Interesting or Different Anatomy:What have you encountered?

[nursefrances]

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.

[Just and R.N]

In clinical had a patient who was carrying to babies that were NOT twins. One was conceived about 2 months after the other. The OB/GYN said it was his first experience with this in his 25 years of practice.

[FineAgain]

We had a woman deliver who had two lady partss, complete with uteri.

I also have seen situs inversus...and a poor little infant with a 3 chambered heart.

Many odd placements for a urethra as well...

[beshacohen]

I have had similar problems with catheters in LTC. A more experienced nurse told me that this is not all that unusual in geriatric women. She told me that the landmarks may move around as a result of childbirth and it is not unusual to find the urethral meatus inside the lady parts. Before she told me about it I thought I was losing my visual acuity. Now I know to look inside the lady parts if I can't find the meatus on the outside.

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!

[meanmaryjean, DNP, RN]

We had a kid with situs inversus, dextrocardia AND transposition. Fortunately - he did really well after surgery, but you really had to stop and think every time you went to listen to his chest.

Recently had a baby whose pulmonary arteries arose from his descending aorta.

Three cardiac atria (there's a name for it which escapes me right now)

[WSU_Ally_RN, BSN, RN]

Three cardiac atria (there's a name for it which escapes me right now)

Cor-triatriatum?

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

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

I saw a mickey mouse head shaped pupil once. Coolest hidden Mickey I have ever seen.

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

I learned after a lap for endometriosis that I have a unicornuate uterus: only have the Left half. When I later got pregnant, I was on bedrest for 6 weeks and had a C-section because my little guy could never "turn" in the 3rd trimester, and stayed pretty much frank breech. (that head was quite jammed up under my ribs, lol!). Some of the high-risk OBs were a bit skeptical: "well, the uterus is designed to stretch, so this shouldn't be a problem." Yeah, well read the literature.

QUOTE]

When it was discovered that my first child was breach, I had a C-section. While performing the surgery my OB said "Ohhhhh, now I know why she was breach. Remind me at your post op and I will draw it for you." It was then I found out about this type of uterus condition. The dual chamber thing he said wasn't an issue but it would have been possible to be pregnant on both sides at once.

I later met someone who had a twin brother. She said she was born like a full term baby and her brother was born more like a premie. She thinks her mom may have had this dual chamber uterus and was pregnant on one side first and then became pregnant on the other side a little later. Very interesting. Any OB nurses know anything about this?

[nursefrances, BSN, RN]

In clinical had a patient who was carrying to babies that were NOT twins. One was conceived about 2 months after the other. The OB/GYN said it was his first experience with this in his 25 years of practice.

Yes, this. Dual chamber uterus. I wonder how common this is. 22 years ago, my OB presented my chart to a convention.

[AtomicWoman]

I work on burn and we get all the SJS/TEN patients or at least have to do their hours-long dressings off the unit. (Sigh.) Anyway. I'd say chemo is probably the second most common cause that we see of SJS/TEN. First would be bactrim although the reactions tend to be less severe.

Worst TEN case we ever had - the guy did end up surviving but wasn't supposed to - was triggered by OTC motrin. Scary thought, huh?

I recently had a patient on Bactrim for a week call me and say she had suddenly developed an all-over body rash. I told her to get in to see me that day! She was very irritated that she had to come in, but I had to SEE that rash, or I was not going to sleep that night! TG it was "just" the standard erythematous rash so common with Bactrim, NOT SJS. When I told her I wanted to make sure her skin wasn't sloughing off, I'm not sure she believed me.

[Ashes172, BSN, RN]

I'm still waiting to get into nursing school, so I have no fun stories yet, but this is fun! I want to hear more!

[PalmHarborMom]

My best friend's mother when I was a teenager went to the doctor with what she thought was a cold. The Dr. ordered x-rays to rule out pneumonia and she was swiftly admitted to the hospital when a mass was seen near her lung. After further testing it was determined that one of her kidneys was behind her right lung. It was a normally formed and fully functional kidney that was just in the wrong place. She had never had lung or kidney issues in the past. In the end, it was just a bad chest cold and she was released once they determined that the mass was a kidney.

[happyinillinois]

My son is dextroverted. His EKG reads NSR, whether you apply the leads the correct way or reverse them. We didn't find out about it until he was 17 and had a syncopal episode and had a chest X-ray.