What is the one thing that turns your stomach?

[FDW630]

Surely everyone has at least one thing that they can't handle. Maybe you can do blood and guts and poo, but the smell of pee gets you? What is the one thing that messes you up? Did you know going in to school that it was going to be your weakness, or were you surprised when you ran out of the room the first time?

Mine is ortho. I can take all the nursing smells and sights, but I will hit the floor if I hear bones crunching or grinding. I can see them, no problem. But the chiseling/grinding sounds of ortho surgeries...shudder! Even fake TV sounds get me.

[CT Pixie, BSN, RN]

Vomit...(hearing it, smelling it, and/or seeing it puts me over the edge) and respiratory secrections (thick nasty mucous) ewwww.

Of course being an LPN on a LTC unit I have a ton of COPD pts who are always bringing up that nastiness (gagging just thinking about it) but I always do what I have to do, get through it and enter the room ASAP.

[mofomeat]

I've discussed before that seeing someone vomit, viewing a vomit lake or otherwise knowing of a vomit event illicits entirely the wrong reaction from me- it gives me the giggles. This is much worse than being grossed out by it. I'm sure that the last thing someone needs as they're doing the Blearggh Shout is for someone to start laughing.

I've also got a nearly juvenile propensity to laugh at, or make jokes about farts and poo.

The thing that *does* bother me for some odd reason is CSF. I'm not sure whether it is because it is clear as water but slightly thicker, or if the whole thought of spinal taps is so unappealing. Similarly, the only two things that grossed me out in A&P were the smell of warm brains and the smell of fat that had started to dissolve into a snot-like liquid.

In lab we dissected different parts of a cat (as I'm sure all of you did) and continued on this for most of the semester. Sure the cats were soaked in alcohol to slow down the decomposition, but near the end they were starting to get pretty ripe. Not so much a bacterial composition as much as amino acids and other proteins breaking down, methinks. For over a year afterwards, everything I ate had a faint taste of the alcohol preservative, and it still pops up once in awhile (Iced Tea, really?). To this day, I still peel the fat off of chicken or other meats that I'm eating because it always reminds me of all the gooey fat liquid that accumulated in the abdomen of poor ol' Sprinkles.

[Skips, MSN, RN]

SPUTUM. The really thick, deep stuff. I almost lost it when I had to handle it the first time, but I hid it (or tried to).

I had no idea what would gross me out before I started nursing school. I thought I would be able to handle it all, honestly.

[Soliloquy, MSN, APRN, NP]

Soft FECES and VOMIT...from adults! The smell of feces and vomit gets to me and I think it's because I witnessed a nurse once have a patient's feces splash up into her eyes and what she had to go through to deal with it (patient might've had an infectious illness). I use to think I'd get use to it. But the more I change diapers, measure intake and output from patients who have watery stools, I get more and more disinterested in it and find ways to avoid it. I can handle wounds (love 'em!), blood, all else. But when I'm on my own, I'll be wearing goggles and a face mask. Sorry patients if you're offended!

[windsurfer8, BSN, RN]

Lazy people.

[sapphire18]

Anything having to do with childbirth (regular, not c-sections), lady partsl exams, periods, etc. *shudder*

[DoeRN]

Anything having to do with childbirth (regular, not c-sections), lady partsl exams, periods, etc. *shudder*

Me too!! I wanted to become an OB nurse until I had the actual class. I quickly changed my mind.

[cannolis]

Me too!! I wanted to become an OB nurse until I had the actual class. I quickly changed my mind.

What was it that changed your mind?

[pookyp, LPN]

Vomit, vomit, vomit!!!!! Can't deal with it. I. Just. Can't.

[tookenayj]

Ummmm C-DIFF! EEWWWWW! Feel like I need to bleach my nostrils after....Good God Man

[Gary Edward]

I cannot handle the sound of someone urinating.

[Crazed]

Biliary drains.