What freaks you out?

I had a quadraplegic patient that asked me to hold the kleenex while he blew his nose. He liteally filled the kleenex! I tried so hard not to have a disgusted look on my face as i felt the warmth of the mucous in the kleenex. I thought I was going to vomit right there.
beckyjo

You know, I have only been a nurse for about 8 months now, but the grossest thing I've seen so far is penile implants. I've seen them get infected and rot away. Or mummified body parts. Putting someones shirt on and fearing that you'll find a finger on the floor when you finished. Yuck!!!!!!!!

Drains and having to empty the bloody, pus filled, whatever it is that is draining into those digusting little bulbs - ICK. Also, anything that is draining from the head - eye drainage, head wounds, snot, ear wax and sputum.
The one thing that nearly got me to faint was the flashback of blood into the IV tubing - like when you go to withdraw air and forget to clamp off the tubing at the site, and WHAM the tubing is like in a micro-second filled with blood. That creeps me out. Also, in our OB unit, when the anesthesia machine in our OR is beeping and the lights are off - that gives me the whillies.

Oh yeah I just remembered the pt at neurosurgery, who had an abcess in her skull. They actually tried grafting the bone segment back on, but she ended up getting meningitis, and the site kept getting reinfected, and they had to debride. She wasn't helping things out by picking the scab all the time. Eventually there was almost nothing left to debride and her brain had herniated through the hole in her skull (gives the word "conehead" a whole new meaning!), and because there was no skin you could SEE it! Everyone kept trying to reinforce the importance of infection control measures and told her not to touch the wound. "This is your BRAIN!" we would say. By this time small bits of her brain came off with the debridement. One registrar was of the opinion that she was just too far gone (neurologically) to understand how she contributed to her state. The neurosurgeon said he thought she understood, but he knew she had broken parole and this was her way of staying out of prison. I don't think I could be that desperate in her situation.

Doc

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http://www.GreatNurse.com/

Doc that is disgusting!!
I never understood how patients can just insist on doing the total opposite of what they seem to want done. They come to the hospital for care and then trash the whole plan. But picking at her head? I think I will look at head drainage completely different now.

[This message has been edited by Susy K (edited March 25, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Susy K (edited April 07, 2001).]

bloody emesis, I mean the stuff that is semi fresh yet with clots, ok gotta stop description to go gag

I see that I've got all of this to look forward to. Of the bits that I have seen I must admit that pressure sores are just gross. They smell of rotten pickled onions and just make me gag every time.
I had this patient who had lower intestinal bleeding. He asked for the bed pan, so I got it and told him that he was to let me clean him up as I had to check what he was passing. The patient decided that he could do it himself, so he only called me to take his pan away. The stools were liquid and they stunk. I had to squeeze out the tissue that he had so thoughtfully put in the pan to hide the smell so that I could measure how much he had passed. End result? One student retching like crazy

Yeppers, you got it. Its the teeth for me too. Old slimy stinky dentures with nasty old smelly green decayed food will get me everytime.

The post about pressure ulcers triggered a memory of a wound care seminar I attended last year. It was before lunch (thank god!) and the presenter was showing all these looovely slides of different stage pressure ulcers and diabetic ulcers. It started to get to me, and I had to look away from the screen. As I glanced around the room, I saw I was not alone. A young lady at the table beside me had her head down on the table, and, behind me, a big, macho-looking male nurse had his head down between his knees! I was glad to know I wasn't the only one.

Somehow, I find it harder to look at pictures of this sort of thing, whereas, if it's an actual patient, often I can focus on them, and it doesn't bother me as much. Mind, there's times when you need to breath through your mouth to avoid the smell!

AAAAAAAAH!!! I HAVE BEEN AN LPN AND AM AN ER NURSE AND HAVE BEEN FOR 3 YEARS AND STILL AM UNABLE TO GET USED TO THE OLE LOOGIES BIT YUK YUK YUK !!!MY PARTNER AND I HAVE STOMACHS OF STEEL BUT NOT FOR THAT!!!!

[This message has been edited by theboss (edited March 26, 2001).]