Emetophobia: Part 2

The patient who threw up a couple of weeks ago strikes again...

She had decided herself that she wanted to be discharged against ALL recommendations.  She just wasn't strong enough to go home alone.  Turns out, we were right... the fire dept had to be called out multiple times to help her get out of her wheelchair and into her bed.  Can you imagine their excitement when they get called out to what they think is some sort of emergency and turns it it's just to help this person into bed?  Again?  I'm sure that wasn't what they were thinking they would be doing when they took this job.

Guess who showed back up in my schedule this morning.  You got it.  She's back. 

I don't mean to sound mean.  In fact, these posts are intended to make fun of myself for my crazy panics. 

She started off with telling us she took a laxative and she thought she was dirty.  After reluctantly checking her rear, I knew we were safe there.  We start to work on moving her from her bed to her chair and she starts complaining of her stomach!  Oh my nightmare, she's going to throw up again.  My heart rate increases, and I'm giving myself a pep talk in my head, "you're gonna be ok, Lacy...this is not a big deal...thank goodness you're behind her supporting and not in front like that poor guy..."

Until she says the next thing, "They gave me that laxative.  Do you have a sheet under me--I'm going to explode out behind soon."

My mental pep talk then turned into, "just breathe, Lacy, just breathe"

It made me start to wonder which was worse--holding a bucket while a stranger gets sick or being covered in explosive poo (that's not my 8 month old son's).  Thankfully neither one happened today.

Determination

8 months

Caden turned 8 months old on March 22.  Here's what he's been up to:

• He's a big eater (as if you can't tell).  He will sometimes eat 3 containers of the stage 2 baby foods at once.  (Doesn't eat peas and can't eat sweet potatoes)
• Such a happy baby-- usually only cries when hungry or sleepy.
• Sleeps from about 8:30pm-6:30am.
• Goes to sleep as soon as we lay him down in his crib even if he wasn't acting sleepy before (He's so easy--I'm aware that it won't always be this way.)
• Not crawling yet, but he tries.  He'll spin around in a circle on his pot belly, and he'll kind of crawl backwards. 
• Still loves to stand.  Will pull to stand on me but not on furniture or anything else yet.
• Waves hello/goodbye (it's amazing how proud this makes you as a first time parent)
• I pretty sure he's starting to understand some of the signs we use (milk, eat, and more) but he's not actually signing them to us.
• Loves playing with buckets and taking everything out of it a piece at a time.
• Babbles a lot
• Starting to show a little stranger anxiety.  He doens't cry or get upset, just has a concerned look on his face instead of his usual smile. 
• I think he weighs about 20 lbs.

Emetophobia

According to dictionary.com, Phobia is defined as "a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it." 

Guilty.  I have a phobia of other people (or myself) vomiting.  It's not because I have a weak stomach and I can't handle it--in fact, it takes a LOT to make me get sick.  It's just an irrational fear.  I hate to admit it, but I avoid public restrooms because I'm afraid someone will come in and get sick while I'm in there.  AND I have been known to plug my ears any time Cody gets up in the middle of the night to use the restroom just because I think there is a possibility that he may puke.  I have a whole list of avoidance behaviors I could tell you but i'm afraid it's too embarrassing because I'm aware of how ridiculous it is. 

Out of curiosity I looked it up.  The fear of vomiting is defined as emetophobia.  At least I know I'm not the only one.

It does, however, make for some fairly entertaining stories when I do encounter the situation.  And I did, last week...
I'm currently doing a physical therapy clinical affiliation at a skilled nursing facility.  I was responsible for evaluating a new patient.  She was very morbidly obese, and completely dependent.  We were slowly trying to get her from her bed to a wheelchair (this is really a total lift that my instructor and another male had to do while I held her trunk upright).  All the sudden she starts complaining of her stomach and asks us to get her a bucket.  OH. MY. WORD.  Total panic comes over me and my heart rate immediately jumps up. 

There were 3 of us working with her. I ran for a bucket...knocking over everything in my path.  Phone hits the floor, papers fall of the table, cups knocked over. Luckily for me, I wasn't strong enough to move her so my instructor was the one standing in front of her that got to hold the bucket (without gloves) while she threw up in it.  I was, however, holding her up from the back side so I got to feel, hear and smell every.single. heave. 

