There but for the grace of....

[xtxrn]

What patient/patients have left the biggest impression on you re: just being so sadly unfair? Probably lots of them, but just thought it might be interesting... :)

One of mine was an 8 y/o kid who had been w/her family in the military. She had had flu-like symptoms, and was taken to the doc. He said yeah- flu...keep an eye on her, rest, etc. The kid got worse. Then unresponsive. The family took her to the ER on base, where it was found she had a blood sugar >800mg/dl. Her brain was caramelized. She never completely woke up (as of when I went to work elsewhere, about 3 months after she got to us). She could whimper and move the little finger on her right hand. A whole life gone, but still technically there. It was so sad.

There were a lot at that facility that were memorable, even 25 years later. I sometimes wonder what they would have been like if they'd never ended up with head injuries/brain damage.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

I had a 40-something guy w/bone,brain,lung and liver mets from melanoma.... he wanted Frosted Flakes. I had the CNA running all over the place. If he hadn't found a few of those little boxes, I was ready to send him to the grocery store. :)

[Jenni811, RN]

I had a 40-something guy w/bone,brain,lung and liver mets from melanoma.... he wanted Frosted Flakes. I had the CNA running all over the place. If he hadn't found a few of those little boxes, I was ready to send him to the grocery store. :)

Oooo i know the feeling. The hospice told me "we only carry pepsi in the hospital" (We apparently are a pepsi hospital)

I was like "Somewhere in that grocery store of yours is a coke and I'll be down in 5 minutes for it."

[kool-aide, RN]

Her name was Shirley. I don't remember her last name but she was the CUTEST little old lady. I don't remember her specific Dx but I took care of her on the medsurg floor and she was later transferred to the ICU where she passed. She was a total care pt, incont, turn Q2--I find that I really bond with these types of pts. She wasn't completely A&O but was very cheerful when answering questions. I'm glad she's in a better place now.

[nerdtonurse?, BSN, RN]

One that got me at the time and still bothers me when I hear a kid scream "Dad!" at a park was a guy, 40ish. Went to a potluck after church, had heart burn, progressed to chest pain, came to the ER with a NSTEMI. Looked stable, otherwise healthy, a young 40 in good shape. He wasn't my direct patient but I was doing the admission database while the primary did the assessment. His wife was kidding him, saying, "No more cheeseburgers for you, you've had your last french fry" and the guy just kidding and saying, "Aw, God, let me just die now," good vitals, EKG looked a little wonky, but nothing that jumped out at us or the doc...I mean, you tell me I'm having a MI, I'm going to be tachycardic too, you know? A couple of kids, one of them the cutest little boy I'd seen in a long time, ice blond hair, blue eyes, I kidded with them that they were going to be beating the little girls off with sticks in another 10 years. Just a nice family.

We get finished, and don't even get back to the nurse's station before the unit secretary sticks her head around the corner and yells, "Go back!" As we're turning, the wife and kids come out of the room screaming. He'd stood up to go the the bathroom as opposed to using the urinal, and down he went. He was gone when we hit the room. Never responded to anything we did, never got a shockable rhythm, we hit him with everything in the cart, and he was just...gone. We never got any kind of perfusion. The code lasted forever, and in the background you could hear the kids and wife crying in the hallway. God bless'm, the one of the family of the person across the hall was a minister, picked up on the Code Blue, and got the wife into a chair and was comforting her, she refused to go to the conference room. I'll never forget when the doc said, "Okay, if no one else has any suggestions...." He walked out of the room and didn't say anything at all and the wife started screaming. But what I remember more than anything was the little boy saying, "Not my daddy! Not my Daddy! Daddy! Daddy!" We were all crying.

The family had an autopsy done, mainly to find out if there was anything genetic for the sake of the pt's siblings and his kids. Turned out he'd had several "silent" MIs, and had an area of necrosis in one of the ventricles, and it just pulled apart. Nothing we could've done, fixed, he was a time bomb waiting to go off.

I can still hear that little boy screaming.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

(((((nerdtonurse?))))))

[FirstLadyNurse]

Sigh..... Praying.....crying....

I've been reading the unemployed nurse thread for atleast 2 hours.....I was thinking Im unemployed and IN DEBT! I have an interview tomorrow at 11:15 am....my thoughts if they dont hire me I will just flip burgers at Sonic.....then I read this thread and I remembered why I went to nursing school......someday I pray I will have a story or two to share.....thank you all for reminding me WHY I AM A NURSE!

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Sigh..... Praying.....crying....

