I was on duty the other night in the ER when we had a guy come in today that was in a go cart wreck. When I went in to get him to CT his head and neck, I had to have him sign a form to give him IV contrast. He was hurting pretty badly and his wife asked if she could sign it for him. So I let her, No big deal.
When I started to push him over to x-ray the blanket that they had him covered with didn't quite cover his feet. I couldn't help but notice that his toenails were painted a bright red. I grabbed another blanket and covered him up a bit better and his wife looked at me and told me thanks.
Later in CT when I was starting his IV I could tell that he had shaved his arms and later found that he pretty much shaved everything else as well.
I didn't say anything to him, but I sure would have liked to.
Later one of the nurses asked some of the other nurses why a guy would want to do that and I told her to look it up in her nursing books under obsessive compulsive disorder. And then I told her at least it wasn't killing him like her smoking was killing her.
She said that it wasn't the same thing and turned and walked off. One of the other nurses said that she would rather date a guy that painted his nails then one that smoked.
I guess it's a pretty small world.