Embarrassing injuries that require a trip to ER

[TeresaNJ]

As a former ER nurse for many years, I have so many embarrassing stories that I could tell, from former patients' experiences, but they are not fit for a family discussion board. Let's just say I've entertained my friends on our annual girls' camping/shopping trip to Lancaster, PA!

 

[TeresaNJ]

As a former ER nurse for many years, I have so many embarrassing stories that I could tell, from former patients' experiences, but they are not fit for a family discussion board. Let's just say I've entertained my friends on our annual girls' camping/shopping trip to Lancaster, PA!

Oh my! I'm going to quote my own post. I went back and read some of the replies, and I see that people are posting what I thought wasn't appropriate to post! Guess I'm more of a prude than I thought, LOL!

 

[wdwmom0f3]

Have you ever seen the show Untold Stories of the ER? (Or something like that) There have been some pretty embarrassing things to happen on there.

My recent favorite was when an older lady came in complaining of not feeling right. They ran a ton of tests and couldn't find anything wrong. She was so angry that they couldn't find anything that she started throwing around BIG names trying to show just how important she was. She was acting like a total butt, for a Disney safe word.

Long story short, after even more tests the results were in. She was high from eating pot brownies that her nephew had brought home from college.

She went from going to tell everyone in that town how bad the doctors were to not wanting to tell a single person that she had been to the ER.

 

[kimmyann]

Not an ER visit, but try having a bit too much to drink & apparently walking into your bedposts to cause a giant (I mean covering the entire upper arm) bruise that is still there a week later & just keeps getting uglier.

Needless to say, that when people ask I say, I drank too much & walked into my bedposts.....You just can't make this stuff up.

 

[cobright]

Was sailing with my nephew and he was holding a line by having it wrapped around his arm 4 time. Which is totally dumb and I chewed him out for it, but he's 9 and the line didn't actually connect to anything.

Nevertheless, it caused a bruise that looked a WHOLE lot like an adult hand-print. Which was no big deal except that the lady watching us step the mast noticed the bruise and remembered me screaming at the kid and had a sheriff drive us to the ER to have it looked at. Kid had it in for me too, kept joking like, "You did say you were going to keelhaul me..." the whole time. Cops were actually pretty cool and the ER doc (thankfully) knew what to look for.

 

[scottishduffy]

My embarassing injury: I bet at some point in your life your Mom told you not to stick your hands out the car window because you could hit something... I should have listened to my Mom.

When I was 16 I was at my friend Joanna's house. Joanna was 17, her little brother was 16. Her brother wanted to use the car so Joanna and I ran outside to hop in the car first. We were just going to drive down the street, wave at brother, and then come back to give him the car. As joanna was driving down the street I put my hand out the passenger side window to wave to Brother. I ended up punching off their mailbox with my fist and broke my hand.

The nurse at the ER asked me if I was knocking off mailboxes on purposes. One of my tags is my smart alec response to that question.

My favorite story from a patient: One of my patients was a youth group leader for his church. Leading an excursion of 8th graders on a camping trip. The lesson from this story is: If you are standing in front of a large group of 8th trying to teach them how to safely chop firewood, God may do something hilariously ironic to you. We saw him to sew up the hatchet wound to his arm. He did say he was thankful they reviewed first aid earlier in the day!

 

[clm10308]

When my DD was around 5th grade, she was playing with a stapler and got a staple stuck in her thumb. The school nurse attempted to remove it but was not successful. The staple was stuck in the bone and the dr had to use pliers to pull it out. She was on some hefty antibiotics for a while.

 

[themilesfamily]

Embarrassing ER visits:

* When we were little, my sister stuck some kind of bead up her nose. I think it was one of the cherries from our Hi-Ho Cherry-O game. It went up so high they were concerned that it had lodged somewhere in her head. No one ever really filled me in on what went on at the ER, but she survived.

* My DD fell asleep with a quarter in her mouth. (She was 3 or 4 at the time.) When she woke up in the morning, she swallowed it and it lodged in the base of her throat. Just as the ER doc went to get the IV to sedate her and fish it out, it went down. FYI: When a quarter goes through the body and comes out the other end, it turns purple.

