Medical things you didn’t know?

[Emptychairdoasolo]

Just watching a medical drama and wondered what happens if you die on the operating table? Do they just sew you back up without repairing anything inside?

but also had me thinking what other medical things didn’t you know until you maybe experienced them or learned?

This is heartbreaking and beautiful at the same time. 😢

I meant in the sense that opening a window might be considered nursing, but it isn't medical.

Quite - I'd roll my eyes at any nurse that told me they'd opened a window to let my parent's soul out, and will likely be upset enough to tell them to fuck off with that nonsense.

Just because it isn't comforting to you, doesn't mean it isn't comforting to the 100's of other families a nurse will encounter throughout their career. These traditions are passed down and taught as to what will help most people, not everyone. With someone who's death is expected, we will often speak to the patient and family prior to gain insight into what they would like. Some families like to be involved in last offices and bathing of the patient, some don't. Some want everything a patient was wearing removed, some want them to keep it with them. The experience is different for everyone. But in cases where that conversation hasnt happened, we follow tradition, in the hope that that is of some comfort to the family, and respectful of the patients wishes.

Ears and noses do appear bigger as you age though which is why older men particularly seem to have bigger noses and ears.

@CaptainMyCaptain Me! I find it slightly offensive.

That's probably over-stating / over-simplifying my feelings about it. But I don't like it. I don't like someone else's ritual or belief being inflicted on someone and their family without their knowledge or consent, even if I don't believe in it or the person who has died wouldn't have believed in it.

Stretching the analogy - my father did not believe in God. I would find it upsetting and offensive if someone had come in and prayed over his body. He would have told them to bugger off and i would have found it very inappropriate and interfering. If they'd asked beforehand, I would have very genuinely thanked them for wanting to help, but declined.

To take a step down in tone - I'm just saying I don't like it - I do understand the action comes from a good place, and it seems plenty of people like the idea. I just don't, horses for courses.

DM collapsed unexpectedly and was declared BSD fairly quickly, but the drugs they’d given to stabilise her meant she couldn’t donate her organs. But she did donate her corneas as it transpires that they can be removed for transplant during a short window after death. That made me so proud.

Miss you mum x

FFS 🙄

You’re braver than me. First time I tried it without sedation, was so sure I could do it. No way, even with the mild amount they gave me I was a screamer and hitter apparently. Second and third times I’ve told them to give me as much sedation as possible, for their good as well as mine. Has worked perfectly I’m told.

Yep my arthritis occasionally causes iritis. It's bloody painful before I get the eye drops.

Not a nurse, but a health care
Did 8+ plus years in children's Hospice and work in a nursing home now
Always open the window and have been directly taught to
Now I'm an atheist, didn't marry in church, kids not christened etc
Still, whenever giving last offices or after death care (we had special room, so young people could rest with us instead of funeral directors) I still talk to the patient as well
A few reasons for this: it's sort of natural, particularly when you're used to describing what you're doing to non-verbal patients, vulnerable people etc
If family, particularly parents, happen to be in the room, you're narrating for them too, so they know what to expect
You're teaching inexperienced staff on the job, as you go, what next steps are
And it just feels more respectful. They may be deceased, but they were still a person
I'll try not to be crass with the language I use, but if you're like me and think that when you're dead, you're gone and know nothing about it, what difference does it make anyway?
I've looked after families from many different religions and cultures, and will do anything I can to respect people's beliefs. Doing that doesn't negate mine
Unfortunately, end stages of life can produce unpleasant smells, so opening a window doesn't hurt
Yes, it's superstition, but most health cares do it because it's part of the process, same as still talking to the patient etc
Plus, I've been surprised by how many strong non-believers, like myself, have had a wobble right near the end and taken faith, prayed, had their babies christened
Not my place to judge, and it's not like we'd hop up and go, oh we opened the window for their soul: the window would just be open
In their grief, it's unlikely they'd even notice, let alone question why

That the strange loud whooshing noise I started hearing at the point of falling asleep was Exploding Head Syndrome.

When you die most nurses will open a window to allow your soul out

That brought a tear to my eye. Thank you for doing that.

Not just a nursing superstition, my Nan was always insistent that you never had just red and white together. I was present when my Grandad died and almost the first thing we did was open the window. No nurses among us, but my East End family has its hefty share of superstitions.

Hahahahahaha
definitely not! Who would lie about it 😂

Perhaps they should say "I'm opening the window now - it's to let the soul out - or the stench - whichever best fits your belief system."

My dh had said he'd had it done before and his had gone down his nose so I thought I was going to be in for a svelte StarTrek style thread of a camera.

I would have made other choices had I had the sense to double check.

I'm the same.

"Would you like sedation?"

YES! Give me the drugs! All of the drugs! I want to know NOTHING about this procedure."

when i had THE MOST AWFUL - in the dentist's chair - extraction of an impacted wisdom tooth, he knelt with his knee on the chair next to me, and his hand on my breastbone. (He'd never have got a knee up there and it would have been in the way anyway.

Afterwards he said "yeah, my first instinct - to refer you to the dental hospital - was correct". Fucker. He wasn't very tall and couldn't get a good angle no matter how low and reclined the chair was.

And I got a dislocating jaw. 4 times after my gastroscopy. It was put down to me struggling. Not fun at all

This isn't true. I spent a week on ward 13 recently

My 6 year old has it.

This is delightful!

Gleeful Jiggling Ovaries will be the name of my rock band . . . 😄

Prem babies are sometimes given caffeine in hospital

Christ. If you've got a tooth growing at an angle, chances are the root will be too. I can testify to this, I had a terrible extraction a of wonky canine tooth .Not quite knee on the chest, but the dentist had to get a colleague in to help. Gum shredded and just hanging in a little flap for days. I don't know why they put us, and themselves, through this horror show.

Well don't you sound charming! The perpetually offended/upset will always, unfortunately, be among us and it's fortunate that I am not a nurse as if you told me to "fuck off with all that nonsense" you would be told a few home truths.

I actually imagine most nurses wouldn't mention it.