we have this kid with bones poking through his skin, because a car hit him when he was riding his motorcycle. to hold his snapped femur in place until surgery, he has a huge metal pin that got pounded through the bone. on the other leg, he has a VAC that is sucking frank blood out of his leg. on each side of his chest, he has chest tubes the size of garden hoses shoved between his ribs. on the left, he has a hematoma the size of my fist.
today he has lost almost 1500ccs of blood: 750 in surgery, 300 in the VAC, 250ish in the chest tube, and another couple hundred within the hematoma and all down his back from the leaking chest tube dressing. his blood counts are down to half of what they were at admission. he's scary pale. and now he's throwing up. this equals? bad.
he is making my nursing spidey senses go all tingly, meaning that he gives me the feeling of impending doom. because it's not a matter of if he's going to crash, it's when and just how bad it's going to be. here's about how it will go: he'll get really tachy, drop his pressures, and his blood counts will come back at something ridiculous like 5/18. because it's summer and there is no end to traumas, the team won't be able to make it out of the ED to see him. and because it's summer and the hot messes are plentiful, there will be no ICU bed if he gets really really unstable and sick.
arrg, the anxiety!!
seriously, i would pay money to have access to the computer chart at home so i could obsess over his vitals and labs like the sick sick nursing stalker that i am. but, alas, i will have to wait until tomorrow to see if anyone will wise up and give him blood before totally tanks.
i will end with some words of wisdom: if you at all value living, and prefer that your internal organs stay on the inside of your body, NEVER GET ON A MOTORCYCLE. thank you.
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