Ready... Set... DUCK

In my years as a nurse I've seen a lot of vomit. Not one of the perks of my job... but just a part of my job. I handle it with grace, as it generally doesn't really bother me. Not much really bothers a nurse, and if it does, you get over it real quick your first year.

But tonight... I saw something completely different.

I was helping a fellow nurse in her new patients room. He was in an accident after drinking and had broken a few bones. So here he was. He was not allowed to sit up in the bed at all, he had to lay flat in the bed (related to some of his injuries). We were cleaning him up and turning him from side to side. He is an alert and oriented patient. He knew where he was and he had the ability to verbalize with us his thoughts and feelings. However, he was not able to tell us when he decided to projectile vomit across the room. Now I have seen projectile vomiting... but this was amazing. It literally flew across the room, hit the wall with such force that it splattered all 4 walls and the ceiling. It was like a damn firework show! The lucky part of the situation was that the patient chose to turn towards his nurse... not to me. The unfortunate part of the situation was that it was rank old-alcohol-dinner vomit. UGH! So while I don't generally have issue with smell it surprised me when I started to dry heave and had to make my way out of the room. But the kicker of the WHOLE situation was that as I started to make my way to the closest phone to call for housekeeping... I noticed the other nurse in the room. This poor nurse was frozen in her tracks and completely covered in vomit. She had it in her hair... all over her scrubs... she was soaked (remember, we had no warning). I almost died.

As soon as I get out of the patients room I crack up hysterically... it's how I keep from just crying... but I can't even breath at this point. Luckily the other nurse followed me out of the room and laughed as well... think we were both in shock.

But don't worry, we got her new scrubs and a shower. The other nurse was a trooper last night... something tells me that I would have stripped down to my skivvies and gotten in my car and gone straight home to my shower OR I would have begged the ED to let me use the decon shower (and get a high pressure hose down!).

Ah... the Friday night before Halloween. How special. Mental note for next year...