I work in neuro. the land of confusion. I spent my entire evening last night in an abortion clinic (according to my patient)...
Its a unique thing when a pt. that looks so intact says something so off such as: did ya know if you name your kid something less than 5 letters its free but if more than 5-you pay more taxes. Or the lady who when asked her PMH on the admission forms says: i died twice, the drs brought me back to life with toothpaste and extracted the devil from my rectum....right.....
I know, right? NOBODY understands when I say that sick old people make me so much sadder than sick babies. I truly believe that somewhere, deep down, no matter how demented or confused they are, the elderly know what they're losing.
Thats what scares me -- the fact that I may one day be afflicted with alzheimers and know it, but be unable to do anything about it.
whenever a coworker of mine gets frustrated with or angry at an alzheimers pt, i just tell them our time is coming.
Specializes in long term care Alzheimers Patients.
Don't know about say, but this was the funniest thing I have ever seen a confused pt do. I was doing LTC, and this sweet LOL was just sitting in her room, listening to the radio, door to the room wide open. I walked by a thousand times in the first part of my shift, and she would wave as I pasted by. After lunch, for some unknown reason she takes her shirt off and is sitting there half naked in front of the door.
Thinking she was hot, I turn the AC on, help her dress, and leave. Go back by a few minutes later, no shirt on. Dress her again. Repeat about 5 times. Finally I said "you don't want everyone walking by seeing your breast do you?" She says no, I dress her, leave again.
A few minutes later, I walk by again and she has no shirt on, and is carefully tucking her breast into the waistband of her pants (the waist was in the right spot, too!). Maybe you had to be there, lol. Anyway, at this point I gave up, and just closed her door.
Then, another lol, in the middle of the night, was in the bathroom. Her foley bag was hooked to the bed, and the foley was stretched about 9 feet across the room, still in. Owwww! Didn't know they stretched so far! She was fine, but just thinking about it hurt me. She was one of those need to go pee, with the foley in pts.
I can't stop laughing over that one especially tucking her breasts in her waistband
Then, another lol, in the middle of the night, was in the bathroom. Her foley bag was hooked to the bed, and the foley was stretched about 9 feet across the room, still in. Owwww! Didn't know they stretched so far! She was fine, but just thinking about it hurt me. She was one of those need to go pee, with the foley in pts.
Same thing happened to one of my patients. Heard someone say 'yow' and looked up to see a little old lady peering out her door into the hall, foley stretched across the room from where the bag hung on the bed. Now that's one powerful sphincter...
I had a confused patient who was on a specialty bed which made a continuous whirring noise. He would politely ask, "May I please have my itinerary? I've been on this plane for a long time now."
Specializes in Women's Specialty, Post-Part, Scrub(cs).
While working LTC...I had a resident who was very confused at times and very with it others. He was deeply contractured in both arms and 1 leg. The other leg was aka with alot of scarring. One day he was yelling & cussing loudly. When I went in to ask what was wrong...He stated "that da%# alligator has got my leg & won't let go. CUSS CUSS he is eating me alive, CUSS CUSS some more ect & so on" Living here in the Bayou...I wondered if just maybe this was true. Wife & sister visited regularly so I asked. The just laughed and sister said..."No, he had one as pet when we were young but he let it go when it got 3ft long" That was funny to me at the time.
But, what took the cake was the fact that his roommate was, also, a bedbound bka. Neither liked the other but tolerated each other for the most part. They would argue and have delusions together. One involved going out to the field to plow it (alligator man) The other would say "If you don't get out of my field I'm going to shoot you" Not really funny until we got a resident in the next room. A very sad case of a 40 something man who was an alcoholic and was swelling and weeping and just having a terrible end to his disease. We figured out his ammonia levels were up when his mother & wife (in a state of denial of the severity of his case) came to me and said, We thought you should know that Alligator man and his roommate got up & ran out the door earlier and was fighting. Alcohol man said he heard them with guns!! They couldn't really have guns here could they?" NOW I had a hard time keeping a straight face. Neither of them could turn over by theirself much less run out the door. But, Alcohol man swears he saw & heard them run by cussing, fighting, and shooting. Sad but funny.:smiley_ab:cool:
Specializes in aged, palliative care, cardiac, agency,.
"Who was that woman"? Charlotte answered "Why Uncle Harold that's your wife." He looked disturbed and said "What did I do marry the first one I saw on the street?"
did it give a good pulse ox reading with a good wave form? i have tried fingers, toes, nose and ears. you have given me a new idea!!:innerconf:innerconf:w00t:
i was thinking the same thing when i read this, if it gave a good reading.
I had to have and I&D of my left middle finger. (it was a rocket scientist moment involving manicure scissors and toddler jumping on the couch.)
I was 6 mos preg at the time, so they gave me meds to relax and an axillary block.
During the procedure, I was given O2 and for what ever reason. I thought it was the greatest thing I had ever smelled in my life! I just kept thanking the anesthesia guy for the great O2 and telling him he was the nicest person I had ever met.
I did this for at least a half an hour. I remember it was the best thing I had ever smelt!
Now back in recovery-The asked me to try to move my arm to see if the block was wearing off-My arm shot up at the elbow and my hand proceeded to come down and smack me right in the face. I exclaimed that I wanted to breath the good air again, and why were they making me hit myself.
In clinicals for school, I had a male pt that had an order for a condom cath. He had pulled the off the one that he had on at the begining of my shift so I had to change it. He was spanish speaking and when I explained to him what I was going to do via a classmate who spoke spanish he replied," why it hasn't work in years why would she want to put a condom on me?". During the proceduce he kept saying "let my little pee pee go I told you it doesn't work". I understand spanish better than I can speak it but it was so funny my classmates and I could not help but laugh. It does not translate as funny in english but in spanish it was hilarious.
When I was in nurses training , my friend had an elderly demented woman for her assignment. My friend was in the middle of giving her a bed bath, when the little old lady loudly demanded, "Scrub that p***y!" My friend not knowing what to do said "Like this?" and cleaned the peri area. The little lady said, "Scrub that p***y harder, I said". After cleaning up the pt, my friend found me in the hall to tell me what happened. I laughed so hard I cried...
RNJess10
21 Posts
Thats what scares me -- the fact that I may one day be afflicted with alzheimers and know it, but be unable to do anything about it.
whenever a coworker of mine gets frustrated with or angry at an alzheimers pt, i just tell them our time is coming.