
I was doing a homecare visit on an eldery palliative patient with cancer. I had just finished helping him into bed so I could do a complete assessment, including checking his buttocks for skin breakdown, when I started to have what felt like menstrual cramps.
Over the next few minutes they escalated, and I broke out into a cold sweat. Within another 15 minutes, I was lying on the couch, moaning in pain and vomiting. When the patient's daughter asked if she should call 911, I reluctantly said 'yes'.
Turned out I had a huge ovarian cyst that had either started to rupture, or twisted.
I'm the only homecare nurse I've ever heard of who got carried out of a patient's home on a stretcher!!