A screaming madman was brought into bed 6 the other day. Even though we are used to screams in the E.D. this was different. This was not a schizophrenic man's scream, it was not a drunk man's scream, it was not a coked out man's scream ,it was the scream of a man with a live insect in his ear. It was the scream of torture.He was working in the yard and a bug flew right into his ear. No shit. As soon as I heard what the problem was I ran to the pyxis and got some lidocaine with epi 1%. I ran into the guys room and shot the liquid into his ear, and, immediately, out crawled an unhappy beetle who was quickly squashed under my foot.
Crazy man became nice man. Torture ended.
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22 comments:
oh, the hell with that. I'd have rather required a nice little row o' stitches than deal with a beetle playing the drums on my eardrum.
if that was me i'd probably fainted from fear!!
After the beetle's enormous adventure, you squished it?
my worst nightmare, right there.
911 Doc: You are my hero. If there's anything I absolutely worship and adore---it's a bug-squashin' man. (I come unglued at the sight of bugs...)
How can somethng so small make us so crazy?
I remeber seeing adocumentary about bugs when I was a kid,and the take-home messages was that there are millions more of them than us and they could kill us all.
Ack! Why oh why did I read this. I'm wearing earmuffs for the rest of my life.
Now I'm going to be haunted the rest of the day with fear that an insect will enter my ear at any moment.
Gardening is what keeps me sane, so could imagine this occuring to me. Gives me the willies just thinking about it.
Glad I have a vial of lido at home....
won't need to visit you in the ER.
Wonder if any liquid (eg canola oil) would have worked or if the lido was the key.
CardioNP
dear carioNP,
mineral oil, and probably any oil will work, in my experience not as quickly though.
That is sort of like in Star Trek: Wrath of Khan, when the crew is on Ceti Alpha V and Khan puts the Ceti eel into Chekov's ear, and then... sorry, just had a powergeek siezure.
You know how to open a pyxus? What a strange and mysterious er it is that you work in.
dear ten out of ten,
i ran to the pyxis becuase there's usually some lidocaine hanging-out on top or it. i sure as hell can't open the damn thing.
Ah ok good, order has been restored to my universe.
Ohhhhh, scary ! Lemme cover my ears for the rest of my life ! Yuck. Thank GOODESS you knew what to do.
Our docs can and do get into the pyxis for certain meds, including ketamine, so its not such a strange thing. They don't allow the nurses to get some meds out.
I'm beyond creeped out. Reminds me of stuff I saw in the Amazon. The doc on the medical team carved three bot fly larve out of a villager's chest. Research, schmeesearch...screw the new book. Get me home!
I'm just excited that a doctor has access to a pyxis! This could be the end of ...... "Nurse, please get me some......."
I just discovered your blog and added it to my favorites. I hope you don't mind.
I'm one of those people who gets excited when a patient has a good bowel movement because I know then and ONLY then will they stop saying....... "Oh my God, someone help me, I have to shit and it won't come out."
As you may have guessed, I'm an RN in the ER. Yes, I'm a little insane, but it's that insanity that keeps me sane.
My Own Woman
Wow. Someone else who enjoys a gigantic volleyball sized dump in a bedside commode. It really does bring a sense of closure, and you can smell it all the way across the ED, so you know you treatment worked, even while seeing the next dump-in-waiting.
CAT
There was of course a group a group of bored residents that timed how long it took for roaches to die when exposed to various liquids. I think the conclusion was that mineral oil was the way to go since it killed them the fastest with the least squirming on the roaches part.
My hearing aids keep the bugs out quite nicely.
Thanks for giving me another reason to be thankful for them!
Cindy
http://beethovensears.com
OMG! I am so creeped out! My dad had a friend who got a moth stuck in his ear. Same thing! It flew in! He had to go to the doctor to have it removed. I always thought it was a fluke!
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