What Freaks You Out?

agrn · Mar 20, 2001

I haven't dry heaved in a long time - that is until I heard the dog lapping up mucus post. GROSS! You know its funny...I don't generally have trouble suctioning trachs, but man... I try not to look at the container, don't even like handling the container (holding either lung secretions or gastric secretions). That dog post was freaky. UGH

Tephra · Mar 21, 2001

Jeepers...I've been reading discussions at this site for more than a year now, but this topic finally made me jump in and register! My worst grossout was just this past weekend...while cleaning a blood-covered GI bleeder (upstairs and downstairs) my colleague began cleaning the _huge_ blackheads off his back while I helplessly held the patient over...squeeze, pop, extrude, squeeze....she kept saying, "Just one more, just one more." Aaahhhh!

Great topic!

Jenny P · Mar 21, 2001

I've been off the computer for over a week, otherwise I would have told those who mentioned emptying NG containers that that would be a universal precaution breech: throw the whole thing out and get a new one!

Over the years, the worst things to me were the surgery where they took off half of the man's face for cancer surgery and those dressing changes-- I agree with whoever posted that; and the little foreign kid who had a stool in the bedpan and there were these HUGE, long white tapeworms wiggling in the pan....EEEOOOWWW!! The maggots I saw years ago were in the cleanest wounds in the derelicts' hips (the only part of his body that wasn't filthy); we took off so many layers of clothes, then put him in the tub, and he had another set of long johns on once we started scrubbing. His body hair had grown through them!

The only time I had trouble with sputum was when I was pregnant: I would suction, run to the BR and retch, all the while maintaining a sterile glove and catheter; then come back and finish suctioning! Thank goodness that hospital required 2 people to suction vent patients- 1 to bag and 1 to suction!

The absolute worst thing for me is vomit. I warn all of my patients that if they upchuck, so does the nurse; so they better let me know right away if they are nauseated so I can medicate them before they lose it. (When our kids were little, my husband had to clean up any vomit because he knew I'd also barf and only make a bigger mess. Of course, the kid with the weakest stomach was in the upper bunk and that was always fun!)

bestblondRN · Mar 21, 2001

I've only lost it twice in 23 years of nursing. The first time was when I was 8 weeks pregnant and at the height of my "morning sickness". I was admitting an elderly lady who had a large dressing covering her right breast. She kept telling me, "Oh honey, you don't want to remove that--I take care of it so no one else has to look at it." I told her not to worry and removed the dressing to find a fluid soaked ABD pad, greenish-black, oozing lumps of what had been her breast, and the most unbelievable odor I have ever smelled in my life. I nearly fell backward and left the room, wretching all the way! The second time I was one of six people who were asked to clean up the body fluids of a patient who had died and was in our morgue--the medical examiner had arrived to pick up the body, but because of the trauma to the patient's leg, which had subsequently necrosed and drained copious amount of fluid, there was fluid that had leaked through the body bag, and the M.E. refused to take the body until it was in a dry bag. The patient weighed well over 300 pounds, and when we went to clean things up, we found him in a pool of fluid that smelled like a freezer full of rotted meat. We all gagged and wretched over that one! So, I guess it's necrotic tissue and fluids that do me in every time!

JennieBSN · Mar 21, 2001

Oh, man...I have a raging stomach virus and have been on phenergan the past 2 days, and dang if this thread doesn't just make me want to HEAVE all over the keyboard!! You guys are gross!!!

[This message has been edited by kday (edited March 21, 2001).]