* I ran past my treadmill to get the phone and kicked the metal base with my barefoot, breaking my toe. That hurt. A lot. A whole, whole lot.

 

[Scornelius]

I don't want to get points, so I'll leave it like this: anaphylactic latex allergy + husband buying the wrong condoms = a really, really awful night in the ER. I can laugh about it now, but at the time I wanted to die a thousand deaths!

When I was about 20 my boss (about 28, IIRC) grabbed my arm in a death grip and told me to call 911. She thought she was having a heart attack. And not in an "oh, oh my, I think I might be having a heart attack" way, in a "I"M DYING! I'm going to DIE RIGHT NOW!!!" way. It was very scary for everyone involved.

It turned out she was being stabbed by the underwire in her bra.

 

[njmom47]

Mine was only because I thought I was still 16 and a master at rollerskating. Needless to say, I wasn't. (I was 38 and hadn't skated in over 20 yrs). The worst part was the roller rink people saying "Take off the skate! We want it back!" Really? I didn't let anyone remove it as I knew my foot would blow up. In the ambulance, they kept running the siren. I was like, "Why? It's just a broken ankle" and they replied "It's 2 Saturdays before Christmas and the Mall is between here and the hospital. No one will get out of the way unless we do!" When they did take off the skate, my foot flopped as if it wasn't even attached.
Dh's was when he took ds out to throw a few pitches for batting practice. About 15 mins after they left, he walked in the door mumbling something when I looked up and saw blood in his beard. Ds had whacked one and Dh did not get out of the way fast enough. Ten stiches in his mouth and tongue later.....still skeeves me out!

 

[rszdtrvl]

My son's embarrassing ER visit just happened last month :

While attending a Lake BBQ with his cheer coach and other cheerleaders, he went on a floatie with 1 other girl that was being pulled by a boat. The other 2 cheerleaders were on the boat with the driver.

His floatie partner lost her grip, and her hiney hit him right in the head. On his right ear to be specific.

We left he bbq after his ride and he started saying his ear hurt. This happened around 8:30pm.

By the time we arrived home, at 9:40pm, his ear really hurt. By 10:30pm he was sobbing in pain. So I took him to the ER.

Turns out, the force of her hitting his ear ruptured his eardrum. I explained that story to 4 different workers at the ER, and his doctor the next day.

He is all healed now, but has a heckuva cheer bonding story! (And I am fighting the ER bill as they diagnosed him as a "possible" rupture - we found it was truly ruptured from his pediatrician the next day - and prescribed him medication drops he NEVER should have had, as they could have halted the healing of his ear.)

 

[tigercat]

Not sure if this qualifies but here goes. Last year I had a torn cartilage in my knee so they operated on it. The day after surgery my husband wanting to be helpful microwaved tea for 5 minutes and then brought it to me. Then trying to figure out what was in a couple of bags that were frozen for dinner he dropped one and it spilt all over my freshly operated leg. I suffered 2nd degree burns over the entire top of my leg. We didn't want anyone at the ER to think that he had done it on purpose but boy I was a mess.
tigercat

 

[Maridw]

When I was a kid I was playing spy and a button was the earpiece. I am sure you can see where this is going. The Dr in the er used tweezers to get the button out.

One incident that didn't require an er trip was when I stuck my pinkie into the little holes at the end of a plastic ruler. I couldn't get it off and when I showed my parents, after they had tried to get it off, they said they would have to cut it off. I thought they were going to cut my finger off.

A couple years ago I was practicing my solo for our recital and I was in the dance room by myself. DD, best friend and another friend were in the lobby. I fell doing a tour jete (a leaping turn) and injured my ankle. (Best one I have ever done too.) Since I had the door closed and the music was up, no one could hear me call for help. I had to wait until the music stopped for them to hear me. Ended up in the er, thankfully only sprained.

DH went with me and decided to have the "ick" on his arms checked while we were there. He is allergic to just about anything green growing in our yard. It never fails when he tries to clear the brush on the side of the yard, he breaks out with a bad, weeping rash.

