nicola

The dressing change that was worst for me was the guy with neck CA and pseusomonas and a trach. He did his own trach care but couldn't do the dsg change. Between the green runny stuff (how clinical of me!) and the stench, I nearly lost it. Fortunately he wasn't my regular client so I only did him when I was working weekends. The miracle, and I have no idea how this happened, was that the trach was always neg. for pseudomonas! Then there was the funny dsg change... if there is such a thing. This guy had several of his toes amputated and a big wound on his foot and up the shin that had been debrided and was slated for a skin graft as soon as there was enough healing. The object was to teach his wife to do the bid dressing change so that I could eventually go only TIW. The first time I went and started taking off the dressing, the ENTIRE family - kids, cousins etc - fled the room! The first words out of my mouth ... "Oh, that's really pretty. Look..." and then began teaching the client and his wife why it was pretty - ya know, nice pink tissue, no odor or exudate... They thought I was nuts for calling his wound "pretty". but it really was! BTW, his wife did learn how to do the dsg change and the wound healed so well they called off the skin graft! :D That was one of my favorite cases!

I'm glad I ate lunch BEFORE stumbling on this thread!!! I also have a pretty good stomach, but some of the stuff posted (intestinal worms.... eeewwww!) just gave me the heebies! I also so HH and detest roaches. The worst for me was the woman who was absentmindedly crushing the teeny ones (the ones wandering around the dining room table) between her fingers as I did my teaching, then wanted to shake hands with me as I left... I was able to shake her hand but the minute I was out of sight I poured a GALLON of the alcohol washie stuff on my hands! Vomit doesn't bother me much any more. When I was graduating and we were lining up on pairs to march into the auditorium, the girl next to me turned green and announced she was going to lose it. I told her she couldn't because if she did, I would. Then if I did, the people behind us would. If they did, then the people in the stands would see and start and our whole beautiful day would be ruined by a vomit fest. She laughed so hard she forgot to be nauseated!

I've been on the other side of that one... When I was 19 I had my tonsils out. My night nurse was a girl I'd gone to high school with! I had taken a really ugly stuffed animal that my boyfriend had given me to the hospital with me. All I remember is Pam teasing me about it...

I have DMII and had an exploritory lap done. When I was in recovery, talking and doing well, they offered me food - jello, soda and graham crackers. I asked for diet soda. They brought me also sugar free jello. Sigh! I'd been NPO for 16 hours!!! I thought I could benefit from some sugar and asked the nurse for regular jello. "You have diabetes." Sigh! Can I not manage myself? Did she not get the length of time I'd been NPO? I ask for diet soda because I can't stand the taste of regular any more. Heavy sigh...

I have always worn a cross. The one I wear now was a gift from my boyfriend several years ago. It is a celtic design that also reflects my cultural heritage, so is doubly important to me. I think that the wearing of religious or spiritual jewelry is highly individual. For safety reasons, it does need to be something small. It can serve as an unspoken invitation, as was already posted. For me, it reminds of who I say I am. As far as the pentagram or goddess is concerned, I'll admit that the first time I saw some one wearing a pentagram I was quietly wigged out. Since that some one was a patient of mine and I was in her home, I had to deal with it. We were eventually able to talk about her beliefs and it helped me a lot. Philosophically, I totally believe that no matter what your spiritual affiliation (for lack of a better word) is, you should be able to proudly proclaim it wherever and not be fearful or made uncomfortable about it.

Love this thread... When I was 10, my maternal grandfather died suddenly after a heart attack. I didn't get to say good bye to him. When I was an infant, he'd give me ceramic mice, which I collect to this day, so we called him Granddaddy Mouse. In the house where he and my grandmother lived, there was an open space, like a window, between the kitchen and the living room. On the shelves of that window were some curios and a mouse that had been given to him shortly before he died. I was sitting in his chair in the living room, looking at the shelf. My brother, then 8, was on the sofa. The grownups were in the kitchen and no one was smoking. I watched a fog or mist drift from the shelf into the living room and just hang a few feet off the floor. I got up and walked under it, stooped over, knowing it was from Granddaddy Mouse. My brother was looking at me like I was nuts - he saw me get up and walk, but didn't see the mist! To this day I believe that was how my Grandfather said good bye to me. My paternal grandmother died 5.5 years ago. She said she had to die near the end of the month (she had CA and knew she didn't have lots of time left) so that my aunt could keep one of the benefit checks that month. Two weeks before she died, Grandma went into the hospital and was basically comatose, so didn't know the date. She died on May 30! She also promised to come for me when it's my time. I'm holding her to it!!!