Dplear · Mar 21, 2001

Got a gross one for you, this happened to me when I was in the Air Force in Athens Greece. I worked nights in the ER and we would run our own ambulance calls. I was called out to the airport to pick up a body of a contract worker that had killed himself on the island of Crete. He drove outto a point and killed himself in his car. It was about a week in the summer heat (100 degree's plus) before he was found. I got to the airport and had to open the metal casket to identify the body to make sure there was not a bomb in the case due to a heightened levelof security on the base....being that the morgue was located next to the spy station on base,they were very concerned that nothing got on base that was not supposed to....wellback to the story...here I am opening this case to check that it was a body and they had only put 2 bags of ice in with him, and next to us they were unloading a pile of fresh fish that had been flown in with him....needless to say the smellof the decomposing body and fish together caused me to lose my dinner all over the body in the case....still cannot stand the smell of fish

Zak · Mar 21, 2001

Oh boy! Do some of these posts bring back the memories. I served as an ambulance officer (EMT) in Central Australia for a year back in 1988. The Aboriginal people are fascinating in many ways, but for many, personal hygiene was not a chart-topper. I found out very quickly that if an Aboriginal tells you something smells bad, you sit right up and take notice. So my partner and I were sent to a "humpy" (small hut) in a camp because an elderly man "smells bad and can't walk." My partner, who was a very young, idealistic woman, was attending. The patient indeed could not walk and we placed him on the stretcher which was then loaded in the back of the ambulance. The pt had indicated that his foot hurt. My partner was about to take off this old, mouldy tennis shoe when I stopped her. "Oh! Don't do that!," I screamed. "Never, ever take off someone's shoes unless you have to treat a traumatic injury!" Well, she said a few things about my level of compassion, etc. I remained silent. We were disinfecting the stretcher after off-loading the pt at the ER when we hear this anguished cry (AAAArrrrrrgggghhh!!) come from the examining room. Apparantly, this was a long-term diabetic pt, and when the resident took off this fellow's shoe, literally half his foot came with it and the smell was, inconceivable. This was winter, no maggots for debridement of the gangrenous tissue. I looked at the pt's foot and it was like an anatomy lesson. Not nice...

kaycee · Mar 21, 2001

One of my worst experiences that made me gag was in the ER when an older man came in with both legs swollen and black fluid seeping from his shoes. The smell alone was horrendous. When I removed his shoes and socks both legs were wrapped with ace bandages that were black and wet. When I removed the ace wraps not only were both legs full of maggots but also cockroaches little and big came scampering out all over the place. I could take the maggots, I've dealt with them before, plus they move slow but those little roaches were fast and I couldn't kill them fast enough. My skin cawled the rest of the night.

ClariceS · Mar 21, 2001

That last post reminded me of a rather obese patient we received from our ER. She smelled rather - shall I say unbathed - and I sent in 2 of my CNA's to get her washed up. A short while into it I heard a screech from her room and went in to see what happened. They had lifted one of her skin folds and a cockroach scurried out. That wasn't the only thing they ended up finding. There were old bits of food and even a part of a potato chips bag. YUCK!

Kday - hope you're feeling better!

randomnamees · Mar 21, 2001

two words....

digital extraction

JennieBSN · Mar 21, 2001

Ooo, ooo, fat chick story!!! We had a woman come in for a scheduled c-section, very "fluffy" woman, as I prefer to call them. Anyway, they put in the spinal, laid her down on the table, and her breasts flopped back (the kind you could use a crock pot as a bra...), and one half of a BOLOGNA SANDWICH plopped onto the floor!!! The woman casually says, 'I was WONDERING where that went!' She'd been eating in bed last night (so much for NPO after MN), got up to go to the bathroom, came back, and her sandwich had mysteriously disappeared. I do believe I started my diet THAT DAY.

By the way, Clarice, thanks for the concern. But between the phenergan and fioricet, I'm so drugged that I don't even CARE any more about how nasty this stuff is!! Hee hee.

mud · Mar 22, 2001

Yes!!! I have seen those crazy little critters on a pt. My first job, as I have mentioned before, was in a nursing home. We hads a fellow sho had a colostomy. Other than being an alcoholic, he could of lived on his own. He had been off the booze for quite some time, doing well. He was d/c from the home, within a week, he was back. However, before he could come to us, the local hospital had him. The ambulance had scooped his filthy body out of the ditch. They had to hose him down in the garage before he could come to us. When lifting his shirt, hr was found to have maggots all over his colostomy site!!!!!!!

Originally posted by vablueyes:
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.