girl in greenwood

Conditions I've witnessed and am glad I don't have:

Calciphylaxis in end-stage kidney disease.

A colostomy resulting from a rectal foreign body and subsequent intestinal perforation.

A collection of problems that were all making each other worse: congestive heart failure, acute renal failure, necrotizing pneumonia, and protein deficiency due to lack of interest in eating. Also, did you know that when part of your lung tissue dies, you pretty much have to cough out the dead stuff to clear your lungs?! Gross.

Labels: dread diseases, nursing

# posted by girl_in_greenwood @ 6:14 PM 1 comments links to this post

More conditions my patients have had that I'm glad I don't:

Huntington's disease. And a big honkin' meningioma as a "bonus".

Multiple enterocutaneous fistulas secondary to surgeries to treat colon cancer.

Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma - this was actually a patient who had undergone chemo in the past, and when it was discovered that the cancer was back, she declined further treatment and went on comfort care. She died on my shift.

Labels: dread diseases, nursing

# posted by girl_in_greenwood @ 11:42 AM 3 comments links to this post

Recent diseases that my patients have had lately that I am glad I don't have myself:

-Full blown AIDS with Kaposi's sarcoma and C.diff diarrhea as a bonus.
-TTP and resultant amputations of both hands & both feet
-completely out-of-touch with any kind of reality schizophrenia (and a foot infection)
-Median arcuate ligament syndrome. (No, I'd never heard of it before, either.)
-spontaneous pulmonary embolism for no apparent reason.

I think this may become a recurring topic on my blog, since I find new conditions that I really don't want to have on a regular basis.

Labels: dread diseases, nursing