Things My Patients Say: Part II

As a nurse, I get to interact with all kinds of people. Some interactions are fun. Others are quite unpleasant. And then there are those that make me smile. I’ve started writing down a few things my patients have said to me, and I’d like to share them with you. If you'd like to read the first post, the link is here.

-          You always look so wide awake. (Said to me by a patient who called for help multiple times during the night. For some reason, I’ve had a lot of patients who assume that when I work nights, I’m sleeping until they wake me up.)

-          Thank you for your help, little one. (It was the little one that cracked me up.)

-          You’re doing it wrong! (Now, I wrote this one down a long time ago, and I can’t remember who it was that said it to begin with, but I hear this a lot. Many patients and families think they know better than their nurse)

-          I must be repenting for my sins. (Said by a little old lady who had broken her hip. She was such a sweet lady, and told me that her fracture was to pay for her sins)

-          You actually look nice tonight.

-          One night, when I was taking care of someone, I noticed something dangling from their ear. When I looked closer, I found out that it was a piece from their oxygen equipment. When I asked them what it was they said: “I don’t know. I found it, and I put it on my ear.” Fair enough.

-          I had a patient whose oxygen tubing wasn’t in their nostrils. It was between their eyes. When I went to adjust it, I told her, “It looks like your oxygen fell off.” She responded with: “Nope, it jumped up.”

-          And finally: “How do you say pee-pee in Japanese?” (There’s always one who comments on how Asian I look.)