Personal emergency...forget how to be a nurse?

bethin · May 30, 2008

Not a nurse, but at my nieces (twins) baptism my oldest niece (also a twin, 2 at the time) choked on a potato chip. She turned blue and went limp. For the life of me I could not remember if I needed to do infant heimlich on her since she is so petite or another method. So I grabbed her, made a fist and put it under her diaphragm and pushed but not too hard.

I was shaking so bad that I literally collapsed in the grass. I do this at work but it is completely different when 1) it's your loved one 2) there's no one else who knows CPR/First Aid, etc around. It was just me.

flightnurse2b, LPN · May 30, 2008

i have a couple times pulled up to a scene and had to care for someone i knew.

my dad had a CVA at the dinner table, and mom had called me, i was not on duty but went to the house, opened up my bag and popped in an IV, started some fluid, and called my into the ER saying i was coming and one of the nurses met my car in the back with a stretcher. we were very fortunate that they were able to dissolve the clot, but he does have some deficits.

another time while i was working, i picked up a near drowning. he had been seizing, we successfully sedated him, intubated him and got him to the ER. i looked down afterwards and realized that it was one of my best friends from high school. my adrenaline was pumping so hard i didnt even pay attention to his face. i scared myself.

i guess i focus so much at the task at hand, that i go into autopilot.

RN1989 · May 30, 2008

Never. Autopilot turns on. Do have an icky feeling in the pit of my stomach if it is someone I love though. Never have that icky feeling if it is someone else.

seabiscuitRN · Jun 1, 2008

This reminds me of a morning back in nursing school, when I was in a hurry to get ready. My male dog usually tries hard to get my attention when he senses that I'm in a hurry. That particular morning, he kept running up and down the stairs at top speed while I was in the bathroom blow-dring my hair. This was pretty normal behavior for him, so I didn't think anything about it until I went out to the hall closet to get my birth control pills. Pretty much as soon as I realized they weren't on the shelf, Dog came running up to me and I saw that he had them in his mouth. And all I could think was that it was day one, and OMG, Dog would surely die if he ate 28 days worth of female human hormones. So I ran around the house after him, like a fool.

Never mind the part where I was a professional dog kennel owner/trainer for about 20 years and I KNEW that if he ate them, all I'd have to do would be to give him hydrogen peroxide to induce vomiting. This was my Dog, best friend, and I absolutely knew he was going to die that day. :-)P The good news is that a year later, when he dumped a bottle of Tylenol and I didn't know if he'd eaten any, I kept my cool and did what needed to be done. Just like nusring, learn from your lapses.

ps- I'm not sure on the exact dose, but if your dog does ingest something s/he shouldn't, you can give them peroxide (usually have to squirt it down their throat with a syringe) and that will make them throw up. I don't worry about the dose because if you give them too much, well, they're puking it up anyway. Dry mustard powder is also supposed to work, but in my experience, peroxide is far more effective and easier with the syringe. This is pretty much all the vet would do would be to induce vomiting, unless you don't know how long it's been since they ingested whatever it was. (and I could start an entire new discussion on the random and ridiculous things I've seen dogs eat over the years...what are they thinking?)

Agnus · Jun 1, 2008

Ok what do you do besides call the vet when your dog swallows BCPs?

RN1989 · Jun 1, 2008

Contact the 24 hr Emergency Veterinary Poison Hotline:

1-888-4ANI-Help (1-888-426-4435)

Never give your animal anything unless directed by a veterinarian. The wrong treatment or the wrong dose can kill them. You should always have the number of the closest animal ER if your vet is closed and does not have an answering service or does not care for emergencies.

sissiesmama, ASN, RN · Jun 2, 2008

When you guys have a personal crisis, do you forget how to be a nurse?
I ask, because last night I had a little emergency. My 6 month old schuanzer decided to unzip my purse, and dig around. She found a nice little round container that looked fun. Or else she's been romancing the neighborhood males. Either way, she eat a few of my BCP. When my husband called me in the room, everything left my head. Yes, I know she is just a dog, but a couple of dogs can be quite important to a couple without children.
basically, it took a good minute and a half for my senses to return, and more "nursing common sense" to return. And after we finally got a hold of our vet, things got even better. It was very comforting to hear him say I did the right thing, and she would be just fine.
JessieRN - been there, done that!! My cocker spaniel/retriever mix passed away a few yrs. ago. He was almost 16 yrs. old. When he was about 5 or so, Sam got into my purse when we were running errasnds. By the time I caught him in the act, he had eaten a whole tube of lipstick and a full bottle of Adipex prescription diet pills. He was covered in pink lipstick, including all 4 paws and his face looked like a clown with messy lipstick all around his mouth.
OMG, I paniked! Called the emergency vet on call. Took me a while to calm myself down. The vet told me to give him a little H2O2 to make him vomit the diet pills. Neither of us got any sleep that night!
Anne, RNC:paw:

prmenrs, RN · Jun 2, 2008

Sometimes, you need to decide whether to be the "nurse" or the "mom". Of course, somewhere in your brain, you're always the nurse. BUT. What does the pt need? You're the only one who can be mom, wife, sis, dad, hubby, etc.

For me as a single mom w/a spec needs kiddo, I could only be "nurse" for so long... Then I had to be the mom, cuz that's what he needed me for. jmo