Ah poop!
So every CNA has poop stories, and I am no exception.
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for your body's reaction to the following post.
A year ago on the 4th of July I was at the assisted living center for the holiday. This was a lot of fun, we had special flag services, we got to take all the patients, many of whom are veterans, out to the road to help them watch the parade. As we were slowly bringing in the patients, all of a sudden the activity director came running over to me telling me that my patient needed to go to the bathroom really bad and that I should hurry if we were gonna make it in time. Unknown to me, he had had some magic medicine called Miralax, a stool softener. I got him into the building as fast as I could, even choosing the main bathroom instead of heading all the way down to his room. What I hadn't remembered to be cautious of was the timing of pulling down his pants and getting him on the toilet. The entire floor, which was a 10ft x 10 ft room, was literally all covered. Just one of those workdays where you have to roll up your sleeves (and pant legs haha) and put a smile on, because if you don't it's gonna be a long shift.
Another time we had a patient climb up onto the sink, poop, and go right back to bed. Always a fun surprise when you go to get their toothbrush and dentures the next morning. :)
Last one! So we had a very demanding and rude dementia patient whose husband was ALWAYS in the room. As an outsider, you'd think that was a very sweet, wonderful thing for him to do....it is, to a degree. Family members need to realize that there comes a point where they need to leave the room and get out of the facility for a couple hours, for their own good as well as the good of the patient. If they are in there too much, the staff has a harder time doing their job, they will be underfoot and generally more cantankerous with staff, which, like it or not, decreases the quality of care for the patient, with the least repercussion being that none of the staff will voluntarily go in there, and they won't kill themselves hurrying to the call light. Anyway, This husband was infamous for yelling at the aides every time they came in, hovering as they tried to transfer, and getting angry if his wife hurt, even if it wasn't the aides fault. We got really tired of it, and even though he would usually apologize and cry a few minutes later, the cruel things he would say weren't erased, and my staff responded~They stopped going in there unless absolutely necessary.
This night was a horrible night, we were crazy busy, one patient died and another was shipped to the hospital, and after haranguing us for hours, her husband finally went home. To top off the night, this patient had a colonoscopy the next day. They give you 4 liters of polyethylene glycol, a fancy high powered laxative to drink. This stuff is brutal, a normal person with a sound mind has a hard time drinking it, let alone a belligerent dementia patient who is convinced you are abusing her and her rights.
I was just finishing up my shift, and graves only have two aides on their shift, the poor girls were trying to catch up on the lights and everything, it was a nightmare. They realized quickly that they needed more help. This patient was an Extensive 2, meaning it takes two aides with a lot of effort to move her anywhere, and she refused to sit on the toilet. We didn't dare put her in the bed, the polyethylene glycol makes the watery poop that would have us changing the bed every ten minutes for hours, so we got creative. We took chucks, (disposable kind of blanket squares that absorb liquid) and literally covered the bedroom floor, brought in a commode, and sat her on it, and the graves asked me if I could stay for a couple hours, sit with her, and make her drink the laxative. I was exhausted, but I knew they couldn't do it on their own, so I gowned up head to toe and pulled up a chair.
She proceeded to chew me out for abusing her and her rights, and it was her right to get in bed and not drink this stuff, and how she was going to sue me and the facility for this unacceptable behavior and treatment. I was so tired I didn't even try arguing, and when she wanted a response, I simply told her that she was more than welcome to sue me and the facility, but she would have to do it in the morning, that until then we needed to sit here and poop and drink this fluid.
She yelled, threatened, sulked, and whined, but we sat there and she finished all of the required 2 liters for the night before I left. The next day I found out that she had finally pitched a big enough fit that they put her in bed, which was covered with chucks, but that she had (of course) exploded and the poop was running down the sides of the bed onto the floor. Not surprisingly, it had resulted in a very early morning shower, fresh sheets and a newly mopped floor. Was the colonoscopy worth it? I sure as heck hope so.
