finnmeister

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finnmeister5 karma

I've done similar work (traveling lab tech who goes into care facilities).

A couple questions for you:

  1. What do you do when someone is actively dying and there's no one who's come to see them? I sat on the end of a lot of beds, talking to someone who maybe couldn't hear me (tho they say hearing is the last sense to leave).

  2. What's the grossest thing you've ever had to see or handle?

  3. What's your One Thing? Everyone in healthcare has one. Blood, vomit, stool, eyeballs, feet, all that I'm OK with. What brings me to my knees gagging? SPUTUM. I just can't with sputum. I'm always like "Is that going to end up on me? Because I don't want that on me. Like, at all. It's going to end up in my hair and I'll have to light my hair on fire because it will never ever come out. Also is this person going to stop breathing like right now?"

finnmeister1 karma

I know that's right. I would start very early in the AM. Usually around 5, sometimes a touch earlier. So it would still be "night" to a lot of these folks. One home, there was a group always in the sitting room. One of the ladies would sit there the whole time I was there and do this:

"Lady! Laaaady! Do you know what's going on here? I can't move my arms. Help me! Oh. I guess it's OK. I just had to move the blanket. Help! Help! My nose is bleeding!! Oh, it's OK. It was just dripping. Heeeeelp! Help! Help me!"

And she would do that all the time. I asked the nurse once "does she do this all night?" and the nurse said "Yep. And most of the day, too". I was like "IDK whether to feel sorry for her, get mad, or laugh". And the nurse said "Yeah neither do we".