You know what's really gross? What I could go without seeing again? The inside of someones knee. That's real disturbing, especially when it's attached to a leg that is flailing about but also sadly lacking in skin or kneecap or ligament and is also flinging blood everyone. I thought the only time the femoral condyles should be visible were during a sterile and well planned knee replacement surgery, but I guess 23:00 in the ER trauma room is a great time too.
PSA: Don't get piss drunk and do a lot of drugs, then drive >100 mph on the freeway and get ejected from your car where you'll skid facedown across all four lanes. You'll leave your knee on the road, as well as most of your face and toes.
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One day I woke up and realized I'm not a baby nurse anymore. I'm not even a young nurse. I'm a real adult who has now been doing this for years, and I'm definitely expected to know what I'm doing at all times. And that's fucking terrifying.
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DISCLAIMER
HIPAA. Trust and believe, these stories are halfway made-up and halfway made up of lots of other stories. I will protect patient privacy like it's my job. Because it is.
Many of the photos showing mundane things are ones I took. As for memes and other google picture search images, I've been horribly bad at photo crediting - I will be attempting to go back through and properly credit things or remove them if I can't. But rest assured, ain't no real patient pictures up here, folks.
While I appreciate those reading the blog, I don't advertise for any website. I can only be responsible for my own opinion, and thus politely decline any offer to "host a post" or otherwise advertise something not written by me...But thanks anyway!
Many of the photos showing mundane things are ones I took. As for memes and other google picture search images, I've been horribly bad at photo crediting - I will be attempting to go back through and properly credit things or remove them if I can't. But rest assured, ain't no real patient pictures up here, folks.
While I appreciate those reading the blog, I don't advertise for any website. I can only be responsible for my own opinion, and thus politely decline any offer to "host a post" or otherwise advertise something not written by me...But thanks anyway!
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6 comments:
The anatomic modeling (I'm trying to be nice) of injuries sustained when velocity meets asphalt is indeed gross. What used to really get to me is when road tar and tiny gravel fragments were imbedded in what was left of the mangled extremity. We used acetone adhesive tape remover to remove the tar and the smell of that stuff still makes my stomach turn.
Ahhhhhhh!!!
This is why I'm not a surgeon.
@Old Fool - even just thinking of what that might smell like makes me queasy. Yeegh.
@Solitary Diner - RIGHT?! Every time I wonder if I did my life right and think maybe I should have gone to med school and become a surgeon instead, I think of power tools into joints. And then feel reassured that I did, in fact, make the right choice. On a side note, I've been meaning to read up on your old posts about financial non-stupidity, and start making some better money decisions. You've inspired me to think better of my future years, not just whether or not I want that unnecessary item RIGHT NOW.
No thanks. I have a friend who's knee replacement got infected and he ended up without a knee for over six months before they gave the all clear for a new knee. Even the thought of the insides without the joint itself makes me queasy; I do not want to know what the infection looked like. And he walked on it (external bracing). Amazing.
Bear in mind the happy news that the ones we see were the ones who were still able to be brought into the ER.
The traffic cops and highway patrol who find what's left over at the end of a long wide red skid mark and only find part of a patient get it even worse than we do.
Baby brother was, briefly, a police officer. He has noted multiple times that he does not miss that part of the job. Ever.
I also tell the budding young stuntmen of the world that the difference between your head and a helmet, is that a helmet doesn't scream and bleed profusely when you grind three inches of it off after going over your handlebars at speed.
Aesop your going over the handlebars reference brought back an old memory about treating motorcycle trauma victims. I always wondered why motorcycle traumas usually had foot and ankle injuries. A Chicago motorcycle office had an explanation, "When they are flung up and off the bike their feet get caught under the handlebars breaking bones." I wondered if hinged handlebars could prevent this type of injury.
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