Ha ha ha! Why gloves are my friends...

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Transgender Medicine.

Oh man. Too funny. Here's a little lesson that taught me the value of gloves:

Went in my pt's room at 3am while she was sleeping to hang an antibiotic. She is a VERY deep sleeper and didn't wake up when I knocked or announced myself. So I just came in and was doing my thing when I noticed that the right shoulder of her gown was saturated... Crap. Her IV is in her right shoulder. I do a quick looksee to make sure it's only saline hanging, and it is. Well, her head was tilted over her shoulder so that I couldn't raise her sleeve to look at the site, so I figured, well, I better put on gloves cuz I'm gonna have to move her head to get at the site. Remember, she is a VERY deep sleeper. As in, you have to really shake her to wake her up, so I didn't want to go through all that just yet in case it was just a drink she had spilled and not an IV gone bad. Anyway, I lift her head a little with one hand and lift the sleeve with the other. And just as I'm doing this, a HUGE gob of drool comes pouring over the side of her lip...and right onto the saturated part of her shoulder!!! Putting two and two together, I quickly replaced her head, grabbed a towel and slipped it under the right side of her chin/neck. Good lord, I thought. If I had just went ahead and tried to lift her sleeve up, then I would have gotten a handful of spittle! :barf01: I laughed at myself all the way back down the hall. She laughed too when she woke up that morning. She said she's always drooled that bad in her sleep and had forgotten to mention it to me so I wouldn't worry. LOL!

:hhmth:

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.

ewwwww! i hate drool!

years ago, i worked with a charge nurse who made a habit of sleeping through the majority of her 7p-7a shift. she'd go to sleep as soon as the 10pm conference call with the other icus, er and step-down was finished, and she'd wake up in time for the 6am conference call. in between, she'd sit in a rolling chair right in front of the charge desk and sleep. sometimes (not always) a code would wake her up. my co-workers and i would often bet on the string of drool growing out of the side of her mouth -- how long would it get before it broke off, or she woke up? we'd be out there with a yardstick, measuring it and the pools would get bigger and bigger as the string of drool got longer and longer. i'm not sure how she managed to sleep through us giggling as we measured the distance from her lip to the end of the drool string! one time we wheeled her into a patient bathroom and blockaded her in there, head cocked so the drool went into the toilet. (she woke up when housekeeping went to clean the bathroom and started shrieking, thinking she was dead!) another time, someone who was in danger of losing the pool as the drool string continued to lengthen called a code in an attempt to wake her up. what woke her was when the respiratory therapist (who wasn't in on the joke, although the medical resident and anesthesiology were) tripped over her on the way to the empty room we'd called the code to. another time, she was snoring with her mouth open and someone (i think it was the respiratory therapist this time) thought it might be fun to see what would happen if we put cpap on her. (it woke her up when it alarmed)

but your story made me remember the drool string fondly.

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Specializes in Transgender Medicine.

To Ruby: Good lord! What an efficient team leader she must have been. Saving all her energy like that until it was needed... I'm sure the floors appreciated the extra shine they picked up too! Nothing like a good ol' spit polish!

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Specializes in CVICU.
ewwwww! i hate drool!

years ago, i worked with a charge nurse who made a habit of sleeping through the majority of her 7p-7a shift.

omg! you have the best stories hands down on here. you should write a book!

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Specializes in CCU, SICU, CVSICU, Precepting & Teaching.
to ruby: good lord! what an efficient team leader she must have been. saving all her energy like that until it was needed... i'm sure the floors appreciated the extra shine they picked up too! nothing like a good ol' spit polish!

not much of a leader at all -- when she was eventually fired for diverting drugs (i wondered how she could sleep that soundly!) -- no one even bothered to replace her! but we lost a source of endless entertainment when she was gone!

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These are two hilarious stories!

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