I was working a night shift on a tele floor as a new Nurse.
We had this one poor old lady who was confused and was restrained as usual for her safety. She was our designated resident nightmare geri from hell, so she was placed near the Nurse's station.
So we are chilling out at the Nurse's station, chatting and trying to get through another night...
Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I see our lady in question standing in the dimly lit doorway of her room!
I instantly leap out and run to her. As I approach her, she appears to be falling towards me, so I meet her in a bear hug...my arms around her waste, and her arms around my shoulders.
As I catch the lady, I notice a very strong smell of feces, and I feel something warm on my hands, arms and shoulders...
My fellow heroes come in behind me, and as the lights are turned on, my worst fears are instantly realized.
Yes, I caught the poor old lady with a good old bear hung football catch, but I was also covered in the lady's feces.
As I look at her, she has feces smeared all over her arms and hands... (and even her face!)
Specializes in Emergency/Trauma/Critical Care Nursing.
calivianya said:
Recently, we had a new admit who ended up buying himself a ventilator really quickly because he was not breathing well at all. All during the intubation, and while the physician was dropping a central line, everyone was commenting on how huge and weirdly shaped the patient's nose was. After everyone else left the room, I decided to investigate further and squeezed it. What I found was never-ending whiteheads that smelled like rotting fecal matter, so I deduced pretty quickly that the size of the nose was probably due to a cyst or something right under the surface. No matter how much I squeezed, more pus-like material came out. By the end of the shift, I'd had at least five coworkers in the room squeezing on the patient's nose, because we are all freaks like that on my unit.
One time when I squeezed, I finally hit a well of something that sprayed everywhere and of course really smelled terrible. I ended up walking around the room to do something else, but noticed I was still smelling that necrotic fecal smell. I was wearing a surgical mask because the patient was r/o influenza, so on a hunch I took my mask off and looked at it... and there was a large amount of pus spray across my mask. If I hadn't been wearing that mask, I would have had that guy's nose cyst juice in my mouth. I have never been so grateful for a mask in my life.
Omg I would've skipped my lunch break to sit and squeeze that nose! Lol
I had a patient with very advanced dementia who had been extra feisty lately. Yelling, trying to climb out of bed, the whole gamut. I walked by his room and smelled the distinct odor of feces. I grabbed the PCT and walked in so we could get him cleaned up, but he screamed at us and reached into his brief and grabbed some of that poo and chucked it straight at me. I ducked and he missed, but he kept grabbing and throwing his poop (even a foot past the end of the bed, he had quite the arm) so we got out of there. We were outside, waiting for him to run out of ammo and hearing an occasional "plop" from more landing on the floor. After about 10 minutes we walked back in with a plethora of washcloths, towels, etc. Apparently we had taken too long, because now he was smearing it all over his arms and face like it was lotion. In the middle of cleaning him I almost lost my lunch, because he apparently had also been eating and chewing on his feces. So now on top of cleaning it off the floor, walls, his bed, and his skin I also had to brush his teeth and suction poop from his mouth. Ugh.
Oh we have some gross stories! Mine was years ago while doing a fill-in shift at the urgent care side of ER. A young woman came in complaining of abscesses on her thighs, this was when skin popping heroin was the rage. The doc and I lay her down on her side and the doc who luckily was wearing a gown and face shield, proceeds to inject lidocaine. The first piercing released a fountain of the foulest pus all over the doc. She's crying, and while I have a very strong stomach, was caught unprepared, I'm dry heaving over the top of the woman and wiping the face shield so the doc can see. He's gagging and every time I looked at him, we'd both almost loose our lunch. She ended up needing hyperbaric treatments because of the anaerobic bacteria was resistant to everything.
Specializes in Medsurg/ICU, Mental Health, Home Health.
By the end of the shift, I'd had at least five coworkers in the room squeezing on the patient's nose, because we are all freaks like that on my unit.
I made future hubster read your post. I prefaced it with "see, I'm not weird!" Then I added, "and no, I didn't write this," because I am a freak like you!
I'll get TOS'd if I type what he said after reading it. :)
I made future hubster read your post. I prefaced it with "see, I'm not weird!" Then I added, "and no, I didn't write this," because I am a freak like you!
I'll get TOS'd if I type what he said after reading it. ?
I'm right there with you. And ear wax irrigations.
Work in ENT and a LTC resident comes in with an ear problem. Resident had MAGGOTS in their ears--again! Doc yelled at the director of the nursing home and the health dept was called. Fortunately, this resident hasn't had any more maggots, or any insect, in their ears since! We had a pt come in saying they had a tapeworm in their nose and brought it in a plastic bag. Wasn't a tapeworm but maybe a grain of rice? I've lost count of how many popcorn kernels we've pulled out of kids ears.
Work in ENT and a LTC resident comes in with an ear problem. Resident had MAGGOTS in their ears--again! Doc yelled at the director of the nursing home and the health dept was called. Fortunately, this resident hasn't had any more maggots, or any insect, in their ears since! We had a pt come in saying they had a tapeworm in their nose and brought it in a plastic bag. Wasn't a tapeworm but maybe a grain of rice? I've lost count of how many popcorn kernels we've pulled out of kids ears.
what is the ENT not treating, that is attracting the flies?
Christy1019, ASN, RN
879 Posts
Omg I would've skipped my lunch break to sit and squeeze that nose! Lol
- A fellow freak