By Karen Roush, MS, RN, FNP-C, clinical managing editor

All rights reserved. Photos by author.

It’s the end of October—Domestic Violence Awareness Month. I want to tell you a story about a patient I had in the Adirondacks in upstate New York.

The young woman was back for the third time that month. The previous week, complaints of vague abdominal symptoms had brought her in; this time, it was frequent headaches. Even as I performed a neurologic exam, I suspected I wouldn’t find  anything.

“So, how’s everything at home?”  I asked, after assuring her there was no sign of a neurologic issue.

“Same,” she told me. “Yesterday I forgot to get his cigarettes and [expletive]! you’d a thought I killed someone.”

“Did he hurt you?”

“No. Just twisted my arm a little. I’m fine.”

But she wasn’t fine. She suffered from anxiety, headaches, chronic back pain, and irritable bowel syndrome. She had been through numerous diagnostic evaluations, including invasive procedures, and had tried multiple medications.

She was 25 and had three children. I’d brought up the subject of intimate partner violence after her second visit, but it wasn’t until she’d been seeing me for a few months that she felt safe enough to talk about it. Her […]