Severe IV fluid shortage

[George K]

@blondie said in Severe IV fluid shortage:

I vaguely recall glass IV bottles. I’m sure @George-K does.

Sure do. They were...cumbersome.

[blondie]

@George-K I remember them for lipids. Break one and that stuff had you sliding on the floor. But, you could be real accurate reading your volumes with a glass bottle. I wonder if people today even know about that or how to count drops-calculate flow? The mental head math we all did in a day was astounding. I bet nurses today don't mix up their own meds or drips either.

[George K]

12 drops per ml. If using a mini-dripper, it's 60.

Remember, I married an ICU nurse.

I used to run dopamine, epi and isuprel (!) by counting micro drops.

And yeah, I made up my own drips too.

[Jolly]

@blondie said in Severe IV fluid shortage:

I vaguely recall glass IV bottles. I’m sure @George-K does. I wonder if those still exist stockpiled somewhere.

Africa?

[George K]

Hay, @blondie , ever see one of these?

https://bq-md.com/what-is-dial-a-flow-tubing-and-what-does-it-do/

[blondie]

@Jolly Maybe. @jodi might know, but I think glass (bottles & syringes) were still used in veterinary medicine through the 1980s. Gotta love stuff that endures.

[Jolly]

Ain't lived unless you've drawn blood donors with glass bottles. Curl their toes, you could...

[blondie]

@George-K Ive never seen that. Was that for adults? I kinda remember 20 gtts = 1 ml .. but my mind goes blank remembering how to calculate drops/min with adult drip chambers. We still put masking tape on the bags. Kids were easier with buretrols (is that what they were called?).

[George K]

Yeah, it was for adults - it "counted drops" if you will. We called it "Dial-a-guess."

We always titrated to effect, so accuracy wasn't as important as consistency.

Loved buretrols too. Had occasion to used them on adults - though not common.

[blondie]

@jolly I’ve never collected blood from a donor. That would’ve been a satisfying job I imagine.
I’m trying to remember, but could there have been a time where I stripped chest tubes into glass bottles or drained stuff coming from a chylothorax ?? lol, I seem to remember tripping or kicking over a big bottle on a floor once (and getting laughed at).