 

[cybrkitn]

Have you ever seen the show Untold Stories of the ER? (Or something like that) There have been some pretty embarrassing things to happen on there.

My recent favorite was when an older lady came in complaining of not feeling right. They ran a ton of tests and couldn't find anything wrong. She was so angry that they couldn't find anything that she started throwing around BIG names trying to show just how important she was. She was acting like a total butt, for a Disney safe word.

Long story short, after even more tests the results were in. She was high from eating pot brownies that her nephew had brought home from college.

She went from going to tell everyone in that town how bad the doctors were to not wanting to tell a single person that she had been to the ER.

I love watching that show! My favorite is the one with guy who managed to get a certain part of his anatomy stuck in a camping stove!

 

[cybrkitn]

My son-in-law cut his hand on a knife and my DD had to take him to urgent care. It was bleeding badly and he had it wrapped in paper towels. When they got to the car the towels were soaked through and she wrapped his hand in a sanitary napkin from a box she had in the trunk. When the nurse at Urgent Care saw his hand she asked "Is that what I think it is?" He was SO embarrassed.

Hey, if it works, it works!

 

[Styx Fan]

No stories that happened to me, but a couple from friends.

A good friends sister is an ER nurse. Young woman came in who needed a "female" exam. Doc went to sit on the stool on rollers to conduct exam and only hit the edge of the stool. It rolled backwards, he fell face forward onto the patients exposed lady parts. Oh MY!

And to continue the personal theme.....a good friend of mine (this was before we met) was out in the woods with her boyfriend and a group while in high school. She was not supposed to be there. She excused herself to relieve herself behind a bush. It was dark, she grabbed a handful of leaves in lieu of TP. The leaves had 3 leaves...yup, poison ivy. Ended up in the hospital for a couple of days using lots of ice. She thought her mom was going to freak out, but mom said she had been punished far worse than anything a parent could do

 

[WorldWacky]

Not me, but my mom. She had gotten deodorant in her eye. The doctor assured her that that happened all the time to people. People sometimes have the can facing backwards when they spray. She then had to explain to him that it was roll-on! She was looking down as she was rolling and rolled it right into her eye! Poor mom.

 

[scrapquitler]

Have you ever had an embarrassing injury that required a trip to the ER? Last month I had to go to the ER with a cat scratch to my eyeball. It was on the 3rd of July and I was laying in bed. My cat was sitting next to my head and someone outside set off a firecracker. My cat got startled and tried to jump across me, but she didn't allow enough clearance, so her back paw went straight into my eye and scratched my eyeball. My eye ended up being ok, I had a scratched retina and I had to use an antibiotic gel in my eye for the next week to make sure I didn't get an infection.

So, what embarrassing injury have you had to explain to the doctors in the ER?

Not me, my husband. He was working and tapping his mechanical pencil on his head while he was thinking. At some point, he stuck the pencil in his ear and the eraser stuck in his ear canal. He went to the ER to get them to take it out, but they wouldn't do it, so he had to go to the ENT the next day and have them remove it. So he had to explain it multiple times (twice in the ER and twice at the ENT)

 

[Pugsly]

When DH and I were dating, we were taking a shower. The shower is 5' x 4', so plenty of room. He was scrubbing my feet (and no, that is not code for anything, it is truly what he was doing). His feet go out from under him, he's sitting on his butt, but his feet took my legs out from under me. I fell on top of him, my cheek hitting him square on the forehead. Yep. Broken cheekbone in 3 places. The maxillofacial surgeon (who was a bit younger and very cute), turned bright red when I shared the story.

Had surgery 3 days later and left for WDW 3 days after that. My friends, who we met up with at WDW, have never let me live that one down. Thankfully, my stepson refused to share this story when he gave the toast at our wedding.

 

[DizBelle]

I love watching that show! My favorite is the one with guy who managed to get a certain part of his anatomy stuck in a camping stove!

I don't think he was going for that kind of weenie roast on his camping trip.