Patient with the bowel problem...

[Joe V]

Has anyone ever run into something like this? Please share but try to keep it clean. (HaHa)

Please share your stories with us.

[yginay]

On my first day in hospital setting, as a brand new nursing student, I came across a trail of turds that started in middle of a hallway where there were no patient rooms, proceeded around the corner and stopped at the elevator doors...needless to say I avoided the elevator for rest of day though I can't help but wonder what the story behind it all was lol. Made for interesting report at post conference with my clinic cohort and instructor!

[SinikRN101]

Laughing so hard at this thread right now!!

[K+MgSO4, BSN]

I work on a fairly new ward. we have only been open for 18 months. When we open about 1 month I get a call from the oncology ward 4 floors below us. A patient had wandered off the ward and was down there. So I as charge nurse went off with his nurse to get him. We went down, collected him and brought him into the service lift to take him back upstairs.

He proceded to drop trousers and poop in the lift!!!!! and of course the lift stopped on another level where a patient was waiting to be taken to theater!! Oh!!!! it is funny now but as a newly minted charge nurse on a new ward it was a bit of a shock!

[VivaLasViejas, ASN, RN]

I'll never forget chasing a LOL down the hallway in the first LTC I ever worked in. She was shambling along, dropping little poops out the bottom of her pants leg with every step, leaving a trail much like the one in the cartoon. I was yelling, "Irene, Irene, stop!" She couldn't hear very well, so I had to catch up with her when she went into her room. Gads, what a mess that was........it's funny now, but it sure wasn't then!

[whichone'spink, BSN, RN]

I guess this patient left a trail so that he would know how to get back to his room after going out for a smoke break.

[kht124]

I've never had an encounter with fecal trail. However, I recently had a patient who "dug her way" out of constipation. She insisted on using her finger to stimulate her bowel. The nurse gave in after a few minutes and handed her a glove to do so. The was able to produce an extremely large and hard (surprisingly large) poop. The nurse, the pt and myself, were all stunned. We all commented on how she must have felt much better afterward.

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

lavender59 said:

The smell makes me search where it is coming from if pooh prints are not visible.

pooh prints.

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

I'm trying to figure out which is worse....the poo trail or "finger painting"? I think I am leaning towards finger painting.

[SentimentalGeek, ADN, RN]

Makes me think of the pt with diarrhea who, having been able to hold in BM while waiting for the call light to be answered to get help to the bathroom, would start pooping the second the "pull up" brief was off in front of the toilet and then proceed to poop a streak all the way across the floor and to the toilet while going to sit down. I cleaned up a lot of poop from the floor that day. :|

(And yes, we did try to suggest a BSC but pt was hearing none of it!)

[MedChica]

Last month!

I forget what happened, but I think it was an 'explosive diarrhea' situation.

There was just a 'trail of doo' from the front tv area...to the nurse's station to the back women's hall.

She was mine...and she's a 'walker', so there was a doo trail on every hall.

I don't know what was funnier: me, another aide, our nurse and housekeeping stooped over meeting and literally bumping into each other at the nurse's station?

Or...

our housekeeping staff putting put those little yellow Caution signs on every single 'pile'.

I mean, there was a Caution sign on...Every. Single. 'Doo pile'.

You could walk down the first hall from the door and see a landing strip.

I think, sometimes, the yuck becomes a bit 'much' for even housekeeping to deal with...and disposing of filth is their job.

I guess they were doing it for the sake of our resident's families, but...

You know - the doo was just going to dry solid... and dried 'doo' on the floor is hell to clean. You'd think that it'd retain it's semi-solid...ness. Sort of stay pliable and mushy?

But, no! Once it hurts the floor? That's it.

I know...that sounds gross.

I happen to agree.

In fact, I happen to think it slightly weird that Id have that much experience with 'doo' to even know that.

I find it even weird-er that I feel comfortable talking about doo consistency.

Would you believe that another aide and I actually grossed one of the nurse's out?

(It's possible.)

[amygarside]

This thread just made me laugh so hard. It brought back sooo many (bitter) memories!

[Hannahbanana, BSN, MSN]

There’s no clickbait like AN clickbait. Mention “poop” or “grossest ever…” and it’s off to the races.