Once upon a time there was an old woman with diabetic neuropathy in her feet (among maaaany other health issues). She was a tough matriarchal black lady, who ruled the roost from her wheelchair.
She had a live-in caregiver, charged with keeping her fed and clean and healthy. Up until the feet. This woman's feet were in such constant pain, that she refused to have them touched. Even to take her socks off.
She wore the same pair of socks for THREE MONTHS. With *NO ONE* allowed to check her feet over.
So she comes to our hospital for whatever reason, and we have to do our head-to-toe skin check. It's part good care, part CYA in case they come in with skin breakdown. We take pictures of anything "interesting."
We have her in bed, and go to take her socks off. She start hollering and wailing in a very over-the-top manner, so we give her some pain medicine. Some very good pain medicine.
The socks come off, and everyone in the room is hushed as we try to figure out what we're seeing.
Half her toes are raw and red and stuck together with fungus. Her toes are curled under from disuse, with some of the longest nails I've ever seen, curving in and embedding themselves in the soles of her feet. Which are thick with dead skin cells that haven't been washed off in ages.
There are bits of broken-off toenail scattered around, stuck in the bottoms of her feet as well, looking like barnacles on a whale.
And you don't even want to think about the smell.
We cleared the room quickly to "gather cleaning supplies" and spent the next 30 minutes carefully turning her feet back into feet. All the while she's whining and moaning, but you can tell it's mostly an act, since her volume increases any time someone walks past the room.
I hope to god I never see anything like that again.
Being a labor and delivery nurse, some of the most disguising things I saw came into the unit usually in a Tupperware container-like really funky mucous plugs. In Tupperware no less---I can not eat anything that was in a Tupperware container, now Rubbermaid that's another story. But, one story is the woman in full hardcore labor with the worst case of pinworms I have ever seen, her entire house was infected. While, she was pushing and everything was bulging, she had the most horrible bowel movement with a billion pinworms in it! Oh, it was lovely, still makes my skin crawl to this day and it's been years since that happened.
The grossest thing I've ever dealt with was probably the HUGE pus-filled abscess covering the perineum on a very overweight woman. And I love pustulent abscesses and watching them runnnnnnn......but this one I could have put my fist into.....and lets not talk about the smell.
One of the last times I almost vomited on one of my patients was when I was putting an NG tube in a very sick lady with a small bowel obstruction. As the tube was going down, she began projectile vomiting what appeared to be, and smelled like, liquid feces. I have seen a lot of gross things over the years but this one left me staggering for a moment to regain my composure. Luckily she was a trooper and understanding. A good reminder too of how important wearing appropriate PPE is!
I guess there are plenty of horror stories experienced by ER nurses and some may includes some paranormal activities..which I have heard of. I'm not entirely sure if nursing training does cover on how nurse should react on those occurance.
pretty much i need help getting into an emergency room
i need help someone really needs to get to 2974 regal court 89503 and get me (brandon shane mccourt) a hernia operation with absolutely no mesh people die from mesh and have are extremely badly impaired permanately from mesh and i got cocks ejaculate into my face then lost childhood from the depression from this hernia losing sexual pleasure im not even joking the people who are so depressing that i thought i could go before puberty masturbating and ejaculating three times in a row which is how to get the stomach vital organ into the chest losing sexual pleasure getting more depressed everyday with an unlimited amount of maximum depression i need help to move away from them and dont tell them where i live thier too depressing even just from one tiny little visit + i need bigger feeling alot more like a t-shirt feeling way clothes without hurting my skin the skin thats hurt touching unsmooth look at the rest of my blogspot blog information to save billions of lives www.aztecfalcon.blogspot.com
Once upon a time there was an old woman with diabetic neuropathy in her feet (among maaaany other health issues). She was a tough matriarchal black lady, who ruled the roost from her wheelchair.
ReplyDeleteShe had a live-in caregiver, charged with keeping her fed and clean and healthy. Up until the feet. This woman's feet were in such constant pain, that she refused to have them touched. Even to take her socks off.
She wore the same pair of socks for THREE MONTHS. With *NO ONE* allowed to check her feet over.
So she comes to our hospital for whatever reason, and we have to do our head-to-toe skin check. It's part good care, part CYA in case they come in with skin breakdown. We take pictures of anything "interesting."
We have her in bed, and go to take her socks off. She start hollering and wailing in a very over-the-top manner, so we give her some pain medicine. Some very good pain medicine.
The socks come off, and everyone in the room is hushed as we try to figure out what we're seeing.
Half her toes are raw and red and stuck together with fungus. Her toes are curled under from disuse, with some of the longest nails I've ever seen, curving in and embedding themselves in the soles of her feet. Which are thick with dead skin cells that haven't been washed off in ages.
There are bits of broken-off toenail scattered around, stuck in the bottoms of her feet as well, looking like barnacles on a whale.
And you don't even want to think about the smell.
We cleared the room quickly to "gather cleaning supplies" and spent the next 30 minutes carefully turning her feet back into feet. All the while she's whining and moaning, but you can tell it's mostly an act, since her volume increases any time someone walks past the room.
I hope to god I never see anything like that again.
Being a labor and delivery nurse, some of the most disguising things I saw came into the unit usually in a Tupperware container-like really funky mucous plugs. In Tupperware no less---I can not eat anything that was in a Tupperware container, now Rubbermaid that's another story.
ReplyDeleteBut, one story is the woman in full hardcore labor with the worst case of pinworms I have ever seen, her entire house was infected. While, she was pushing and everything was bulging, she had the most horrible bowel movement with a billion pinworms in it! Oh, it was lovely, still makes my skin crawl to this day and it's been years since that happened.
The grossest thing I've ever dealt with was probably the HUGE pus-filled abscess covering the perineum on a very overweight woman. And I love pustulent abscesses and watching them runnnnnnn......but this one I could have put my fist into.....and lets not talk about the smell.
ReplyDeletePurple, that story merely outlines the care that nurses have :D
ReplyDeleteOnion, that's a horror film....or an experience only found in urban legends.
Mojito, perineum was a funny word till I read.....
One of the last times I almost vomited on one of my patients was when I was putting an NG tube in a very sick lady with a small bowel obstruction. As the tube was going down, she began projectile vomiting what appeared to be, and smelled like, liquid feces. I have seen a lot of gross things over the years but this one left me staggering for a moment to regain my composure. Luckily she was a trooper and understanding. A good reminder too of how important wearing appropriate PPE is!
ReplyDeleteThere is no emoticon to describe my shock....
DeleteI guess there are plenty of horror stories experienced by ER nurses and some may includes some paranormal activities..which I have heard of. I'm not entirely sure if nursing training does cover on how nurse should react on those occurance.
ReplyDeletepretty much i need help getting into an emergency room
ReplyDeletei need help someone really needs to get to 2974 regal court 89503 and get me (brandon shane mccourt) a hernia operation with absolutely no mesh people die from mesh and have are extremely badly impaired permanately from mesh and i got cocks ejaculate into my face then lost childhood from the depression from this hernia losing sexual pleasure im not even joking the people who are so depressing that i thought i could go before puberty masturbating and ejaculating three times in a row which is how to get the stomach vital organ into the chest losing sexual pleasure getting more depressed everyday with an unlimited amount of maximum depression i need help to move away from them and dont tell them where i live thier too depressing even just from one tiny little visit + i need bigger feeling alot more like a t-shirt feeling way clothes without hurting my skin the skin thats hurt touching unsmooth look at the rest of my blogspot blog information to save billions of lives www.aztecfalcon.blogspot.com