Skin integrity check or “Butt Check”

Has anyone had a skin integrity check in a hospital? To check for bedsores at the pressure points.

A while back I went to a rehab hospital to recover from a surgery that had made it hard for me to walk. When I first got there, since I had been mostly confined to bed or a chair for a few days, the nurse asked if it was OK if she did a “butt check” to make sure that I did not have any bed sores started on my behind.

I agreed and she had me turn my back to her and bare my butt. I expected her to just look, but I felt both of her hands gripping opposite butt cheeks and gently squeeze. She quickly did this a few times shifting her hands to slightly different positions each time so that she felt my whole butt. Then she said that I was good could cover up and could get into bed.

It took less than a minute and it wasn’t sexual, but it did feel strangely intimate and sort of comforting in a way.

I wasn’t there for too long and they got me up walking soon, so I never got another “butt check” but I wondered if I would have if I had been there longer.

Has anyone else had this done? How did it feel to you? Was it comforting or just embarrassing?

A few years ago I had surgery at a local hospital. It was the first time I had inpatient surgery in a hospital, instead of outpatient procedures at a surgery center. After I woke up in recovery, there were two nurses taking care of me and getting me ready to transfer up to my room. Towards the end of their routine they come over to the foot of my bed, one on either side, and begin taking off my stylish blue hospital socks/booties and those inflatable cuffs around my calves. The one nurse tells me, "We have to check your feet and legs." One takes my left side and one my right, they proceed by moving my feet and knees around to look at as much as they can while I'm laying there in bed. The whole time their faces are only 1-2 feet away from my body the entire time, although they do keep it rather dark in the recovery area. Once they reached the bottom of my gown they come up and fold down my gown exposing me above the waist. As they are doing this, one said "We have to examine your skin." Faces still about a foot away from me, they begin looking me over moving my arms around to get a better view. Suddenly one grabs my gown away completely while the other said "We're just looking at your skin." So I laid on the bed completely naked while these two strangers stared at my genitals from about 2 feet away. That's a very humbling experience. Next they instruct me to roll on my side so they can check my backside. I could feel two sets of hands helping me roll over. Soon I heard one say "That's far enough. Ok, all done." And then they roll me back, put my gown on, and begin piling on the blankets. Soon they were taking me up to my room.

Not at the hospital that I can recall, at the urologist appointments every time. Because I'm urinary incontinent wearing diapers 24/7, an exam is always done checking for skin health at the least down there.

RN here. I noticed working in a nursing home with the elderly, the first skin that breaks down is on the heels, from pressure by the bed.

RN here. I noticed working in a nursing home with the elderly, the first skin that breaks down is on the heels, from pressure by the bed.

We’ve been to several rehab or transitional care units. They all inspected both on intake and discharge for bedsores. Our experience has been bedsore on the upper hip from side sleeping. One was pretty nasty and we switched to sleeping on the other side, and noticed one starting within da couple weeks. Now my wife is a back sleeper and so far, nothing developing, on her butt or her heels or elbows. I do check the heels every day, bad place to get a bedsore, limited blood flow, thin skin. Knock on wood…. They are not something you want to deal with.

The wound care treatment for the open wound on my wife’s hip included a placenta patch. The patches are protein rich and gave excellent results within a couple weeks.