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  1. Asst. Admin
    Dec 11, '07 by madwife2002
    You know I think I may have to refrain from viewing this thread

    :lol_hitti
    MAISY, RN-ER and FireStarterRN like this.
  2. Dec 11, '07 by leslie :-D
    Quote from oregonchinamom

    The other was far more disgusting. I was taking care of an elderly gentleman and turned him on his side to look at his back and found the hugest, most vile blackhead on the face of the earth. I measured it and it was 4inches by 2 inches.
    wooooooow.

    and who could resist popping that sucker?

    wow.
    WOW.
    i probably would have mistaken it for a cancerous lesion...

    leslie
  3. Guide
    Dec 11, '07 by Elvish
    I'm so glad to see there are others out there like me.
    pattycakeRN, eltrip, and leslie :-D like this.
  4. Dec 11, '07 by harley007
    Okay, I work in the Cardiac Cath lab and as expected our patients usually arrive with their right groin shaved for the proceedure. Well, many of our patients are a bit older and the number of huge blackheads that I see daily is enought to make me ask "does anybody really wash themselves?" I mean these are VERY obvious - even before the prep. The worst one was an acute MI we were on call for on a weekend at 2 am. You have to prep both groins in an emergency cath. If there is difficulty in getting into the RFA there is no time to waste prepping before attempting the left groin. Soooo, we are attacking this patient like a swam of bees as v/s's are crashing, 8/10 chest pain on Nitro IV and we are under pressure to meet our "door to balloon inflation time limit". The patient is stripped and we are prepping in 20 seconds and I happened to get the groin prep - no big deal do it just about everyday. I start shaving and there is something "pulling" on the disposable razor head. I use clean 4X4's to brush off the cut hair but this was strange. Oh yes ladies and gents this was blackhead city! There were so many that I was having a difficult time prepping. What do you do? The MD is going to stick the femoral in 2 minutes? Well, we roughly brushed the area with 4X4's to remove any loose blackheads and used THREE skin prep sticks for each side of the groin. We were all freaking out and this was a younger type 60+/- year old. I had to show the ICU nurse this when we dropped the patient off post cath/stent and begged for a dermatology consult. All of this in the middle of the night - gotta love this job from gross groins to one of the top technical areas of nursing!
    Last edit by harley007 on Dec 11, '07
  5. Dec 12, '07 by Indy
    "gross groins!" Haha!

    I had one patient to prep (on tele floor, mind you not in the cath lab) for AM cath who had chiggers in his pubic hair. NASTY. He smelled bad, refused a bath and enjoyed his shave. I'll bet he did, 'cause I then had to pick through all the pubic hair to make sure they weren't lice.

    There was a vent patient recently with pubic area smack full of blackheads. Since he was in for MRSA boils, an I&D, and from sepsis wound up in resp. failure, I didn't touch them. Thanks Angie for the tip about benzoin. I got plenty of that in floor stock and will be making use of it now.

    For a person's face, if they can't care for themselves, a little sterile gauze dipped in normal saline and gently rubbed over the area will either prevent or help a tiny blackhead. Plus it helps get rid of the grease. So I might do that but so far I don't pop at work. The guy with the boils was on the unit on a remarkable week when all but one of our patients had MRSA. I didn't want to touch 'em, let alone pop anything.
  6. Dec 12, '07 by Diary/Dairy
    Speaking of gross patients - I had an alert oriented male patient who actually made me gag he smelled so strongly of urine. Bad skin (probably from not bathing in forever) Attempted a bath, but he got really agitated (detoxing) - sometimes there's not a whole lot you can do about lack of self care.
  7. Dec 12, '07 by Cattitude
    Quote from oregonchinamom
    and found the hugest, most vile blackhead on the face of the earth. I measured it and it was 4inches by 2 inches. I kid you not! His wife said it had been there for over 10 years. <shudder>


    You win the thread!!!

    Seriously, that turned my stomach a little but I probably would have had to get it out too. Yikes.
  8. Dec 12, '07 by Quickbeam
    Lifelong acne sufferer here. I see an esthetician for blackhead removal. I've had a long conversation with her about what she can and can't do. She can remove blackheads but cannot pop zits as that is a break in the skin. When I used to see a dermatologist regularly, he would code out popping a zit as "surgery". I asked him about it and he said that breaking open a zit counts as a surgical procedure.


    I agree with those upthread that picking is a primal drive. You can tell me to leave it alone but it ain't happening.

    When I was a CNA in the 1970's we routinely removed blackheads from people in the nursing home. I've never done it as an RN.
    pattycakeRN likes this.
  9. Dec 12, '07 by Diary/Dairy
    Quote from Cattitude
    You win the thread!!!

    Seriously, that turned my stomach a little but I probably would have had to get it out too. Yikes.
    EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    She definitely won the thread!
  10. Dec 12, '07 by RNAnnjeh
    Hello....my name is Angie....and I'm a zit popper.

    Whew...feels better just to say it. OK, I've been tempted, but never have picked at work. Only at home. My DH think's I'm a freak....now I can tell him I'm not alone.

    Thanks for the complete gross out....LMAO. But really, who else could really have this conversation?