Kerry O’Grady is a 20-year-old college sophomore studying to be a middle-school teacher. She was diagnosed with IBS at the end of her freshman year after enduring multiple bouts of abdominal cramping,...

Kerry O’Grady is a 20-year-old college sophomore studying to be a middle-school teacher. She was diagnosed with IBS at the end of her freshman year after enduring multiple bouts of abdominal cramping, diarrhoea, constipation, gas, and bloating. She thought it was just the stress of her first year of college because her symptoms eased over the summer break. Now it has returned and the diarrhoea occurs more often than constipation. Some days she finds that she is unable to sit through an entire class without having to leave for the restroom. She is increasingly worried about her grades and she is sure that the stress is not helping her condition either. The nurse practitioner in the Student Health Services office has prescribed several weeks of dicyclomine (Bentyl) to be followed by loperamide (Imodium) after the diarrhoea has slowed from the dicyclomine.

1. How will the dicyclomine (Bentyl) and loperamide (Imodium) help treat Kerry’s symptoms?

2. Considering the adverse effects of dicyclomine and loperamide, what should you as the nurse teach Kerry about her college course schedule?

 3. What other nondrug measures might Kerry try to ease her symptoms?