Other people's stories
So here's an awesome story a patient told me about when she got sick several years ago.
My patient described being at work, having had a bit of a cough for a few days. But on that day, she was sore all over- "Even my calves hurt!" Her mother insisted on taking her to hospital where she was admitted to a medical ward with pneumonia. She remembers, "I was having a chat with a really nice nurse who was taking my vital signs. Then the nurse said, "Holy Shit!" The last thing I remember was the nurse hitting a button on the wall behind me."
"When I woke up there was a sheet over my face. And I thought, "They must think I'm dead!" So I lay there for a couple of minutes, not wanting to push back the sheet in case I was in the mortuary with the dead people. And then I realised someone was holding my hand."
In fact, she had sterile drapes over her face whilst a central line was inserted in her neck.
An infectious diseases physician would take this story as a nice illustration of bacterial sepsis in a young adult: "Even my calves hurt!", the mother insisting on taking her adult daughter to hospital, the inevitable dramatic deterioration. But I took it as a reminder that mundane aspects of critical care- sterile drapes- can be terrifying to a sepsis-addled brain.
A couple of weeks ago I put a central line into a seriously unwell patient who kept asking for a McDonald's cheeseburger during the procedure. I was thinking, "Lie still or there will be no more cheeseburgers, lady!"
My patient described being at work, having had a bit of a cough for a few days. But on that day, she was sore all over- "Even my calves hurt!" Her mother insisted on taking her to hospital where she was admitted to a medical ward with pneumonia. She remembers, "I was having a chat with a really nice nurse who was taking my vital signs. Then the nurse said, "Holy Shit!" The last thing I remember was the nurse hitting a button on the wall behind me."
"When I woke up there was a sheet over my face. And I thought, "They must think I'm dead!" So I lay there for a couple of minutes, not wanting to push back the sheet in case I was in the mortuary with the dead people. And then I realised someone was holding my hand."
In fact, she had sterile drapes over her face whilst a central line was inserted in her neck.
An infectious diseases physician would take this story as a nice illustration of bacterial sepsis in a young adult: "Even my calves hurt!", the mother insisting on taking her adult daughter to hospital, the inevitable dramatic deterioration. But I took it as a reminder that mundane aspects of critical care- sterile drapes- can be terrifying to a sepsis-addled brain.
A couple of weeks ago I put a central line into a seriously unwell patient who kept asking for a McDonald's cheeseburger during the procedure. I was thinking, "Lie still or there will be no more cheeseburgers, lady!"
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