Interesting or Different Anatomy:What have you encountered?

Nurses General Nursing

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Specializes in Ambulatory Surgery, Ophthalmology, Tele.

We recently had an adult patient that was born with one ventricle. He had surgery to correct this as a baby, but I found it very interesting. If I was a pediatric cardiology nurse I may see this more often, but not in ophthalmology.

I also "have a friend" who has a dual chamber, unihorn uterus. Many jokes during pregnancy of being like a cow (the chambers).

I was just curious what you have seen while out and about in our wonderful world that is Nursing. Please share.

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Specializes in Critical Care.

Situs Inversus, although it actually wasn't all that interesting except for listening to the imaging tech get in trouble for marking the "R" marker on the wrong side (they had it on the correct side).

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I know this is a real thread and I see the OP isn't a one-post wonder :) but when I first read the title I flashed back to the guy who picked me up when I was hitchhiking home from class one day, asked me what I did, and when I told him I was a nursing student started quizzing me about was it true that (ethnic group) women had their hoo-hahs sideways. Alas for him, I was not the type to fly into a tizzy and told him patiently, no, that was not true. And you can let me out at the next corner, creep.

Back to the topic at hand: Hmm, my neighbors across the street had a familial polydactyly. About half of them had extra little thumbs next to the major one, six or seven digits on hands or feet or both, or some variation of the above. Some had the extras removed as infants, some kept them. My kids found this fascinating.

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the only interesting thing I've seen so far is a man who had a systemic reaction to chemotherapy and developed Stevens-Johnsons syndrome…the poor man sloughed from neck to toes including his member and testicles….2 hours and 5 nurses to do dressing changes (in isolation no less)

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Specializes in ED.

A little one with "blue baby syndrome" who truly was a lovely yet frightening shade of blue.

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Specializes in Med/Surg & Hospice & Dialysis.

Appropriate staffing...

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A man with 4 kidneys. Bless him, his first question was could he donate two of them.

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One night, I was having a problem inserting a Foley on a female patient. For the life of me, I could not find her urethra! After many of us tried, we called the nursing supervisor. To our surprise, she got it in. The patient's urethra was below and to the left of her lady parts! I know everyone is a little different down there, but that was a first for me!

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Specializes in Surgical, quality,management.

A pt with 2 normal kidneys and also a horseshoe shaped one. Only discovered when he had been shot. The 2 normal kidneys had been visualized intranet op and found intact. However his abdominal drain kept putting out about a liter of clear yellow fluid every day. I sent it off to the lab with a spec from his catheter and low and behold it was the same!

An urgent run through the CT scanner, consult with urology and back to theatre for a repair of the kidney!

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the only interesting thing I've seen so far is a man who had a systemic reaction to chemotherapy and developed Stevens-Johnsons syndrome…the poor man sloughed from neck to toes including his member and testicles….2 hours and 5 nurses to do dressing changes (in isolation no less)

My husband had a Stevens-Johnson reaction to his chemo too. He didn't have the same systemic reaction an your patient, but his throat swelled so tightly the dr could only get a small tube in to help him breathe. Fortunately, he was already in the hospital. You can't CPR that.

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One night, I was having a problem inserting a Foley on a female patient. For the life of me, I could not find her urethra! After many of us tried, we called the nursing supervisor. To our surprise, she got it in. The patient's urethra was below and to the left of her lady parts! I know everyone is a little different down there, but that was a first for me!

A nurse I worked with once told me about a similar problem he'd had, except the patient's urethra was significantly ABOVE the privy parts. He told me he felt so bad for the patient, he'd been digging around trying to find the right place and just couldn't. Turns out the patient didn't realize she was built a bit differently either, and just found out as a result of this experience, at 80 years old.

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A teenager who had a coloboma. His keyhole-shaped pupil startled me when I went to check his pupil reactivity!

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