feet
Is it OK if I look at your feet? I pulled off her socks, not surprised by the cool, swollen feet underneath. These are the feet of congestive heart failure, and I'd grown accustomed to seeing them; I gently pressed my finger into the skin to leave an indentation, estimating the scale of swelling based on how deeply I could indent. I inspected the heels, a common site for pressure wounds, relieved to feel the skin intact. Would you like me to rub some lotion into your feet? She nodded eagerly, and with great effort reached down to the side pocket of her recliner and pulled out a bottle of Aveeno. I smiled as I rubbed the lotion into the thick lines of her heels, like dried up rivers of some ancient landscape; in between her toes, the dried skin flaking off; into the tops of her feet, gently redistributing the fluid; along the bottoms, using as much lotion as her skin would drink. * I'd just started my clinical rotations in nursing school and was figuring out what I co...