Long bleeding times

misti_z · Oct 9, 2001

That's interesting........any idea why? Beats me! :)

3651bht · Oct 12, 2001

The tums starts to dissolve with the heat of the body and a gel like substance mixes with the oozing blood and it clots it off.. Suppose we should be checking their Ca++ levels more often too. LOL

May the sun shine brightly, in peace, on you and may the wind be always at your back...

misti_z · Oct 12, 2001

That's cool!!!

nursefiggy · Nov 8, 2003

hmmmm, you think Tums are sterile?

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Nov 8, 2003

Originally posted by nursefiggy
hmmmm, you think Tums are sterile?

GOOD POINT ! That COULD be quite a no- no !!! :eek:

We have used the little betadine swabs on some of our patients... seems to help stop the bleeding on many of them if placed beneath the gauze... but not on ALL patients.. it varies. Worth a try on your patients, though.

drscepura, BSN, DNP, RN · Mar 3, 2004

Scenario varies from patient to patient.

For patient on coumadin, you probably do not need to use heparin when they are on machine, and could squeak by with NS flushes, depending on PT/INR.

Patients with accesses may also take baby ASA so you need to keep this in mind as well when bolusing large units of heparin.

Try stopping the heparin hour before, sometimes 75 mins. before run is complete.

Keep in mind true half life of variety of heparin you are using on a patient.

In our Harvard teaching hospital unit we used to use Ferric subsulfate solution with gelfoam as a last resort for the patients who didn't respond well to merely a 2x2 and gelfoam. We trialed the potato starch in the squeeze bottle but that was ridiculous.

A very old dialysis nurse used to use tea bags, saying the tannic acid promoted clotting and she would use this when the Ferric didn't work. I have never heard of using Tums, but think it is clever. Someone mentioned sterility of using the Tums, but when you have a bleeding patient who goes on and on bleeding for hours what do you do? Send to E.R. and use elastaplast in meantime? When you have worked an 11 or 13 hour day you want to go home and those pesky bleeders can ruin it for you on getting out on time!!!!!!

Surgical Hrt RN · Mar 3, 2004

i'm not a dialysis nurse.....but i got a theory! :) i work in an open heart icu. when our patients are bleeding the surgeons like us to give calcium gluconate to help with clotting. it works pretty good. tums are high in calcium.....so......maybe that's why it worked! who knows......sounds good to me! :chuckle

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Mar 3, 2004

i'm not a dialysis nurse.....but i got a theory! :) i work in an open heart icu. when our patients are bleeding the surgeons like us to give calcium gluconate to help with clotting. it works pretty good. tums are high in calcium.....so......maybe that's why it worked! who knows......sounds good to me! :chuckle

just how is the calcium gluconate used?

gelfoam works pretty good, really. also the little 1x1 betadine wipes underneath the gauze.. seems to help on several of our pts.

Surgical Hrt RN · Mar 3, 2004

just how is the calcium gluconate used?
gelfoam works pretty good, really. also the little 1x1 betadine wipes underneath the gauze.. seems to help on several of our pts.

we give the calcium gluconate iv. usually the bleeding slows within an hour. i know you guys don't have that long to wait. but, since calcium is in tums, i thought there might be a correlation. rule of thumb for us........if the patient's ionized calcium is

jnette, ASN, EMT-I · Mar 3, 2004

we give the calcium gluconate iv. usually the bleeding slows within an hour. i know you guys don't have that long to wait. but, since calcium is in tums, i thought there might be a correlation. rule of thumb for us........if the patient's ionized calcium is
interesting. just wondered, because we do have to be careful with cal/phos issues, also.

nurse dolly · Mar 4, 2004

we give the calcium gluconate iv. usually the bleeding slows within an hour. i know you guys don't have that long to wait. but, since calcium is in tums, i thought there might be a correlation. rule of thumb for us........if the patient's ionized calcium is we sometimes use the sticky stuff in the bottom of a tiger top lab tube ( you get it out with a q-tip!! it works very well when you have someone who keeps bleeding for a very long time. havent had to use this in a long time.