A bloody mess!

The Stories Continue...
One of the patients was quite confused yesterday. He was sitting up in the hall so we could keep an eye on him when I arrived. He asked me, "What movie is it that we are in again? I forgot." I remind him he is in the hospital and I am his nurse (the proper thing to do).
Later on in the afternoon he asked,"Excuse me. I am in Fort Worth and I need to know what stop is my stop." Now he thought he was on the train. He commented to other nurses, "Man, this train sure goes slow!" At least he was pleasantly confused. Apparently, he thought I was mean because I keep telling him he had better stay in his
seat. "She's a mean nurse," he told someone. Oh well at least he believed me.

Let me tell you first that I have spiked blood, oh at least a hundred times in my nursing career and I have never done this before! After verifying patient identity, one must don gloves and carefully pull apart the end of the blood and insert the spike from the IV tubing. I went to spike some yesterday (the 2nd unit I might add) and it didn't stay spiked, it kinda slipped out. I knew I needed to get the end of the bag back up but blood was going everywhere and I was trying to avoid a) dousing my patient and her robe on the chair b) myself. The family asked if they could go get someone I said, "Yes and quickly!" Terri and the techs helped me save at least half the bag (I had to call the dr later to let him know what had happened since the patient didnt get the whole bag. He couldn't understand this.). One tech exclaimed, "It's like a murder scene!" Another said, "It's a bloody mess!" But we did manage to avoid the patient, her clothes, the bed, and I only spattered a little on my shoes. It was a pain however, mopping up blood which ShellyAnne, bless her soul, stayed and helped me with. A bloody fine mess indeed.