What Freaks You Out?

Nurses General Nursing

Published

Okay, people. It's time for a nice, fun, light-hearted discussion to blow off some steam.

WHAT FREAKS YOU OUT? What bodily fluid can't you STAND? What wound gives you the absolute WILLIES? It doesn't matter if you're an ADN, BSN, LPN, CNA, PQRST, ABCDEFG...every body gets the heebie jeebies over SOMETHING...even you stomach-of-steel ER nurses!

Mine is eyeball injuries/surgery...aaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!! Gross! Makes my skin absolutely CRAWL. Or when someone gets a little cut on their finger/toe/whatever and then squeezes it to make it bleed!! Bleah!! Then there's the ever-popular RESPIRATORY SECRETIONS. I can handle poop, pee, amniotic fluid, lanced boils, pus, whatever...but give me a nasty snot-filled trach, and I'm OUTTA THERE.

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Tunneling decubitus ulcers on the sacrum. This fellow was paralyzed from about T6 and could not feel as the doc dug around in there with the other end of the Q tip. This caused my preceptor to wince. He noticed this. When it was time to change the packing, she had me go in and do it because it creeped her out. I was happy to do it. The patient asked me if it bothered me, and I said "No". He said he could tell it didn't and from that day on we got along great. He never trusted my preceptor after that.

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Specializes in Perinatal/neonatal.
Originally posted by Zee_RN

We were talking about this at work the other day (in ICU). I hate trach secretions too. Somehow, it's worse thru a trach than thru our closed suctioning endotracheal tubes. But what would really freak me out is a situation I heard another nurse describe (I haven't, Thank God, encountered it myself): once she took a patient off a bedpan and it was full of BIG intestinal WORMS. eek.gif AAAACCKKKKK!!! Other nurses also described having to apply leeches as their worst nightmare (haven't done that yet either but I think I could handle leeches before BIG INTESTINAL WORMS!!!!). AAAAACCCKKK again!

ooohhhh yuck!:D

~Angie

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I remember when I was assisting a doc with a pelvic exam years ago. the woman had a very foul smelling dischage. The doc saw something jammed up in there and used the long forceps to get at it. He pulled out this strange plastic colored object. The woman said, "Oh that's a French Tickler" I assume that is something the male places on his member to give the woman a thrill, but I don't know for sure.

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THE INITIAL INCISION IN ABDOMINAL SURGERY WHEN THE SKIN OPENED UP AND THE ADIPOSE TISSUE TURNED UP CAUSED ME TO PASS OUT IN MY FIRST EXPERIENCE. THE SECOND TIME I WAS SCRUBBED IN AND STANDING NEXT TO THE SURGEON AND HE HANDED ME THE GALL BLADDER WITH STONES IN IT. THE TEMPERATURE WAS TEPID. I GOT QUEASY. A FEW DAYS LATER THE SAME DOC LOOSENED THE CLAMP ON AN ARTERY AND BLOOD HIT THE FRONT OF MY GOWN AND AFTER THAT I WAS OK.

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I hate the smell of gi bleeders and pseudomonas...gaaaaaccckkk!!

I work in the ED, so there's plenty of the usual to go around, but one time this man had projectil vomiting when I was putting in an NG tube...he was a near code, so he'd already been tubed, etc. It was projectile...looked like a fountain...even the ED doc ran out of the room. The other nurse and I were trying to secure the NG, and I was alternating between gagging and laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes.

Chicken feathers...good Lord, I would have bailed to keep from laughing out loud.

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Originally posted by sunnygirl272

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:rotfl:

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Here's another!! :chuckle

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I also remember just before I graduated, I was changing a dressing on a bad arterial foot ulcer. Here I was cleasing the area and these white parts that I just thought maybe necrotic tissue and then I realized they were bone! I was freaking out! All the bones on the top of the person's foot were exposed. My stomach is much better these days -- doesn't even faze me.

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Originally posted by adrienurse

I also remember just before I graduated, I was changing a dressing on a bad arterial foot ulcer. Here I was cleasing the area and these white parts that I just thought maybe necrotic tissue and then I realized they were bone! I was freaking out! All the bones on the top of the person's foot were exposed. My stomach is much better these days -- doesn't even faze me.

hey..i have a quad with multiple decubs (of his own poor lifestyle)...i am not his case manager, but i am his primary nurse...well, when i am not wearing a cast...lol..anyhoooo...i had seen and touched bare sacrum & coccyx....and untangled the gauze from it too...have seen/touched bare bone too many times to count, but this was a most extreme case...

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I really hate sputum, but I think decubitus ulcers bother me more. Another thing right up there at the top of the list for me is peri rectal abcess drainage, I'll choose poop anytime!!!!!!!

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Okay, I give up. I am a newbie. What could cause fecal emesis? How is this possible? :confused: Thanks for contributing to my ongoing education. Take care and God Bless.

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