic pain in his left knee he had an elective total knee replacement on September 28th. The surgery went well and the patient was discharged on September 30th. On October 8th the patient was taken to the hospital by ambulance. His chief complaint was shortness of breath and tight and constant chest pain radiating to the left shoulder. Upon arrival his breath sounds were diminished. His CT scan revealed he had over 30 small clots in in his lungs. Even though my patient was on deep vein thrombosis (DVT) prophylaxis and participating in rehabilitation, an ultrasound doppler of his legs revealed four deep vein thrombosis, one in the left knee, left calve, and two more DVTs in the patients right calve. He was transferred to the critical care unit for anticoagulant therapy to try to dissolve the clots and monitor his condition. His diagnosis was multiple Pulmonary Embolisms and Deep vein thrombosis. Besides osteoarthritis the patient has no other underlying medical