I don't know if any one is still reading this thread... but wanted to comment on the thread. First, both agencies I worked for were that picky - much to my frustration! I always had to have a calendar to see when the week started and when the 60 days ended.... We did use PRN, but very specifically. We'd write "1-2 PRN for exacerbation of hyperglycemia" I think, Hoolihan, the best way to resolve your issue would be to find a way that satisfied HCFA regs... Don cha love it...

I used to do home care with AIDS patients. My biggest job was to prefill weekly pill boxes. This is no joke since the HIV meds are complicated in and of themselves. Couple this with HTN, psych and DM meds and you have a real fun time! In any case, the dr had upped the dosage of one lady's meds (I forget what it was) from 15mg bid to 30 mg bid. Since she had some 15's left, I told her I would put two pills in for 3 days then start on the new pills only one pill bid. After filling her box, I left for my next visit but had that awful sinking feeling that I'd put two pills in every box. Neither she nor her aide were sure what was in the box, so I went BACK to her house to check for myself. I hadn't made that error, but I tell you I slept better for it! The lesson - if you suspect you've made an error, go back and look. If you have, you'll catch it sooner and may save a life. If not, you'll sleep well that night!

I'm a righty and an adequate speller. Strangely, my spelling got better when I started learning Spanish. I think I just started listening better. My boyfriend is lefty (cool 'cause we can hold hands under the table and eat!) and has abysmal spelling!] My maternal grandmother was lefty by birth but changed in school. She could write the same sentence at the same time with both hands - forwards with the right hand and backwards with the left! Drove me nuts trying, but I just can't do it...

I'm Catholic, too, and don't see any conflict between HT or reiki or any other modality and my beliefs. I also don't believe that I'm chosen by God to heal or anything, but that we all have the potential for this kind of healing in us. When I practice HT, I believe that I'm using the healing power of the Holy Spirit and that's who I ask for help!

The only way you can be hurt is if you don't prepare yourself correctly (center and ground yourself) and end up giving away your own energy instead of giving away the energy from the environment. When you take the classes, you learn how to maintain and protect your own energy field from others. It works! I used to be annoyed by one classmate who was like a porcupine to me. I practiced making my field semipermeable - I can send out everything, but only good things can get in - and it helped a lot! My friend, Jane (much more practiced than I at HT) and I joke that it seems like hocus pocus...

I practiced healing and therapeutic touch and totally subscribe to this diagnosis. As a matter of fact, when I first saw this as a NANDA dx, I was thrilled! When I first heard of therapeutic touch, I was really skeptical (" do what with the cattle prod?" I was ROTFL!). After my first class, I was much less so. Consider the fact that we use magnets to look inside a person's body (MRI) and to make dx. Alternative therapies only give us another method to look at the whole person. If you're wondering about the science of this, check out quantum physics, which posits that matter and energy are the same thing (E=MC2). We all have energetic fields and are constantly exchanging energy with other living things and with the environment. What goes on in the energy has a real effect on the body. I have experienced reiki as well as healing touch. When I was taking classes, I did some volunteer work with a teenager who had broken multiple bones in a car accident. Her ulna and fibula had healed pretty well, but her hip was not showing any signs of healing after 7 weeks in a cast. The girl was also experiencing signs of depression and anxiety r/t her lack of mobility and the fact that she'd been told she may never walk again and would need more surgery. I offered to do HT with her and spent time with her family and with her to explain some of it to them. She decided that they had nothing to lose - there was no cost and the technique is noninvasive. Two weeks after I started with her, she had a doc appt. They did an xray and found significant healing - totally unexpected to the point where they repeated the xray to be sure that they'd done the correct hip! She also experienced a significant decrease in her anxiety. A month after I started working with her, she was out of the cast and using a walker. They moved away, so I don't know how she's doing now, but I really feel that HT made the difference for her. She does, too! I could tell you other stories. I feel strongly that this is a powerful nursing tool that we can use to the benefit of our patients and of ourselves. One of the unique things is that the practitioner of HT also benefits from giving a treatment. You can't say that about other modalities! If I give an injection, I'm certainly not hurt by it, but I don't benefit, either. Although I've never been able to be "out of the closet" with HT, I've used some of the techniques with clients who were anxious or fearful about certain things and have been very successful.

nilepoc, you kill me!! Your post about the loud boxers was a vivid visual and I loved it! About thongs... some of us bigger girls (somewhere between 190 and 300 lbs) like them! I agree that you don't want the world to see what ya got under neath, but when I'm comfy, I'm happy!

I love my sprague. The best thing about it is that you can hand it to a kid to teach him/her about listening (after proper cleaning) and not worry about something breaking and being expensive to replace... I find that in home care the stethoscope is the best teaching tool and if I have something too pricey, I'm reluctant to share...

Cindy, you are a very bad person. Do you give lessons?