Unusual diseases, disorders, syndromes. What have you seen??

[fedupnurse]

We have a really nice pulmonologist where I work and he was telling me about RITE Syndrome. I said what the ____is that?? He said Roach in the Ear. The can't go backwards so you see it pretty regularly in some hospital ER's and clinics.

Mine was "cholesterol showers" I forget if it had a special title but we had a patient who was stroking out due to literal showers of cholesterol in her system. Sad to watch cause there is nthing you can do. Haven't seen it since.

So what have you seen or heard of that you thought to yourself, Hmmm...never gonna see that again...

[kids]

Originally posted by MsPurp

Kids-r-fun: You've intrigued me enough to want to get that book. Anyway you could post the ISBN number?

ISBN for the 4th Edition is 0-7216-2359-X

Amazon.com carries the 5th Edition for $79...try this link:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0721661157/inktomi-df1-2-20/002-4532212-5641614

-nancy

[kids]

Originally posted by prmenrs

Dr. Jones is the dysmorphologist @ UCSD; we get a free copy every time there's a new edition!!

*sigh* I really want the new one.

Gross but facinating.

Look up Cat Eye syndrome (4th edition-pg 62... says there are 40 known cases)...my husband has many of the common characteristics...coloboma, anal atresia (repaired), preauricular tag, mild hypertelorism but has an IQ of 128. Refuses to have any kind of testing, wont allow me to contact Dr. Jones. Has one child (no characteristics) and will have more only over my dead body (I have a TAH) so he doesn't see any point in putting himself in a goldfish bowl.

[MollyJ]

Weirdest:

A man who was Black Widow Spider bit in TX but came down with total body muscle spasms in KS. Took several days to put the mystery together but he had spasms so severe, we put him on succinocholine and vented him.

The cranio-facial deformities are pretty hard to take at times.

The swallowers: bed springs and spinal needles

a CM kid I had who had been vent dependent since 9 months. He's now 10. Can't see. Can't move. I think that's grotesque.

[LilgirlRN, ADN, RN]

We've had a lot of strange myocardial infarctions of late... a 26 year old, did a urine drug screen expecting it to be positive for cocaine, it wasn't. A 43 year old guy that had an hour's worth of chest pain on Saturday, came to the ED on Monday with N&V, fever. Doc says she almost didn't order a troponin on him cause he had just that little bit of chest pain 2 days before, his troponin was 90.7. A nurse that works in CVICU, been having chest pain off and on, been hospitalized for it a couple of times, they finally cathed her, had a congenital malformation of the circumflex and had only 20% flow there, she's only 35. It's a wonder it hadn't bothered her before now, she smokes a pack a day!

[KaraLea, LVN]

I have had several patients (usually alcoholics) who have had "Bezoars" (lump of undigested food, hair, and other stuff in the stomach). Had to give them meat tenderizer in water three-four times a day to disolve the bezoar.

[deespoohbear]

A 25 year old co-worker (nurse) of mine had a grand mal seizure one evening, right before she was suppose to clock out. No prior history of any kind of seizure disorder, this lady appeared to be in perfect health before the seizure. Tried diazepam, lorazepam and a few other things to get the seizure under control. Nothing worked. Ended up having her transferred to a larger facility. After 6 or 7 months of her having seizures and all kinds of neuro problems, the problem was tracked down to her thyroid. She has some kind of autoimmune disease in which her thyroid is basically attacking her body. She is doing well now, but tends to tire easily. One of the scariest things I have ever been involved in my nursing career. I don't like seizures anyway, but then to have someone who is your friend and colleague have one (with no prior history) is almost too much.