I've been reading the unemployed nurse thread for atleast 2 hours.....I was thinking Im unemployed and IN DEBT! I have an interview tomorrow at 11:15 am....my thoughts if they dont hire me I will just flip burgers at Sonic.....then I read this thread and I remembered why I went to nursing school......someday I pray I will have a story or two to share.....thank you all for reminding me WHY I AM A NURSE!

You will before you even know it :)

[FirstLadyNurse]

Thank you Xtxrn!

[LouisVRN, RN]

I've had a couple that stick with me. One was a youngish woman in her 40s with bowel CA and mets s/p bowel resection. I took care of her post-op, first night went as well as could be expected, second night totally different story hallucinating, losing consciousness, could barely keep her awake to ask questions, no urine output, vitals tanking. Could not figure out what was going on. Called the surgeon (one of the docs in our facility that scares almost everyone) at least 7 times that night, finally by morning had him convinced to do some consults (which is very rare for him to agree to) and come to find out she had developed a couple unexpected post-op complications. I remember her sister calling her friends/family in the middle of the night thinking she was dying and at that point I think I almost agreed with her. She recovered and was able to go home, but ended up back in the hospital again about a month before she died and requested to have me back as her nurse. Her one request, lids for our plastic cups, she didn't have amazing motor control at that point and was having difficulty drinking out of the cups without a lid and flexible straws, I was able to scrounge some up from another floor within a couple minutes.

The second patient that really stands out to me was a 30-something chronic ETOHer. Came in with pancreatitis (or something similar) but within a month progressed to full on liver failure and he was sent home near-vented on hospice. Horrible situation to watch him deteriorate sooo much in such a short period of time and at such a young age. His parents were at his bedside daily and he was just the nicest man you could ever want to meet. Totally the type you try to go out of your way to get the rest of your work done so you can come by just to chat.

[vanburbian]

I worked oncology for 7 years, and have so many I recall, but 2 in particular as tragic. One, 36 yo female with metastatic breast cancer, did all the tx available, was hypercalcemic and ended up with a femur fracture, in traction, and knew she'd never get back home.

She wanted to say good bye to her children before she agreed to a morphine gtt.

Had 2 children, 9 & 11. To see them, sitting there as she talked to them, saying her goodbyes, then died- OMG...it still makes me cry.

The other one was a 17 yo with AML, whose family did not agree to blood transfusions due to religion.

He came in with a hct of 9, and bled from everywhere for 3 days before he finally died. He had younger siblings, 2 of whom did not agree with the parents religion, and verbalized it. They were of the opinion that he also did not believe the same as his parents.

We looked at appointing a guardian, however he had previously verbalized that he wanted to follow his parents wishes.

It was very hard to watch him, and his large extended family-many of whom did not share the same beliefs, come to wish him peace on his journey.

[sweetsleep28]

While I was still working as a CNA while I was in LPN school, I had took care of a lady named Betty who had Bladder CA. She was the sweetest, funniest, most caring LOL that I still to this day have even taken care of. She and I got alone terricfically, she always told me to call her Grandma Moses b/c she was older than dirt. She was the sweetest, funniest, kindest soul I have ever had the privalege of caring for to this day. She had been in our facility for about 6 months when she started not eating or drinking. She began loosing weight and was having trouble urinating. It turned out the her CA had returned. Towards the end my walky talky grandma was bedridden and totally dependent upon staff. Her family and I had always got along well. And they were there by her side day after day, and at night the majority of the time sleeping in the chair next to her bed. When the end was near, she her family and I all knew it. Her family told me that they were leaving for the night, but would be back the next morning, but they wanted me to check on her before I left myself for the evening. When I went into her room, I knew the end was near and she did too. She asked me to hold her hand and stay with her, b/c she didn't want to meet jesus alone. After the nurse working that night asessed her, she went to call her family to tell them they should come back to the facility. I stayed with her holding her hand, fluffing her pillows and just listening to her talk. She passed away before her family made it back to the facility. Her family was the most greatful bunch of people. It made them feel better to know that I had stayed with her and that she hadn't passed alone. I still keep in touch with them to this day.

My nursing school graduation colors were the Cancer Rainbow. Meaning we chose the color of corsage that we would wear at graduation based on the different colors of the cancer ribbons. I wore a yellow corsage that day for Bladder Cancer awareness and kept Betty close to my heart. I will never forget her, she was the first resident of mine that I ever really formed a bond with.

[xtxrn, ASN, RN]

Thank you for sharing these :) These are the real things about nursing that makes it such a great job, even though it can be heart wrenching at times. You guys have been at the right place at the right time to help people wherever they were at in their lives.

Gonna have to get some kleenex :)