My dating life may be a crazy adventure, but work is equally amusing/horrifying. I have spent some time trying to figure out how to share stories and not violate any privacy. So details, etc. will be changed but the essence of the stories will remain. If somewhat horrifying things bother you, these posts are probably not for you. I refuse to be held accountable for nightmares. Look away!!

So you are still reading…Let’s start with the beginning of my career. Some experiences stay with you forever. And some patient names are forever inscribed in my memory. For this tale, I will refer to my patient as Sam. Sam showed up in the ICU with acute severe pancreatitis. For those who don’t know, the pancreas is an organ located in your abdomen behind your stomach and is responsible for secreting hormones and enzymes that aid with digestion and regulate blood sugar metabolism – HA! I bet you didn’t know you were getting an anatomy lesson. A weird pet peeve of mine is when people don’t know what their organs do. People keep up with the Kardashians but do they keep up with their Thymus gland? I thought not! I digress…

So back to Sam. He came into the unit with severe pancreatitis that got worse and worse. Eventually, his treatment included leaving his abdominal wound open with antibiotic packing placed in the wound. Sedation was always on board and, he never knew what was going on. During dressing changes, he would receive extra medication to ensure he was asleep. But during other hours he just received enough medicine to keep him comfortable. And for his safety he was in restraints. This means that each of his extremities had a foam cuff to prevent him from removing his breathing tube and taking out his dressing. He was in a private ICU room and required round the clock care.

For illustration purposes, he was in a bed that had four separate side rails that allowed the nurse to take care of him while maintaining his safety. Well, one day Sam was pretty restless, so I stepped out of the room to get additional sedation. Within moments, his alarms went off and I rushed back to check on him. To my horror, Sam had been able to wiggle the middle of his body out between the two side rails. Thus his midsection, turned to the side, was draping over the edge of the bed. Remember what I said about the OPEN abdominal wound. Yup, gravity took effect and his intestines came out of his abdominal cavity. They were still attached in some areas, but basically it was a scene from “The Silence of the Lambs.” This man is contorting, hanging half off the bed with his intestines outside of his body. I paused for a brief second because, honestly, I had never seen anything like this before.

I called for help, scooted his body upright back in the bed, and began replacing the intestines back in the body. The small intestines are approximately 25 feet long. The large intestines are about 5 feet long. Now, every inch of them was not out, but enough that it took me some time to get it all back in. It was a surreal experience. He didn’t respond in any unusual way. But I’m not exactly sure how someone would respond appropriately to that happening.

Well after repacking his wound, irrigating with antibiotic solution, and adding additional IV antibiotics, Sam was resting comfortably again. I, on the other hand, was still traumatized. I questioned my handling of the situation – “What could I have done differently?” “What would have prevented this?” All the questions you should ask to help make you better at what you do. And though, this incident did not cause any additional harm in the long run for Sam, it is an experience I will never forget. Believe me when I say I have an insiders view on pancreatitis!

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