The wound nurse pulled me aside today to show me something. She said, you are about to see a man with no ass. I was like huh...ok. And he literally had no ass. He had a beyond stageable pressure ulcer to his sacrum that had taken over his whole butt. Muscle AND bone was showing through and she made me touch it with my gloves. I guess I probably could have said no but oh well I didnt. So I poked on a sacral vertabrae. Kind of nightmarish. Not to mention the horrific stench of the room, a mix of 2 pressure ulcers (he had another eating away at his heel), an ostomy bag and a refusal to be bathed. He was a paraplegia, so he couldn't feel anything below his waist and the nurse said he was never moved, and he never moved himself from his wheelchair and he parties all the time (that part was like, huh?). But apparently he likes to party still. He was quite pleasant and joking with us the whole time and one of the nurses kept singing Killing Me Softly while no so gently cleaning the wounds and tearing God knows what out of the wound.
Sorry if I have made anyone sick. It was still fascinating despite its horrificness. I am shadowing the wound nurse next week but she said this is the worst she's ever seen. Tomorrow I am shadowing a dietitian in private practice, I'm excited to see a slowed down pace where patients and dietitians get to develop stronger relationships, not just in and out of the room like at the hospital.
Oh and I went to explain the pressure ulcer to my new PT roommate and she was like omg I saw that guy at Craven last year! So we have bonded over decubiti....how endearing.
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