Dirty Girly Bits
One of my patients had her hip replaced today. Maybe it's just me, but I would really want to bathe before surgery. Heck, I bathe everyday, but right before surgery seems especially important, at least to me. So, what was wrong with my patient?
She needed to be put on a bedpan and when she spread her legs apart, I nearly keeled over. Keep in mind, I have chronically congested sinuses and can't smell anything unless it is overpowering to everyone else.
I'm wondering how the surgeon was able to stand it. Operating on the hip brought the surgeon perilously close to her dirty girly bits. Maybe the surgical mask helped, but I suspect that he finished the surgery in record time.
Written by Melissa on 12:43 AM
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Melissa blogging from sunny Santa Clarita, Southern California, United States.
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7 Comments:
When I worked in pre op instructions included showering the night before and scrubbing the surgical site and surrounding area with an antibacterial liquid soap (maybe phisohex?, I can't remember). It is inappropriate to introduce bacteria into the surgical arena and the patient should have been rescehuled if she was not properly prepped. Was this an elderly dementia patient?
I thought you used Betadine, that orange stuff.
Sarah, the patient was about my age and very alert and oriented. They try not to reschedule replacement surgeries because the waiting list is several months long, plus the patients have to donate blood before surgery.
Dave, they do use betadine to clean the incisional area (how do you know this stuff?) but they don't bathe the patient in it. In her case, I bet that they were tempted, though.
My head is full of useless trivia like that. It's always asking why, and it's never happy until it has an answer. Why? I don't know.
The first time I saw a nurse smear that ugly orange/brown stuff on someone, I must have asked, "What is that?" and was told it was Betadine, a disinfecting liquid. I'm no smarter for it. :)
How delightful...I've said it before and I'll say it again, I couildn't do your job. I can't imagine what the patient was thinking of but whatever it was it wasn't those who were about to care for her!
Ok, I'm just wondering... did your statcounter get a spike from visitors who were searching for "other" kinds of dirty girly bits and came upon this post? Heh.
Oh, also: Ewww.
Only one person was searching for girly bits and found my site. I bet he was disappointed. :)
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