Well in Hand

I have had a lot of bodies in my hands.

It occurred to me today when thinking about how we impact each other's hearts without any physical contact - I have had a lot of people's parts in my hands.

I have started IVs,  wiped bottoms, cleaned blood and glass and rocks out of wounds, moved splinters and stitches and staples, packed wounds full of gauze and inserted all manner of tubes into bodies over the years. It occurred to me that there are very few parts that I haven't held in my gloved hand - like a gall bladder or a spleen- but that list is pretty short.  When you make a career out of healing the body, very little escapes you - I still do physical assessment when I order at the counter of Panera and when I see people at church.  Old habits, I guess. At times I think this familiarity with the physical skews my interactions- I tend to be pretty tactile in my conversations and interactions - a result of all that touching.

Even now, that I do a lot of education, I spend an ample amount of time prodding people in the belly looking for lipodystrophy from insulin injections, evaluating infusion sites, and putting in CGM sensors.

When I was in nursing school, I had a teacher who believed in having us jump right in.  So on my second week of clinicals - when I was supposed to be learning how to make the bed and fill the ice pitcher - she allowed me to start an irrigating catheter.

The gentleman in question was about 40, muscular and tan from working construction.  He had stones that had not flushed through bladder, so we needed to rinse it out.

At that time, I already had 2 children, so it was not the first male part I had seen, but it was the first one I was going to accost with a catheter.  So I held it firmly in hand and cleaned with Betadine.  As I was performing my task, my instructor led several of the other student nurses into the room.  I was distracted, so I just kept cleaning away. What should have been a 30 second procedure, lasted a couple of minutes.

I was startled back to attention when the gentleman in question stated: If I had know you were going to do such a good job, I would have come in without my wife."

The room erupted in laughter.

With blazing hot cheeks and a blush the size of Montana, I completed the task and left the gentleman to rinse.