Hey, y'all! Okay, I know this could get a bit scary, so if you're not into this kind of thing, please move on! This has the potential to become VERY GRAPHIC. Disclaimer over. ;>) However, I'm figuring that if this topic could keep us entertained for HOURS on a slow night, surely some of you have some stories to share that get your eyes gleamin' as well. ;>P A PICU nurse who was floated to my unit the other day was telling us about a pediatric organ donor they had had recently. She was invited to witness the actual surgery and the 'claiming' of the organs that were being distributed to various recipients. She said that, despite the sadness and overwhelming loss she felt when the patient was declared clinically dead (she'd taken care of that little girl for weeks and had become very attached to her and her family), she could not help but be completely fascinated by witnessing the procedure. She hadn't been in surgery since nursing school, and she said she just could not get over seeing the cavity open and empty like that after the organs had been 'claimed'. This got us started on our favorite gross-out wound and cavity stories, and you know NURSES, who can freak out a burly man in a nanosecond with stories of pus, blood, flesh, and insects!!! We, I admit, were laughing our butts off and enjoying every minute of it, all the while cackling that our husbands would have fled the room fifteen minutes ago in absolute horror. Call it stress relief. So, in continuing with that conversation, I thought I'd see if y'all would like to contribute. I promise you that your stories will be recounted truthfully, down to the stickiest, smelliest detail!!! should we ever get another slow night (which, considering the trend, will be NEVER!!). Here are some of mine... mine come from nursing school, as I am a relatively new grad and have been NICU nursing since graduation. In nursing school, during our MICU rotation, I had a lovely older woman who had undergone a TAH. The surgeon had accidentally nicked her bowel, and after multiple trips to OR to attempt to repair the damage, she had developed a fistula and was leaking fecal matter into her now spacious abdominal cavity. She had this ENORMOUS abd dressing that had to be changed, and being the student-nurse-gopher that I was, it was my job, along with two other nurses in attendance, to change it! I swear, it took almost TWO hours to change this sucker. Her entire abdominal cavity was open, and when I removed the packing, I got to see EVERYTHING. I know, I'm a dork, but it was totally spectacular. This brownish, thick, melted-milkshake fluid was leaking out, and when it touched my gloved hands for the first time, it was so warm it SCARED ME! I actually jerked my hands back because I was startled! When she had been rinsed suffeciently, it was time to repack the wound. I kid you not, my entire hands were inside of her abdomen, and I felt like a surgeon! We just kept packing and packing and packing and I thought, dear God, there's no way she can hold all of this inside her! She was on one of those vacuum-seal doodads, with the sponge? I forget what they're called now... we packed the sponge in and applied this HUUUUUUUUGE op-site. Realize, I was in SCHOOL and was just totally blown away by this! I went home high on endorphins and grinning like a psychopath. Ahhhhhhhhhhh, the gore. Just something about it, you know? :>)
