Poo and laughter
A couple little stories ...
There was a really cute old lady that came in today to have her bili tube changed. She had schizo-affective disorder, and was more squirmy than a two year old hyped up on energy drinks. We kept boosting her up in the stretcher so she was sitting up, and she just kept squirming down; it was so funny watching her talk to the docs (or rather the docs trying to talk to her while she giggled uncontrollably). She had a sitter with her, and they kept telling stories about how the patient had apparently attacked the sitter recently, and then the little old lady had apologized and they were friends again. Then she told us she needed to poo.
Yesterday I had a patient that was bipolar, mentally retarded, and almost catatonic. He would speak a few words intermittently, but that was about it. He did stare quite a bit, and it was disturbing not to be able to read what could possibly be going through his mind. I went through his prep, talking to him throughout the whole process to try to make sure he knew I wasn't going to hurt him, and he was really good about the whole thing. I checked his IV, and noticed that it was bent in a way that should or could have been occluding the line, so the nurse I was working with told me to fix it. I didn't really think too much of it until the nurse commented that the patient was being really good. And then out of the corner of my eye I could see the man staring at me and it raised the hair on the back of my neck - he could have totally decked me and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Kind of freaked me out. Then the patient started laughing hysterically and my nurse said he thought I was funny. I can't wait for my psych rotation.
There was a really cute old lady that came in today to have her bili tube changed. She had schizo-affective disorder, and was more squirmy than a two year old hyped up on energy drinks. We kept boosting her up in the stretcher so she was sitting up, and she just kept squirming down; it was so funny watching her talk to the docs (or rather the docs trying to talk to her while she giggled uncontrollably). She had a sitter with her, and they kept telling stories about how the patient had apparently attacked the sitter recently, and then the little old lady had apologized and they were friends again. Then she told us she needed to poo.
Yesterday I had a patient that was bipolar, mentally retarded, and almost catatonic. He would speak a few words intermittently, but that was about it. He did stare quite a bit, and it was disturbing not to be able to read what could possibly be going through his mind. I went through his prep, talking to him throughout the whole process to try to make sure he knew I wasn't going to hurt him, and he was really good about the whole thing. I checked his IV, and noticed that it was bent in a way that should or could have been occluding the line, so the nurse I was working with told me to fix it. I didn't really think too much of it until the nurse commented that the patient was being really good. And then out of the corner of my eye I could see the man staring at me and it raised the hair on the back of my neck - he could have totally decked me and I wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. Kind of freaked me out. Then the patient started laughing hysterically and my nurse said he thought I was funny. I can't wait for my psych rotation.