Hello to all...

Nurses General Nursing

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Hi everyone, my name is Alicia. I have been reading this board for a few days now, and decided it was time to introduce myself. I am 29 years old, and I have been an LPN for 4 years. I did home care upon passing my boards and I'm now working in a skilled nursing facility which I really enjoy. I work on a unit comprised of mainly young people. We have a lot of MS and MVA residents. I enjoy it because I get to teach people how to form a new life for themselves in our facility. Everyone is much like a family and we all get along well and help each other out when the need arises. Our administration is relatively new and there are a lot of kinks to work out (our clinical director is terrible!) but hopefully in time the kinks will work themselves out. This board seems very friendly and it's nice to be able to learn new things from other nurses. I learned EVERYTHING about being a nurse once I hit the floor and I realized you can't learn this profession from any text book! On that note, I have a question...:D

I have a 54 year old paraplegic MVA resident who I noticed yesterday has a boggy 10cm round lump in the lumbar area of his back. It is not discolored in any way and it's raised about 3-4 cm. I vaguely remember learning something about this in school, that it's some type of edema? I have not said anything to the resident yet, as he has HIGH anxiety and I'd like to discuss it with the Dr. first so I can give him a little more info about it when I bring it to his attention. Does anyone know what this might be and what might cause it? Thanks in advance for any assistance!

Just adding my WELCOME! to all the others. :)

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Welcome to the board HerEyes73,

You didn't mention whether there was any pitting with palpation or whether it was firm to the touch. That would help determine if it is a fluid collection or a tumor, lipoma or whatever.

I'm not familiar with CSF leaks, but would suspect one that large would have postural headaches asociated with it. Jus t a thought. As I said, I'm not a neuro nurse. It'll be interesting to hear what the physician thinks.

Looking forward to meeting you on the board.

Chuck

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Specializes in Geriatrics, LTC.

welcome to the bb!!!!

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WELCOME!!!!!!!!

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Welcome ! Very interesting I would have guessed lipoma but it would only be a big guess. Don't keep us in suspense.

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Specializes in ICU.

Welcome to the most addicting place on the planet...have no idea what your pt. has...I'm thinking it's not CSF though. Let us know!

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,,, welcome to allnurses!,,,, you are in the company of some wonderful ppl,,,,, so nice to meet you,,,,,

as to your question,,,, i can't add anymore than previous posts,,, let us know what happens!! take care ~kitamoon

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Specializes in Specializes in L/D, newborn, GYN, LTC, Dialysis.

WELCOME TO YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!

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WElcome!:) How is your MVA pt? My first guess was also edema,have you found out yet what is wrong?

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Specializes in HIV/AIDS, Dementia, Psych.

Thanks again for the welcome!

As for my patient...Grrrrrrrrrrrrr the doc was so bogged down today that he was only handling emergencies. Since the patient has no other symptoms, this didn't qualify. There is no pitting in the lump, but it's not firm, it's boggy?!?! I'm curious too, just have to wait till tomorrow :)

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Specializes in HIV/AIDS, Dementia, Psych.

Well, I got my answer yesterday...a lipoma. I didn't think it would be a lipoma since it came on so fast?! It was literally not there one day and right there on his back the next. I don't know that much about lipomas, but I didn't think they'd develop that fast.

More proof that you learn something new everyday! :D

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