Patient Care

Last night it was time to tackle removing Michael's sling and changing his bandages. I joked with the nurses when I watched them do it that I was going to take pictures before I attempted doing it myself as I was not sure I would ever get everything back where it needed to be. Luckily, I really did take several pictures before removing the sling. Otherwise I'm not sure I would have ever gotten it back on.

I am squeamish to say the least. I was fine getting the sling off and the polar care pad but when I got to the actual bandage I had that "can I really do this?" thought. Then when I got the covering off and got to the gauze I thought "I'm not so sure about this" and by the time I got to the not stick pad that was stuck to the incisions I was thinking very ugly things about the surgeon who sent Michael home for me to deal with this.

I am proud to report I got the wounds cleaned, plastic wrapped so Michael could shower and re-bandaged without throwing up or passing out or injuring the patient!

Getting the sling back on proved a bit more challenging - the polar care contraption was easy but the sling was not. I thought I knew what I was doing. It came off easily but the stupid wedge made it almost impossible to get it back on as Michael can not raise his arm - his upper arm and shoulder are supposed to stay stationary. After working several minutes working on the wedge, I got to the straps and realized that I didn't know where one of them was suppose to go. So I whipped out the camera and looked at the pictures I took before taking the sling off. I didn't think I would really need the pictures but without them I think we would have ended up having to call someone to walk us through where everything went.

The picture that saved the day

From the time we started the process to finish (which included a shower) it only took one hour and 15 minutes to accomplish! I'm hoping it gets faster with practice or it is going to be a long six weeks!

No worries that I'll decide to go back to school for a nursing degree.
Jenn