What Freaks You Out?

Pretzlgl · Jul 23, 2002

Cleaning dentures (after a meal)

nursecheryl · Jul 23, 2002

The things that freaks me out the most is when someone has cancer and it starts to eat away organs such as the stomach, breast etc...and it eats a hole right through the organ. At this point there is nothing you can do other than constantly change dressings. I've seen this a couple of times in my life as a nurse where the patient decides to use alternative medicine and not use chemo or radiation. The patient who's bowel was eaten away had a huge hole in her abdomen and we just kept changing the dressings. It smelled strongly of stool and the patient would keep asking does it smell real bad to you and you'd say it isn't too bad. don't worry about me. I've also seen it happen to a woman who had breast cancer and one who had throat cancer.

cactus wren · Jul 23, 2002

after 20+ years at this ,i can handle almost anything..except...those intubated folks who have waiting in er for hours for one of our icu beds, and the first thing you notice is that they have dentures, and they are still in.....and smelly, and it takes forever to finesse those things out, without extubating the patient....shiver...gag.......and still do remember way back when....was a cna at the time, on ams, and had to get folks all purtied up for breakfast, and one sweet old feller said "honey ,will you wash me teeth for me ?" and when i opened the cup, there were his teeth allright, but his glass eye was lying on top of them...has been 29 years and that thought still makes me cringe, almost made me change my mind about nursing

TennRN · Jul 23, 2002

Respiratory secretions and GI bleeds are probably the worst for me. Although running close behind would be having to do foot flushes on diabetics and having to stick the nugauze all the way through a wound and pull it out the other side.

And I hate mouth care! Once had to do mouth care on a woman whose mouth hung open constantly and the stuff I was getting out from between her teeth was too large to go up the suction catheter.BLECH!!!

***editted***Just thought of another one...having to empty a colostomy bag of the gas buildup. OMG what a smell!!

TennRN · Jul 23, 2002

Originally posted by OBNURSEHEATHER
STOP IT!

Cord talk is soooooooo gross! The problem is, the father's NEVER cut the umbilical cord short enough. They leave 2 freakin feet hanging on there. Who trims it up? ME!

I'm seriously sick now

Heather

I get babies all the time in the nursery with about 6 inches of cord and I have to reclamp and cut it. It is truly nasty especially when the baby has a huge cord to cut through. That cutting sound gets me every time.

coleen · Aug 2, 2002

Yes , me too, I hate eyeball stuff - In my clinicals my instructor made me clean the inside of this guys head - after taking out the eyeball!!!!! It was a huge gaping hole I had to squirt saline in! UGH!!!!!!

I hate large, horrid, stinking, huge gaping pressure wounds that have to be debrided, dressed x 2 on my shift and the smell is something you've never ever imagined in your life - I hold my breath and try to get out before I breath again !!! Of course the resident came to the facility that way!

I hate rotted necrotic flesh - foot/toes - when you go to check you find a toe in the bed! UGH!!!! That smell does not go away long after the person dies it still permeates the building - Even 6 mos later - I will smell a faint waft of it go by and I get so sick!

Lastly - the worst - 1 single green booger hanging on a nose, on a tissue, or on a finger ready to enter a mouth! GROSS!!!!!

babs_rn · Aug 2, 2002

ANYTHING that comes out of the head (or is supposed to) - eyes, vomit, respiratory secretions...but I can handle discussion of anything over lunch except BUGS!! GEEZ, don't make me go in your ear to get out that roach that crawled in there while you slept! I don't even want to see it! I SURE don't want to dig it out! And I did have to assist one time with a dressing change on this poor poor lady - diabetic, left leg amputated up to the thigh and OPEN - with pharmaceutical maggots. She was with it, knew what was going on and of course crying out with the dressing change (well yeah, you know it HURT and I think I'd be going nuts too if I knew somebody was putting maggots in MY leg - doctor was mean to her about it, told her to be quiet) And the last bunch of them got loose and her nurse was trying to run them down because they were maturing and about to become flies!! (shudder)

ktwlpn, LPN · Aug 2, 2002

Let's have a BIG round of applause for Jennybsn-the originator of "the thread that never ends" It's like a train wreck-we are all morbidly fascinated by it.I admit that I check in frequently.I must be hooked on the sensation I get from the ulitmate gross-out.You know what I mean-when you read a post and your toes curl.......Thanks Jenny-just when I think I have seen it all I come here for another surprise...

researchrabbit · Aug 9, 2002

EUWWW! What a lot of gross stuff! I have to tell ya, though, in nursing school I watched a knee replacement and when the surgeon cut off the top of the bone and then whacked the metal piece in with a hammer I about lost it. My knees CRINGE every time I think about it.

ayemmeff · Dec 5, 2002

I'm with the faecal emesis gang!!!!! Had a patient with terminal ca bowel,i was supposed to be passing an NG,and just as i got the stuff ready,he started vomitting waves of bm the texture of smooth porridge

I was dry heaving so hard i had tears rolling down my face:crying2:

(he was blind,so couldnt see me)But if it was bad for me,what must it have been like for him!!!!poor poor man! Someone else managed to get the tube in and he died peacefully,later that day.

ShandyLynnRN, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2002

Nasty!!!

The other day I was assisting a doc to rupture membranes on a gal in labor, and her hubby had BO really bad so I was breathing thru my mouth, BAD IDEA!!! When doc ruptured her, somehow the fluid sprayed everywhere and got in my mouth... ofcourse, I was good and didnt say anything, but as soon as she was cleaned up, I promptly went and gagged, then brushed my teeth about 10 times!!!

Tweety, BSN, RN · Dec 6, 2002

Warning: I see dead people.

And they gross me out. The first time I heard the "clunk" of a dead bodies head clank on the gurney as we were putting him on it to go to the morgue. I was grossed out.

Another was when the eye bank came up to the floor to get a person's eye. He took this thingie and just scooped it on out. YUCK!

Then of course there are those small bags in the morgue with "body parts" or "fetuses".

As far as living folks go, I'm o.k. except when drunk bloody patients come in. Can't stand the smell of a drunk persons blood or vomit. GAG CHOKE