'Gross' experiences so far....

Jennerizer, ASN, RN · May 1, 2003

I had an experience that started out scary but ended up being quite funny. I went into my patient's room early one morning. Upon entrance into the room, I noticed the sheet was up around his head...all tucked in. I called out his name a couple of times...no response. I thought maybe he had coded during the night, pronounced dead & they were just waiting for the family to show up (hey, I'm first semester......I don't know what they do in these situations...lol). So I went into the hallway & got a classmate...told her "I think he's dead." She goes in there, comes back out & says "Yep, he's a goner." We get one more classmate that was passing by as we were both shocked & didn't know what to do.........the third classmate went in & noticed movement....came out & said "He's alive." All day long we couldn't stop laughing when we saw each other & now they have nicknamed me "D.O.A." I don't think I'll ever forget that day.

As far as the scariest or gross things.....you adjust pretty quickly to whatever you are presented with. I think my most difficult time so far is when I had been told one of my patient's had a cancerous tumor & she was "living on borrowed time." The hard part was that I knew what was going on, but the doctor hadn't told her yet...so she thought it was just a gallstone attack & nothing major. She was so positive & hopeful that day. I went home that night & started crying because I was thinking about how she probably had gotten the bad news by now.

Gator,SN · May 1, 2003

I am only a few days from finishing and the grossest thing I ever did in nursing school was disect the cat in Anatomy lab!

Gator

RNsweetie · May 1, 2003

My grossest experiance yet would be the day I went to clinical and found my Patient covered head to toe in their fecies. Had to clean him up and it was everywhere!!!! that takes the cake for me yet.

Erin

Katnip, RN · May 1, 2003

I guess the time a patient of mine got mad at another staff member, pulled her JP drain, her IVs, and her Foley out, climbed over the rails of her bed-pt had spinal surgery the day before-and then out of real spite defecated in her chair.

Of course, since she was supposedly MY patient the CNA refused to help clean up, saying that's what I'm supposed to do. Fortunately, my instructor and another CNA came to the rescue.

NurseDixie · May 1, 2003

My most memorable 'grossest' moment was doing wound care on a pt with a large cancerous tumor protruding from his rectum, up to his testicles. It was about as big as a head of cauliflower and was black and gray, slimy, smelly. I had to do wound care (cleaning and putting ointment on it). I think it started out as colon CA, he had a colostomy, as palliative tx. There was nothing else they could do for him. I felt so sorry for him. It was very painful. I had no problems doing the tx, but my instructor had to leave the room, gagging. She complimented me on being able to do the tx.

maire, ASN, RN · May 2, 2003

Grossest moment? Patient with C Diff. Nuff said.

Scariest moment? Patient coded today, last day of clinicals. Was scary, exciting, emotional and (hate to say it but) just plain cool watching how everyone worked together and brought this woman back.

I love nursing.

Rena RN 2003, RN · May 2, 2003

grossest.......hmmmm, can't think of anything that truly grossed me out. i've seen skin tears so bad that i've seen the bone. i've cleaned up poop with the most horrendous stenches. never thought of the gross factor as they had to be dealth with regardless.

scariest........this one is easy. had a ped patient in the ED that had accidently been hit in the head with a golf club by his younger sister. he had the coolest laceration about 4 inches long on his forehead. i put him in his room, tried to joke a little with him. he wasn't in the mood. told 2 other nurses about my "cool lac" and they went and looked at it and decided that it was definitely "cool."

5 minutes later the kid seized. our hospital isn't set up for ped so we called for aircare to take him to Childrens. they said 20 min flight time. so we (a team of 5 nurses and a doc) struggled to get a line into this kid so we could push meds. blood flying everywhere. finally got the line. pushed enough meds that would have taken a big man down and it barely touched this kid. we ran to CT for a scan. found out he had an open skull fracture. aircare landed while we were in CT and brought their stuff to the room. we loaded him up and shipped him out.

i felt so awful for the parents that came in laughingly talking about how they were going to ground their daughter. this was an honest to god accident where the boy stepped into the swing of the club. mom flew out with her son in a helicopter not knowing what was going to happen. all their lives changed in a matter of minutes.

and i'm with marie. being a part of that team is such an awesome feeling. the teamwork that went on that day was awe inspiring.

i too love nursing.

Nurse Izzy · May 2, 2003

70 yo with Hx of COPD, Peripheral Vascular Disease, Diabetes, etc etc etc. Developed severe edema in his legs resulting in stress ulcers. I had him first day post-op for mechanical debridement. Surgeon came in to do the dressing change and it was the first time I ever saw human muscle, veins and tendons. Fascinating yet kind of disgusting. The next week, he was in again, and I went in to check on him and help one of my classmates do the dressing changes. By this time, the ulcers on both legs have progressed to where the bone is now visible. Approx. size for the ulcers: 8-10 cm long (running from mid-calf up toward knee) and 4-6 cm wide. Depth - cm unknown but to the bone. Gross but great for a real-life view of anatomy.

PJMommy · May 2, 2003

It's not gross or scary but has been the hardest thing for me so far...

48 y/o female w/in-stage MS. She was a mom to two beautiful daughters. She was also contractured, unable to move anything but her hands and feet, had expressive aphasia, dysphagia (and had a feeding tube). I cannot imagine living in a world where I can't move and can't speak -- but still know what everyone is saying and doing. The only words she could struggle to get out were "I love you" - which she told me several times during the shift.

I literally cried from the moment I left the facility until I went to bed that night, and many times since then.

kimtab · May 2, 2003

Nothing really too terrible thus far, this is all I can come up with:

Post AAA resection and graft patient developed a massive infection. They opened his (approx 25cm) incision back up to put a wound vac in and you could see abdominal muscle, organs, the surgeon stuck his hand in up past the wrist to pull out the old packing. Done at bedside too, Pt. had some morphine for it but that is all. This guy was tough.

Stage 4 sacral decubitus I did wound care on. Nice clean one, about 6cm diameter. Had to apply debridement ointment to the inside of the wound, I could feel all the little sharp prominences on her sacrum while I spread the ointment around. That was a little gross.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · May 2, 2003

Re the 4yo with a seizure-two words-rectal valium.