What freaks you out?

thanks for the laughs everyone!

I agree that all of the above are totally nasty, but I can handle most without gagging (except colostomies, that's gag city).

In terms of what 'freaks me out', I really have to say that watching a chest tube insertion just sends me over the edge. It seems when I worked in the hospital I was never prepared for it. The first one I saw shocked me, but even after that.. oh I just couldn't stand it. It makes me squirm just thinking about it.

I work in a MSICU with a lot of vent patients. Anyway, what REALLY gets me to almost want to puke is oral secretions. We have tons of pts on vents and tracheal secretions dont bother me(because they are usually contained within the ballard suction equipment), but when I get tons of THICK, NASTY,Bubble blowers on the vent, that i have to suck out of their mouth, that grosses me OUT!!!!!!!!!!! I most often have to use visual thoughts (eg., I am back in Jamacia snorkling, Ha Ha ) so I dont dwell on the GROSS thoughts of oral or tracheal secretions!!!!!!!!!

I've been an RN for 17 years now. Everytime I think I've seen it all, something proves me wrong. Colostomies ( those high up on the colon) get to me. In school it was a pancreatic abcess that almost made me hurl. The first time I cared for a third degree burn in the ER and that sickening sweet odor
of burned flesh brought me to the verge. I've
done those 20+ kelix abdominal wet to drys in the middle of my lunch break. I've laid down a half eaten sandwich to clean up a patient with c-diff and finished the meal while charting. But the one thing that still makes me tummy turn is that time in 1984. I had never heard of a pocket mask. A patient stopped breathing right in front of me. I called for help. I opened the airway. I gave the patient a quick breath (1984 standards) and turned my head to spit out the patients vomit from my mouth. I cleaned the patient's mouth out and resumed rescue breathing until one of co-workers arrived with the BVM. Excuse me, I have to go spit.

Well, I guess the most abhorent thing I have found is fresh colostomys....makes me gag and just want to run....and I mean run...the smell permeates everthing...can't wait to get home and take a bath ....and use lots of soap!

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Texan Frog

all of your comments are great, but have you not ever received a patient with maggots in a wound...ugh...not intentional maggots, either, but those little critters that fly's lay in dirty wounds. We have had several patients who come in to our ED who haven't seen soap and water in ages, have diabetes and terrible lower extremity wounds in many different stages, and when you take the dressing off, these little critters fall all over your shoes, into your pockets...it's just awful. Then the smell that goes along with it,,hooooweeee...I guess the mucous is the next thing that I just can't deal with. I always give the patiend a brown paper towel to wrap the loogie container in, so I don't have to see it. Be sure to label it first, so you have no reason to unwrap it.

Definitely thick sticky mucous!! I had a patient spit out what was in her mouth onto my (thankfully gloved) hand and it filled my hand. She had been holding it in her mouth!!!EWWWWWWW! But the smell of blood in vomitus really makes me gag too!

Silly, but I can handle someone vomiting, I can pat their back and hold a cloth to their head while they are heaving, but I cannot keep my stomach together when my dog pukes.
Weird.

Okay...I'm just a student, so I haven't yet been exposed to ALLLLLL of the really gross stuff, but I can say this: I can handle mucus, I can sometimes handle vomit, but I absolutely, positively lose it if I have to deal with *poop*. (I sometimes even gag from changing my own kid's diapers, so just imagine how I am changing the diaper of a 78 year old patient). I am so sensitive to being grossed out by it that the sight, smell, or even thought can make me lose my lunch. Anybody see the Austin Power's sequel (The Spy who Shagged me)? I threw up, seriously, on the theater floor when he kept putting that cup up to his mouth that was labeled - Fat Dirty Bast***'s Stool Sample. My husband, in between uproarious laughter, just said "Oh yeah. You're going to be a great nurse."
Louise http://www.geocities.com/crnasomeday

I'm a CNA and I use to work in a nursing home. Most of the things i saw there didn't really sick me out. i changed a lot of "briefs" as we called em. I do remember this one lady. oh she was the sweetest thing..but..man..she had the stinkiest poop ever! i mean i dont mean to be rude, but i woiuld go in at night to change her, praying she didnt poopoo. If she did, i had to hold my breath will changing her. and i would walk away when i had to take a breath in order not to lose it all! It's kinda funny now that i think back to it, but man was it raunchy!

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"I dont know why, had such fun at my GI, oh lumpy colon" Letterman

Puss. I hate it. I am an old ED RN and have done L&D. I can't stand to do I&Ds-- Once an ED dr. and I were doing one on a patient and the puss hit the ceiling, needless to say both he andI had to excuse ourselves. I can usually make it through any proceedure, but that is one thing I sceeve-Puussss!!!:eek!