case study
Susan is a 30-year-old registered nurse who works in transitional care. She presents to employee health stating, “My back is killing me. I was helping to transfer a patient and he moved. I thought he was going to fall, so I twisted around to grab onto him and wrenched my back. The pain is terrible, and I can barely walk.” Susan is a healthy young adult, married with a 5-year old. daughter. She has no significant family history. Susan has a past medical history of fractured coccyx as a teenager when she fell during cheerleading practice; no sequelae. She has smoked one-half pack of cigarettes a day since age 15 but is trying to quit. Current medicines include medroxyprogesterone acetate (Depo Provera) injection for birth control every 13 weeks. She is supposed to take calcium, but states that she “always forgets, and it constipates me anyway.” Susan denies any change in bowel/bladder habits.
