Diagnoses you never thought you'd see?

Nurses General Nursing

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What's the most unusual patient you've ever had? I've had a couple--one was a woman whose admit orders included that she was NOT to have any food from home. They suspected that her husband was POISONING her.

The other was a woman who was a former LPN with a textbook case of Munchausen's syndrome. There was really nothing wrong with her but she kept insisting (moaning, actually) that she was SO sick. Very weird.

My DH had a cross between Steven-Johnson's Syndrome and Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis. It was horrible and almost killed him.

Also took care of a patient they suspected had Mad Cow disease (the actual name escapes me).

I too have taken care of a patient with Creutzfeldt Jacob disease. The associated dementia in this patient was so different than the Altzheimers, or other types of dementia Ive seen over the years. I actually had a scare once with this patient, when a tiny drop of of gastric juice splashed onto my lip, from the G-tube .I was SO paranoid that I would catch this devastating disease.

The other thing Ive witnessed was breast CA, that had grown so large it broke through the skin, it was really awful, but the dear old lady did not seem to be in any discomfort, strange, huh?

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19 yr old with prostate cancer.

3yr old with rabies.

Several cases of tetorifice in children.

Had a case of a 10 year old boy who came into the hospital, died in one day and the autopsy showed worms in all his major organs.

Penile CA in a young man.

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My old boss had a relative who got really sick one day, went to the ER thinking he was having a stroke, and within a day or two had lapsed into a coma and died. Long story made short: We all believed the hospital was sitting on a multi-million dollar malpractice suit, then the autopsy and lab results came back and he turned out to have a type of leukemia that is diagnosed about 5 times a year in the United States, and they have never come up with a chemo regimen for it because nobody has ever lived long enough for them to do so.

I don't remember what it was called, but most doctors obviously never see a case of it.

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Brucellosis

Neurocysticercosis

Kid came to our community health center (maybe 19 yo) with severe abd pain, RLQ tenderness, rebound tenderness, n/v, all the classic appy sx. We send him to the hospital and lo and behold....no appy issues, but two rather large worms come crawling out of his abdomen after having pretty much eaten through his pancreas. He was fine, and miraculously, no aftereffects.

Patent urachus

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Specializes in FNP, Peds, Epilepsy, Mgt., Occ. Ed.

I had one of those, too.

She'd had a corneal transplant and got it that way. She was very delusional and paranoid. She was in her 30's.

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I cared for a woman who was diagnosed finally with Hansen's Disease. She was 20 years old and had been a missionary in Nepal. Maybe it was naive of me, but I just never expected to see that. I don't even recall discussing its medical aspects in school, only the history of its sufferer's social treatment.

Now I read that its method of transmission is not entirely known and it can incubate for up to 30 years! Sheesh!

I'd have to say the second oddest one was a patient who had suffered near-drowning in The Dead Sea. I had always heard that it wasn't even possible to drown in that sea. Granted, the immediate concerns of electrolyte imbalance had been taken care of before he was released to the US, but the long term effects were staggering.

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Specializes in Pediatrics Only.

We had a 14 year old male not to long ago with pheocromocytomia.

Was very interesting - especially the part where MD told mom "we're very excited about this diagnosis - its very rare" This as they are prepping mom and kid for upcoming surgery..

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Neurocysticercosis

Once saw a seizure patient whose disorder was precipitated by neurocysticercosis. I now order my bacon extra crispy. Good thing I do not eat :spam: .

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Penile fracture in a 43 year old man. None of the other nurses on the unit had ever heard of this or seen this. It was about 2-3 weeks ago. Apparently there is something in there that can break. Poor guy had to go to surgery to have it fixed! Oh the site of this....OUCH!

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Specializes in PACU.

West Nile Virus.

You always hear about these things, but to see it in your own community was unsettling.

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West Nile Virus.

You always hear about these things, but to see it in your own community was unsettling.

I did clinical rotations in the Four Corners region in the spring of 1994, 8 months after the hantavirus epidemic (and subsequent discovery, which further research revealed not to be a "new" disease after all). Lots of people asked me, "Are you sure you want to go there?" and I replied that things could happen to me here as well.

It was a wonderful experience, and someone did come in who was suspected to have it. We quarantined the hospital and airlifted him out, and he turned out to have a raging case of influenza A. Even more research disclosed it to be a summer disease, extremely rare any other time of year.

Male breast cancer is a disease that very few people realize exists, but there have been cases under my care and I personally know a man who had it.

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Saw a pretty severe case of Stevens-Johnson syndrome. During his bath his fingernails just peeled off. He had it from head to toe. Poor guy was miserable.

Did he lose his corneas? Did he recover?

I've read a lot about Stevens-Johnson, but have never seen it.

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