Friday, March 25, 2011

How to Scare a Nurse

A phrase that strikes fear in a nurse's heart:

"I'm going away..."

Especially when it is accompanied by complaints of chest pain, a decreased oxygen reading, and vomiting...

Don't worry.  She was fine.  She had just gotten a little too sleepy from her sedatives and I had to reverse her.  The reversal gave her a little asthma attack which scared her...

And me when she started telling her husband goodbye.

So, while in my head I knew (read here: was hoping and praying) it was a reaction to my reversal medication, it still scared the crap out of me.

 I just thought that if you ever wanted to know how to make your nurse jump up and take notice, this could be helpful to you!

10 comments:

Emily Sue said...

I've never been in hospital, but if ever I am, I'm definitely using that. What about "I can see a light"... does that have the same effect? :D

Unknown said...

The patient today said that? If so wow I didn't realize that.

Paula said...

Egads! That doesn't sound like fun at all.

Andi said...

Shonda: Yes, she totally said that to her husband. That is why I refused to go let nurse A go home until I knew she was okay, and nurse J was actually focused on the patient.

gianna said...

I won't say it I promise! Even if I am going down the hall to use the bathroom!

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Nice to know patients can scare nurses - I've only ever had NURSES scare ME!

"Don't worry about passing clots unless they're bigger than a lemon," a nurse said to me after I gave birth...

Marilyn said...

Nurses scare me everytime I go to the clinic and they say, "Let's see how much you weigh today honey."

Andi said...

Crazy sister: Why is that scary? That is reality...Although I once had a patient that was bleeding vaginally (was that a scary word here, or what) and she couldn't speak English. She pointed between her legs, and I looked and there was a clot so huge I thought her uterus had fallen out! Luckily I had an old ob/gyn nurse who said it was no big deal...

Allegro ma non troppo said...

Good grief.

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