I walked in during one of my checks to see Mr. Dinky pointing straight in the air (that is a dead ringer for something to come out and SOON!). Sure enough, this little stream comes out in a perfect parabola, falling right into the open diaper! HAH!

And yes, I had to change the diaper. Who else was going to do it?

I once had a teenager who needed to use an incentive spirometer to help with his lung function. As a teenager, he obviously don’t listen, was pampered by his mother, and scoffed at anything I asked of him. I was told during report that, above all else, he really needed to use that incentive spirometer. So I made it priority to get him to use it.

Partway through the day, I feigned ignorance and pointed to it. “What is that thing?” He raised one eyebrow and told me it was an incentive spirometer. I asked him what’s it for and he said he has to use it to keep the little white ball on at the top of the column. I said, “psh, that’s easy. You just blow into the tube!” That was a blatant lie, but I wanted him to feel like he knew something that I didn’t (thankfully, his mother wasn’t in the room to be shocked that his nurse was incompetent and providing his care). He rolls his eyes and he’s like, “no, you’re supposed to suck the air out. Like this.” Then he proceeds to show me. I give him a glorified look and then pointed to the dial. “What about this?” He explains that the more you turn up the dial, the harder it is to suck air out and keep the ball at the top. He tells me he can do the first two notches no problem. I say I don’t believe him. He shows me.  I say, “oooo! Do the next one!” to which he turns the dial and shows me again. I tell him I need to check on another kid but I said I’d bet he couldn’t go through with one set of exercises by the time I came back half an hour later.

Sure enough, when I came back, he proudly showed me how he could tackle the third notch with ease. Hah!