Wednesday, September 15, 2021

Oooookay...?

I pull back the curtain of one of my three infusion rooms and greet my patient. He's going to have an hour-long immunotherapy infusion. 

I have all my supplies set up to access his implanted port

I ask him to show me his port site, so I can visualize and palpate it prior to accessing. And he whips off his shirt. Completely.

He's sitting there in his slightly grubby jeans, smelling like cigarette smoke, just looking at me, as if daring me to question him or comment on his action.

I stare at him thoughtfully for a moment, then I say,

"Oooookay...as long as you keep your pants on!"

He didn't give me a lick of trouble after that, though he didn't put his shirt back on until he was ready to leave, either!

8 comments:

Old NFO said...

Takes all kinds... sigh... Sorry you had to deal with that.

thinkingman said...

I know from experience, that some buttholes cannot be helped, even by the best Proctologist.

Mike-SMO said...

Oh, grow up. As I recall, while you are acting as a plumber, you are supposed to look for at palor, skin condition, lesions, d also to assess general condition of the patient, mood, balance, and cordination. Maybe there should be an alert nurse or physician in there who can actually evaluate the patient while you are playing with the plumbing.

Just sayin'.

thinkingman said...

Mike- in the last hospital in which I worked, they had a transfusion unit where pts would come for scheduled chemo and blood products infusions. Such pre transfusion exams would be done without pts whipping off clothing without need, and acting out was a near certain way to be advised of other locations from where to seek treatment. Tell me, exactly what part of those things YOU put out there would be best accommodated by the pt whipping his shirt off, unbidden and without need? Just Sayin' . I stick by my prior input. What do/did YOU do for a living? Just trying to determine how far out of your lane you may be, with due consideration of the certain fact that anyone can claim to be anything without evidence here on line. Considering the late date of your contribution, I'd say you are trolling, and got here by chance.

Christina RN LMT said...

Hey, I meant this to be a slightly humorous blog post. No fighting in the comments, please. I use this forum to vent anonymously (of course, some of you know who I am IRL). I treat my patients with respect, and I know how to do my job. And I'm good at it!

Mike-SMO said...

My appologies, I guess I picked up some harshness from an academic and teaching hospital environment. Sometimes that gets loose.

Christina RN LMT said...

No worries, Mike!

Oldfoolrn said...

I just posted some thoughts about roller clamps. Take a look if you dare!