Hands off the catheter, my friend

I had a patient remove his own foley catheter the other day and it was not a pretty site. It's unclear whether said extraction was intentional or not but the result was a positively bloody mess. As you'll see from the diagram below, the catheter is maintained in place in the bladder via an inflated balloon, so just imagine the damage that can be done when that balloon passes through the urethra and out of the penis without FIRST being deflated.

yowee!

MS

My patient this week had multiple sclerosis. What a horrible disease! This was probably theeee nicest patient I've had so far which my experience all the sadder (not that I hope mean patients die or anything).

This week also brought my first experience with the condom catheter. I'm more used to dealing with cleaning the bums and genis of patients who are more or less out of it, but this one was totally lucid so it made it kind of embarrassing. Better get over it!!

 ...and my favorite quote of the week (from a fellow classmate in my clinical rotation), "I feel like a human bidet!"

chop shop

Just an hour or so into my first day on the obstetrics floor and I witnessed a little guy get his bits chopped down by a physician. It wasn't really what I was expecting. I didn't know that they give babies some sore of numbing agent requiring 3 or so shots in the groin... Lucky for him though because this baby didn't cry at all!

I wonder if more parents would reconsider this procedure if they actually saw what it was like. One of my classmates nearly fainted after it was over. I was kind of a lot to stomach at 8 in the morning.