Story time! And the grosser, the better. Kudos to the first person who makes me throw up a bit in my mouth.
My story - I'm a burn nurse, relatively new. Anyway. I'm helping with a dressing change on a massive (90%+) burn who was also massively fluid resuscitated. Basically, that means that this guy is putting out gallons of insensible fluid loss. Plus skin sloughing. Picture this thick, partially congealed grey-brown liquid - like a poorly made Thanksgiving gravy - that is just sitting in the patient's bed.
Now, we do dressing changes in water proof gowns, hair nets, gloves (duh), and masks for a reason.
So we're turning the guy and, of course, a wave of fluid flows over the bed, coating my shoes and advancing upwards to soak through my scrub pants. I'm in the room for about an hour like that. We're almost done, turning the poor guy butt-towards me, when he starts to liquid stool everywhere. ("Burn poop.") It hits the wall behind me. I duck, manage to only get poop in my hair net. However, the turn buddy on my side who was holding up the patient's leg....drops said leg in order to get out of the way. Splat. (Splash?) I ended up getting a tidal wave of burn goo ALL OVER MY FACE. None in my mouth, thankfully.
Thank goodness for lock rooms and showers.
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poo in the air conditioner! i laughed so hard i almost dropped the laptop. dh looked at me and said, "what's so funny?" i said, "nurse talk, you do not want to know." he has known me long enough to understand what i mean when i say that.
and there's the one where i call the poison control center to ask what to do when my 15-month-old eats a chunk of dry dog doo off the sidewalk. nurse says patiently, "wipe out his mouth, give him some water to drink, and try not to think about it." true story.
Specializes in Trauma, ER, ICU, CCU, PACU, GI, Cardiology, OR.
your story brought memories of one of my own... we were having some delicious chocolates that i bought on st.valentine's day at the kitchen, when the door bell rang it was the delivery man for our new dishwasher. having said that, our little princess dog was in the back yard, as she came in through her doggy door she entered the kitchen and she noticed the stranger; she let out a bark as a turd shout out of her, and my then 1 year old boy grabbed it and ate it, as my middle daughter then vomit :barf01:and my older son yelled yuck!!!... needless to say we didn't have chocolates for awhile
your story brought memories of one of my own... we were having some delicious chocolates that i bought on st.valentine's day at the kitchen, when the door bell rang it was the delivery man for our new dishwasher. having said that, our little princess dog was in the back yard, as she came in through her doggy door she entered the kitchen and she noticed the stranger; she let out a bark as a turd shout out of her, and my then 1 year old boy grabbed it and ate it, as my middle daughter then vomit :barf01:and my older son yelled yuck!!!... needless to say we didn't have chocolates for awhile
Grossest thing I've ever seen? It probably also counts as worst case of patient on patient abuse, too. In this case, the patient--who died, as a result--had his elbow hyper-extended 180 degrees. The bone was fully exposed, and there was blood everywhere.
My story doesn't compare to some of these, but . . . I was a new nurse with a patient with a continuous bladder irrigation catheter. I had to disconnect the drainage tube from the 3-way catheter in order to manually irrigate the catheter. The large blood clot that clogged the tube was being very stubborn. I pulled the plunger back on the 60 mL syringe with a little more force hoping to get the clot broken up and out. Unfortunately the syringe tip came out of the catheter at the same time the clot broke up. Bloody urine and clots covered my head, face and scrub top. Luckily I wear glasses and my mouth was closed! I reconnected the irrigation system, cleaned the patient up and left the room without screaming. I couldn't get cleaned up fast enough!
Got handed a pt from home one day with questions about home environment. The admitting nurse told me she had questions about the patient's living conditions, and that's when the husband disappeared conveniently. Patient was post-stroke, and when I went in to talk with her I got few questions answered. Husband was supposed to come back during my shift with a list of home meds, never did.
About 6 a.m., after monitoring her all night, I decide to be proactive nurse. I'd let her rest all night in hopes of calming her mind. So, I go in and try to make her happy. She's so jittery, and miserable, I try to at least document all the wounds she has. I gently pull off one bandage, very innocent-looking, only to find creepy-crawly critters coming out under the bandage. Yes, maggots. I bout crapped a brick at this point. I was so distressed for my patient, and so very sad. The first person who came in the room under my direction (a 70-year-old tech) was told go find the charge nurse, find her NOW. I'm standing there silently weeping, in agony for my patient, knowing the shame she must feel, and yet at the same time, I knew she loved her husband and wanted to go back to the home she had. I could just feel it coming off of her in waves.
I never found out what happened to her. I know she got sent to the unit the next day. I can deal with pee, poop, vomit, what have you. Maggots are my breaking point.
I had a patient once who lost both frontal lobes to an auto accident. I walk into his room and he is pulling poop out of his pajama bottoms and just throwing it. It was splatted on the walls, the ceiling, the tv screen. He looks at me with no emotion (frontal lobes!) and says, "Are you going to spank me now!" What can you do but laugh, but it didn't bother him a bit!
I haven't re-read the whole thread-- is this the one where somebody came into a room and found a dude standing next to the bed having carnal relations with his wife...in her colostomy stoma? You can't make this stuff up.
I haven't re-read the whole thread-- is this the one where somebody came into a room and found a dude standing next to the bed having carnal relations with his wife...in her colostomy stoma? You can't make this stuff up.
nurseprnRN, BSN, RN
1 Article; 5,116 Posts
poo in the air conditioner! i laughed so hard i almost dropped the laptop. dh looked at me and said, "what's so funny?" i said, "nurse talk, you do not want to know." he has known me long enough to understand what i mean when i say that.
and there's the one where i call the poison control center to ask what to do when my 15-month-old eats a chunk of dry dog doo off the sidewalk. nurse says patiently, "wipe out his mouth, give him some water to drink, and try not to think about it." true story.