Friday, September 28, 2007

Air Bubbles!

Our local PD escorted a very vocal, very paranoid, off-his-meds psych patient, screaming his lungs out about how we were all trying to kill him.

As we held him down to start an IV, he kept screaming that we were trying to kill him. "Air bubbles! I see the air bubbles! You're killing me with air bubbles!"

After the 52 part of a B52, he was laying relatively calmly watching the saline infuse into his IV. Every once in a while he would yell,"Air bubble! There's another one!" and "Air bubble! Here's the part where I die."

The part where he died never came.

The part where we all walked around saying, "Air Bubbles!" did. In response to everything. For several hours.

"Charge Nurse, what are we admitting bed 2 for?" "Air bubbles!"

"MonkeyGirl, what's that EMS coming in for?" "Air bubbles!"

"Ward Clerk, what's wrong with the phone system?" "Air bubbles!"

and my favorite....

"Dr. Feelgood, what can I give this frequent-flying, drug-seeking fibromyalgeur for her 10/10 pain that only hits her when I walk into the room?" "Air bubbles!"

15 comments:

William the Coroner said...

I'm forever infusing bubbles.

Pretty bubbles in the tu-ube...

Mother Jones RN said...

William the Coroner beat me to the punchline. I think we are both showing our age.

Barbara said...

Bubbles in the w(h)ine...

(hey I grew up watching Lawrence Welk too - one of my mom's favorites)

Nurse K said...

Brief summary of last night:

Chest CT to rule out....AIR BUBBLES

Gelfoam splint to the ankle to stabilize the patient's AIR BUBBLES

Levophed drip, titrate to 90 AIR BUBBLES

Admit patient to ICU for chest pain and elevated AIR BUBBLES and AIR BUBBLE and AIR BUBBLE-MB INDEX

Chest CT to rule out AIR BUBBLE dissection....

Anonymous said...

Did you order an ABG (air bubble- gram)?

Anonymous said...

Am I the only one (who has apparently watched "Finding Nemo" way too often) who heard "My Bubbles!" upon reading this post?

Garrett said...

Never fear the 50-10-4...

RugbyGirlMD said...

I'm with turtle!

Bubbles! My bubbles!

He likes bubbles.

Anonymous said...

My bubbles!

So what's the true story with the air bubbles anyway? I had one nursing instructor back in the day who was convinced every little bubblet had to be out of the syringe or there would be hell to pay. Another one told me that you'd have to infuse the entire tubing length's worth of air to even start to see issues. Mythbusters anyone?
-lpnmon

Amy said...

I say we do a little experiment, Anon. any volunteers?

Jenny said...

Oh, I've got some air bubbles for that guy!

Constance said...

air-bubbles.
heh-heh.
Ah Monkeygirl your dry sense of humor never fails to crack me up !
Hope that you are having a good weekend.
*cyber hugs and smiles*
Loving Annie

911DOC said...

you need more that 20 cc or so injected all at once to cause an issue. that may be low but i wouldn't want to push any more. treatment? left lateral decubitus position and possible aspiration by cardiology. eventually, the air will be reabsorbed into the circulation. a few bubbles is no issue unless you are unlucky enough to have a patent foramen ovale and even then you probably need at least 20cc.

born_yesterday said...

oooh i have a patent foramen ovale!

SeaSpray said...

That must've been one interesting night! :)