I've been to some sketchy places in my time. There was the one house from my time in PA, that didn't have flooring through half of it (sub-floor only), and the people had more hamsters than I've seen in a pet store. I've had to disinfect my boots on more than one occasion simply because I stepped in patient's house.
Never had I seen more bugs than in this patient's apartment yesterday.
We had been warned, but the warning never really does it justice. Bugs everywhere...crawling on the floor, the walls, the furniture. All kinds of bugs too...bed bugs (mostly these), roaches, gnats, and I think I saw a few fleas, but I'm not sure. There were also bugs that I've never seen before, and had no idea what they were.
Luckily the ride wasn't too bad, as in long, and the patient was a pleasant man. Ex-Navy, who was so proud of his service that he said that if he hadn't been married, he'd have stayed in permanently. He didn't look his age, aside from the way he moved (arthritis in multiple joints), but was all alone in the world. No siblings remained, and his children and grandchildren were halfway across the country. He had a home health aide, but the apartment manager said they didn't do much, and given the state of the apartment, I believed it.
Still, it was all I could do to not scratch my whole body. The whole call I had the feeling of creepy crawlies all over me. Drove me batty. It didn't help that the building was generally warm, and I had sweat running down my back, which aided the creepy crawly feeling. It took us an hour to decon the unit. My partner just took the cot out and hosed it down, then wiped it down with bleach. I did the same with the stair chair, before we bleach mopped the inside and got the seats and walls with disinfectant spray.
Ugh...I still get itchy thinking about it.
I guess karma does work, because we got to base last night at 1901, and were able to head home. Amazing.
Oh, and for the record....There was never anything on fire. T just wanted to see what the reaction of the BossMan would be.
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I feel your pain at the creepy crawlies! I can't say the specifics of where I used to work due to good ol HIPPA but we had a patient with unmentionable creepy crawlies and even though I managed to miss that one I still felt like the bugs were everywhere and I had the psychosomatic itch all day long! UGH
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