Stupid Decisions #1

Feel free to add your own..those "smack your head, why did I do that??" oopsie decisions that you learn from and that don't thankfully cause too much trauma!

Due to years of nursing (equals standing for hours on end), gaining a lot of weight, getting older, I have varicosities...including on my lower ankles.

I am one of those folks if she feels a bit of dried skin, I scratch it off. I felt something bumpy and did a bit of a scratch, got off a bit of dried skin, and noticed this was on top of a protruding varicosity. I decided no problem, saw a bit more dried skin, took a good firm swipe at it, and opened the varicosity.

I scared myself! It was gushing and wouldn't respond to hard direct pressure initially. I called dh thinking I wasn't going to be able to get it to stop, and had him heading home to get me to the er. After 5-6 minutes of hard pressure, I got it to seal, called dh, cancelled him coming home, and put a nice mini-pressure dressing on it.

Did I mention I don't really like going to see my dr? ever?

Hopefully, this thing won't open again, but lesson learned..don't scratch, prod, poke or nothing, near a protruding vein (sssheesh!).

Belive me I´m speechless...

Thank goodness you are okay!!

Had someting similar happen years ago. I was doing dishes and broke a "unbreakable" plate when it slipped from my hands. The pieces were slivers of very sharp glass. The next day I'm washing dishes and step on what felt like a tiny pebble or grain of rice and I brushed that foot across my other foot to knock off the offending object. The shard cut andnicked an artery on the top of my foot. I didn't know I was cut until the blood began to drip off my foot. It bled off and on for two days.

Oh my word, don't do that! Sheesh, it gave me the heebie jeebies just READING it, I can't imagine going through it!

whoa...
Well a few weeks back i was cooking dinner but for some reason i knew i was going to cut my finger but i kept on slicing the onions untill wack i nearly cut off a big chunk of skin and as i saw so much blood pouring out i fainted! Now its healed but i have a lump because i put the skin like back on and didnt let it fall off.. :S it sounds so gross
I have become like soo weak about blood and people cutting them selves but it felt so great putting out a staple out of bfs hand hehe

Wow, you guys, how startling! Thank you for that all important (RN should have known better ) advice! That must have been really scary!

Originally Posted by dawnofsierra

Wow, you guys, how startling! Thank you for that all important (RN should have known better

) advice!

That must have been really scary!

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oh I was simultaneously scared, startled and mad at myself!

Isn't it amazing how quickly things can go wrong? I have become extremely careful with broken glass, and can see a speck of it from across the room.

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

Due to years of nursing (equals standing for hours on end), gaining a lot of weight, getting older, I have varicosities...including on my lower ankles.

I am one of those folks if she feels a bit of dried skin, I scratch it off. I felt something bumpy and did a bit of a scratch, got off a bit of dried skin, and noticed this was on top of a protruding varicosity. I decided no problem, saw a bit more dried skin, took a good firm swipe at it, and opened the varicosity.

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Wow! I thought I was the only one ha ha. I have another silly nursing blunder of judgment to add!!!

When I was driving home one night after work I felt a dry patch on my neck.... so of course I picked at it. We it bled and bled. Got home... it stopped. So the next night I had forgotten it and I felt it on my neck again... so what do I do?? Pick at it of course!! ANYWAY!!! So time goes on and that spot turned into a strange little red bubble on my neck. So I think, 'hey I'll just cut it off or poke it so it drains" harmless, right? Wrong. It bled and bled and bled... then it transformed! Turns out I poked at a tumor! It was called a 'cavernous hemangioma'. Just a blood vessel that rapidly grew and was benign.

So then I ended up with this gross little thing on my neck that just loved to bleed whenever it wanted. And I had to wait a month to get it removed. Luckily the nursing home supplied me with as many bandages I needed for free!

I'll mark that on my doh board.

whew... thats kinda gross.. blood makes me sick.. but


i am just glad you are ok!
if if breaks open.. please have a dr. check it out.. there may be somethin wrong

Sorry....and yes, I will have it checked out if I think there's a problem I can't handle here at home.

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

Sorry....and yes, I will have it checked out if I think there's a problem I can't handle here at home.

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UM Yes, Miss Pat! Whatever were you thinking? Too much Wildside Salmon leaving you a little wild? Goodess, I sure do hope it's nothing serious! If it is, you better write back~~
You take care down there,
Elizabeth

Not to worry, seems just fine, and now that dh is home tomorrow, he'll keep an eye on me and make sure I behave

Pat, I am glad you got it stopped! So are you going to have surgery to fix those veins? My step daughter just went through the surgery and although at the time she was miserable, she is so glad she did get it done now. I know you hate going to the docs- funny how people in the medical profession don't like taking good care of themselves! I guess they are to busy taking care of everyone else-

You be careful now with what you are scratching!

Originally Posted by hissy

Pat, I am glad you got it stopped! So are you going to have surgery to fix those veins? My step daughter just went through the surgery and although at the time she was miserable, she is so glad she did get it done now. I know you hate going to the docs- funny how people in the medical profession don't like taking good care of themselves! I guess they are to busy taking care of everyone else-

You be careful now with what you are scratching!

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No plans for surgery until I've lost all the weight and know I'm keeping it off. I've resigned myself that having once been vain about my feet (don't ask, I just thought they were pretty) and loving shoes, I now have some of the ugliest feet ever...they've carried too much weight for too long. I'll settle for being as healthy as I can get myself, over having pretty feet.

But yah, for some of the other varicosities (I swear, I've never seen them on feet before until me ), I think I should consider having something done some day.

Pat, what a scare! I hope you are ok now!

i have a stupid one for you..... a couple of weeks ago after i got stitches in the back of my head, i was told not to brush my hair in that area... duh, well, after washing it, trying to get knots out, completley forgeting the almost 2 inch gash in the back of my head, i ran the hair brush down the back of my head, causing immese pain so bad my knees gave out and i hit the ground... i pulled out chunks of hair(from the root... it was stuck together from the dried blood at the roots from where my head came open), not to mention i bled for a while.... i went and was checked out by my PCM, didnt open it up, but i did just wear my hair up for the days after that and didnt even try to brush it....

Originally Posted by WellingtonCats

Pat, what a scare! I hope you are ok now!

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Yup, no problems since then though I've kept it bandaged since then.

Originally Posted by mferr84

i have a stupid one for you..... a couple of weeks ago after i got stitches in the back of my head, i was told not to brush my hair in that area... duh, well, after washing it, trying to get knots out, completley forgeting the almost 2 inch gash in the back of my head, i ran the hair brush down the back of my head, causing immese pain

<snip>

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Yeow-ouch!!