(My roomies and I decided we want these shirts :) )Poop is my profession. You laugh while you deal with it, or you get grossed out. I laughed multiple times with each of these situations, because that is the only way to survive in a poopy world. :)
Disclaimer: I am not responsible for your body's reaction to the following post.
A year ago on the 4th of July I was at the assisted living center for the holiday. This was a lot of fun, we had special flag services, we got to take all the patients, many of whom are veterans, out to the road to help them watch the parade. As we were slowly bringing in the patients, all of a sudden the activity director came running over to me telling me that my patient needed to go to the bathroom really bad and that I should hurry if we were gonna make it in time. Unknown to me, he had had some magic medicine called Miralax, a stool softener. I got him into the building as fast as I could, even choosing the main bathroom instead of heading all the way down to his room. What I hadn't remembered to be cautious of was the timing of pulling down his pants and getting him on the toilet. The entire floor, which was a 10ft x 10 ft room, was literally all covered. Just one of those workdays where you have to roll up your sleeves (and pant legs haha) and put a smile on, because if you don't it's gonna be a long shift.
Another time we had a patient climb up onto the sink, poop, and go right back to bed. Always a fun surprise when you go to get their toothbrush and dentures the next morning. :)
Last one! So we had a very demanding and rude dementia patient whose husband was ALWAYS in the room. As an outsider, you'd think that was a very sweet, wonderful thing for him to do....it is, to a degree. Family members need to realize that there comes a point where they need to leave the room and get out of the facility for a couple hours, for their own good as well as the good of the patient. If they are in there too much, the staff has a harder time doing their job, they will be underfoot and generally more cantankerous with staff, which, like it or not, decreases the quality of care for the patient, with the least repercussion being that none of the staff will voluntarily go in there, and they won't kill themselves hurrying to the call light. Anyway, This husband was infamous for yelling at the aides every time they came in, hovering as they tried to transfer, and getting angry if his wife hurt, even if it wasn't the aides fault. We got really tired of it, and even though he would usually apologize and cry a few minutes later, the cruel things he would say weren't erased, and my staff responded~They stopped going in there unless absolutely necessary.
This night was a horrible night, we were crazy busy, one patient died and another was shipped to the hospital, and after haranguing us for hours, her husband finally went home. To top off the night, this patient had a colonoscopy the next day. They give you 4 liters of polyethylene glycol, a fancy high powered laxative to drink. This stuff is brutal, a normal person with a sound mind has a hard time drinking it, let alone a belligerent dementia patient who is convinced you are abusing her and her rights.
I was just finishing up my shift, and graves only have two aides on their shift, the poor girls were trying to catch up on the lights and everything, it was a nightmare. They realized quickly that they needed more help. This patient was an Extensive 2, meaning it takes two aides with a lot of effort to move her anywhere, and she refused to sit on the toilet. We didn't dare put her in the bed, the polyethylene glycol makes the watery poop that would have us changing the bed every ten minutes for hours, so we got creative. We took chucks, (disposable kind of blanket squares that absorb liquid) and literally covered the bedroom floor, brought in a commode, and sat her on it, and the graves asked me if I could stay for a couple hours, sit with her, and make her drink the laxative. I was exhausted, but I knew they couldn't do it on their own, so I gowned up head to toe and pulled up a chair.
She proceeded to chew me out for abusing her and her rights, and it was her right to get in bed and not drink this stuff, and how she was going to sue me and the facility for this unacceptable behavior and treatment. I was so tired I didn't even try arguing, and when she wanted a response, I simply told her that she was more than welcome to sue me and the facility, but she would have to do it in the morning, that until then we needed to sit here and poop and drink this fluid.
She yelled, threatened, sulked, and whined, but we sat there and she finished all of the required 2 liters for the night before I left. The next day I found out that she had finally pitched a big enough fit that they put her in bed, which was covered with chucks, but that she had (of course) exploded and the poop was running down the sides of the bed onto the floor. Not surprisingly, it had resulted in a very early morning shower, fresh sheets and a newly mopped floor. Was the colonoscopy worth it? I sure as heck hope so.
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