By Tiffany Lai August 12, 2023
I honestly don’t remember the primary diagnosis of this patient, just that her poop was runny and black like some sort of smelly, cursed volcano lava. The skin on her butt started becoming raw from all the wiping and bedding changes so the docs decided to put in a rectal tube.
In case you wanted to imagine it, a rectal tube is basically a ball connected to a tube connected to a bag. You stick the ball up the rectum and inflate it so it doesn’t come back out. I’ve seen people poop out their rectal tubes though.
The next morning I check the nursing notes. This poor nurse, just a 30 something year old guy from Santa Cruz, the very definition of a “bro.” He wrote something along the lines of “The rectal tube shot out of her rectum and there was an explosion of fecal matter.” I couldn’t stop laughing for 2 minutes. They don’t pay these nurses enough…