Sunday, March 1, 2009

I Hate Lice

For Dr. Jones, it was snakes.  For me, it's lice.

Working at triage the other night, I had just finished hooking a patient up to the BP cuff and pulse ox and was starting to write his name on a wrist band when the nurse registering the guy started squealing and pushed her chair back away from the desk.  Following her pointed finger to the patient's arm, I leaned in closer to she what was so excited about, then immediately jumped back myself as I noticed several little white critters inching their way along the black backdrop of the BP cuff.

Asking him if he knew he had lice prompted the response, "Oh sure, I have 'em all the time."

Totally skeeved, we covered ourselves head to toe in plastic, dragged him to the Hazmat room and showered him off after placing his clothes in a double-lined plastic bag.  We then returned to the triage desk and wiped down every single surface.

I could feel my skin crawling for the next six hours.

I hate lice.

2 comments:

Evil Transport Lady said...

THAT was one of my biggest fears when my kids were little! I can take alot of stuff, but not those things!

Anonymous said...

Even worse than lice are "jumpers." I walked into a patient room one time, and they turned their head towards me...and in the light I saw a small flea-like parasite jump from their head onto the bedspread.

My skin, as yours, was crawling.