A New Experience

[Riki]

Yesterday, when the nurse was taking out my needles, we had a bit of a mishap.  When she was putting pressure on the upper (venous) site, the needle in the lower (arterial) site came out.  Suffice to say, there was a lot of blood on me and the chair.  It took about a half hour to stop the bleeding and clean me up enough that I could go home.  The nurse said that it was the first time she ever saw that happen.  She's only been in our unit for a year, and before that, she worked in a mental facility.  What I'm wondering is, is this a fairly common occurrence, and the nurse just hasn't had that much experience?  Or, does the weird crap just happen to me?

[Ang]

does'nt just happen to you.

next time that  i and the nurse were there at the same time ,

she came in with a garbage bag  over her clothes and an umbrella  

[Riki]

hehe... my arterial site tends to squirt anyway.  The nurses always wear eye protection when they take out my needles.

a good tip.. the cleaner, Spray Nine, will remove blood from clothing if you pretreat the stain before washing.  I haven't seen my shirt from yesterday yet, though Mom said that she thought she got most of the blood out.  It looked like I'd been stabbed or something

[RichardMEL]

Can't say I ever saw that in my unit. Definitely never happened to me. WEIRD!

[KICKSTART]

Funny you should say that , the lady across from me yesterday had one of her needles pop out. Blimey talk about a fountain ..good job i dont faint at the sight of blood. Just out of interest ..any dialysis patients who do ?

[FindingNeverland]

I've had that happen before, the needle just plain slipped out. I didn't have as big a mess as you described though. I did manage once to make a jet stream line halfway across the room though, okay that might be exaggerated but it shot pretty far, the nurse taking out my needles got a piece of tape stuck on the tubing (neither of us had noticed at first) so as she went to pull the tape away it took my needle with it.

[murf]

Once happened to me. It looked liked something from The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Had to laugh as the poor nurse was more embarrassed than I was. Needless to say, did not call in to get  Big Mac on the way home as my clothes were covered in blood. Every time I saw the the nurse I use to tease her about it. Messy, yes, but no big deal.

[Bruno]

Certainly happened to me, I didn't know blood could spurt that high. In my centre the nurses wear long plastic disposable aprons because of it. As to why it happens, nobody seems to know, even the veteran nurses. But it was funny as it sometimes can be when something bizarre happens...my favourite prim and proper nurse (she's a real lady) let loose with a word I won't repeat on a family site like this. We were all laughing so much at her we could hardly stop the blood.
Funny thing, I had a bleed in the venous access yesterday, did the usual 10 minutes pressure (I use blunts) moved to get a dressing and away it went...so I gave it another 20 minutes (I like to be sure) and that was OK.
Only suggestion I can make and you may be doing this anyway is that you are supposed to do the venous access first and then the arterial...that's if you are doing it yourself like me.

[Riki]

I think it scared her.  She said that she'd never seen that much blood before, but I have.. I had a temporary shunt in my foot when I was a kid, and it broke.  Mom said it kinda looked like at the beginning of The Beverly Hillbillies, when Jed shoots the ground and the oil starts bubbling up.