She finished up just as the bucket was becoming dangerously full.  We go jump it in the toilet, and leave the bucket in the bathroom.  I gave her some water and another smaller bucket to rinse and spit the remains (there were plenty).  She finished up with that and I put the puke backwash on the table. 

We attempt to keep moving her on over to her chair. And it hits her AGAIN.  So I run to the bathroom to get the bucket.  Turns out, someone else had gone in there and locked the door. 

Now I'm really panicking because her lunch is about to be all over the 4 of us. I'm bouncing up and down at this point with my hands shaking and looking around for anything to use.  I spotted the smaller bucket and grabbed it in a run, forgetting that it still had the remains of the last episode in it.  I dumped every bit of it down the front of my scrubs and into the floor.  Perfect.  Turns out, she never even threw up again.

We eventually got her all the way into her wheelchair.  Luckily, it was the end of the day so I got to go home and change. 
I did feel very sorry for her and I didn't let her see how I was freaking out (although my instructor and another guy could tell-which has set me up for teasing).  She didn't need to know my heart was beating so hard I thought it would explode. The anxiety is so bad that I prefer wiping the patients over dealing with this kind of thing.

On a positive note, there is a good thing from all this--I am now CERTAIN that acute care is not my thing.  Outpatient orthopaedics, here I come.

"...And you're a big old wuss if you don't jump in the water"

This boy is no wuss.  I'm positive that he would cannonball into the bathtub if he could.    

Pure excitement!  (cute or scary???  I can't decide.)



Sarah's Baby Shower

Some of our best friends (Bryan and Sarah Morris) are expecting a baby girl in about a month.  Bryan is one of Cody's friends from high school. They were housemates in college and during that time I also became good friends with Bryan.  I met Sarah in undergrad classes at Tech and we later lived together for about a year.  It was during that time that we introduced her to Bryan.  They're now married and expecting Miss Caroline in May! Cody and I are SO excited for them!  Plus, it will be fun watching Caden and Caroline grow up together (assuming they are able to move back to Seymour).  Here are a few pictures from her baby shower in Seymour.

About a year ago, we took a very similar picture at my baby shower with her rubbing my belly...so I had to have payback

Caden with his Nonny

Caden and Nenaw (Cody's grandmother)

 

Sarah & Bryan

He loved the balloon

Cousin to Cousin We'll Always Be, Special Friends From The Same Family Tree

Caden 7 months, Kache 12 months

Because I thought I couldn't be there...

I have a thing where I NEED to be present when friends/family get together or it DRIVES.ME.CRAZY!  This goes so far as asking a friend of mine to run my video camera to get of all the conversation, etc in the waiting room of the hospital while I was in labor. Plus, I was under the impression that after Caden was born, Cody would walk him past the waiting room to see the visitors on his way to the nursery while I was being cleaned up and put back together in the delivery room.  I couldn't stand the thought of carrying this child for 9 months, going through labor, and then Cody getting to "show him off" and I wouldn't get to see it and the reactions!  (As it turns out, I was able to be there the whole time).  Anyway, the video was very long, and sometimes rather boring but I was so grateful to have it.  It is a great reminder of what AMAZING family and friends we have!  I finally edited it all out and put it together in a 10 minute video. I've had some trouble with this video and had to use a low quality upload to do it.  We will see how it turns out!

caden birth @ Yahoo! Video

Baby butts are cute

 

Lazy Weekend

It seems like our weekends are always very busy.  Last weekend was an exception, we didn't really have much going on.  So Cody, Caden, Bailey and I all headed to Seymour.  We met up for lunch with our friends, Craig, Briana and Lauren.  Later, we dropped Caden off with Nonny and Poppy so Cody and I could go check on the cows, and ride around taking some GPS measurements of a field.  Bailey loved it.

Later that night we went out to dinner with Cody's parents and youngest brother, Callan.  Here's Caden wearing Randy's 'Skeeter' hat.  When I was pregnant, my brother decided that Caden's nickname would be "Skeeter".  I'm not sure where that came from but my dad decided to go with it.  Word got out to Cody's family and next thing I know, most people in Seymour know him as "Skeeter".  It's funny to me how it has stuck.