Don't let the names of my titles scare you.
Before I became a Nurse, I was a nurse's aid, the right hand for a nurse. I cleaned up all the messes. I worked the night shift on the oncology floor (Cancer unit), in a very large hospital.
On a very busy night ,the Nurse and I had 28 patients to care for. My nurse was busy getting all the numerous meds ready, while I checked in on our patients and did vital signs, which is basically , blood pressures, temperatures, breathing and heart rates, checked all IV's and urinary cathers and any other bodily drains.
I came into Mr. G's room, our comatose patient, I monitor all of his vital signs and as I was coming around to the other side of the bed ,to check his IV, I noticed that his hand (the one with the IV in it) was hanging over the edge of the bed and his IV, in that hand, had become disconnected and he had bled out onto the floor.
Much to my dismay, there was a huge blood clot on the floor. I'm not talking about a splat of blood but a small garbage can lid size. I notified his nurse right away, and now I thinking to myself, this needs to be cleaned up. No problem , I grap some paper towels from the bathroom and proceed to wipe up the clot.
Yeah right, this thing had a mind of its own. First it slipped to the right. I chased it. Slips to the left, come on I think. Have you ever seen a big glob of jello wiggle and slip around. This was that and more.
We finally ended up under the bed, the clot and I. And all I was thinking was "What if Mr. G wakes up and is wondering why there is a small blond woman under his bed." Set me into a fit of the giggles.
I told this clot"I will get you my pretty" but it still eluded my grasp. I went into the nurses station "and found the biggest drainage syringe I could find (syringes without needles). And proceeded to
suck up one end of the elusive clot with my big syringe. I gingerly carried Mr. Clot to the biohazard
waste container and disposed of him!
Eureka, success!
Mr G. did get a new IV and I got the clot.
We finally ended up under the bed, the clot and I. And all I was thinking was "What if Mr. G wakes up and is wondering why there is a small blond woman under his bed." Set me into a fit of the giggles.
I told this clot"I will get you my pretty" but it still eluded my grasp. I went into the nurses station "and found the biggest drainage syringe I could find (syringes without needles). And proceeded to
suck up one end of the elusive clot with my big syringe. I gingerly carried Mr. Clot to the biohazard
waste container and disposed of him!
Eureka, success!
Mr G. did get a new IV and I got the clot.
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