Well, that's interesting

[firefly124]

Apparently part of Dumbledore's mile-long title is an actual real word:

mugwump: Dictionary.com Word of the Day

http://www.dictionary.com/wordoftheday/archive/2010/05/10.html

mugwump: a person who is unable to make up his or her mind on an issue, esp. in politics.

Probably the rest of fandom already knew this. I'm just a bit slow apparently.

Right, back to chest tube care and cardiac enzyme values. Can it be this time tomorrow already?

Comments

[chiska]

totally cool!

And you found that while studying chest tube care and cardiac enzyme values?? Wow! :)

Of course, I am attending an orientation for advanced algorithms...

[firefly124]

Well, I took a break to read my assorted flists, and I get Word of the Day on IJ. LOL

Good luck with the algorithms!

[chiska]

Chest tube care just sounds, well, moist! I don't know. I just remember being stuck in a hospital room with a woman who had a tube that went into her lungs and it make "sucking" noises, and it would deposit unimaginably icky looking stuff into a clear cylinder on the wall.

Nurses rock, by the way. Husband just had his Achilles' tendon reattached and all the nurses we dealt with were absolutely wonderful. Especially the last one of the day. She was a veteran nurse and quite the lady.

[firefly124]

Was the tube going down her nose or throat or through her chest? Just out of curiosity.

Chest tubes don't actually go into the lungs, but into the space around them, to drain fluid or air that's pressing on the lungs. They're usually at a very low suction setting, so you don't tend to see glops. Also, they tend to go in through the torso someplace, and have to be placed surgically.

Whereas lung suction tends to go down the throat or through a tracheostomy, but is hardly ever running continuously. Someone on a closed system running to a wall canister would typically be on a vent, but suctioning would still never go for more than 10 seconds at a time, and never on automatic. The output is often pretty gross.

And then there are nasogastric tubes that are actually going into the stomach, do tend to be on low continuous or intermittent wall suction to a canister like you described. And again, yeah, really gross crap going in there.

Of the lot, chest tubes tend to be the least gross, oddly enough! Most times they're draining relatively clear or a bit bloody fluid or else air.

You, er, probably didn't want to know all that. Yep, definitely overstudying.

[chiska]

I think the tube went in her neck. There was other machinery there, too. The thingie didn't suck continuously and it seemed to work only when Nurses were in the room. It was GROSS looking stuff. The woman was not conscious and it was so long ago, but I think that she was terminal. It was my last room before being discharged. I had about 4 roommates in the 7 days I was there.

[firefly124]

Ah, that does sound like lung suction indeed then. Haven't done that with a live person yet, but yeah, gross. Sorry for the, er, fun trip down memory lane. I get a little hyperfocussed at times.

[firefly124]

And I got so carried away I missed the more important part of your comment. I'm so glad your husband had good nurses, particularly the veteran on the last day. It's always good to hear of nurses who don't get all bitter and burnt out when they've been around awhile.