CRAZY / GROSS / NASTY

Nurses General Nursing

Published

It's no secret. We all know that nurses see a lot of crazy/gross/nasty things when on duty. Would anybody be willing to share their story with us? Please, don't spare any details.

I'm interested in your stories because I know that it's not all rainbows and kittens. There must be things that sometimes you'd wish you could un-see or un-experience (I know that's not a real word). Whether that be sticking your fingers in a patient's wound (for whatever reason), or having phlegm coughed on you, etc. Don't be shy.

I'm very curious to know some of the things I might see and/or experience once I become a nurse. Being a nurse is so exciting!!!!! 😃😃😃😃

Thank you.

Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Sigh. Have you done a search at all, new account? Seriously, spend some time poking around instead of posting a beaten down topic. Revive an old thread!

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Specializes in HH, Peds, Rehab, Clinical.

Ah! Hygiene Queen did the work for OP =)

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.
A breast cancer patient in her 50s that ignored all the signs and symptoms for so long that by the time she went to the ER the tumor had eaten through her breast and embedded in her bra. The smell was overwhelming. I wasn't her primary nurse, I was charge the day she came in but I remember trying to help her nurse to remove the remaining bits of bra from the tumor. (She was not a surgical candidate. Very end-stage.) After what seemed like hours of trying, we ended up calling wound care. Denial is a powerful thing

A fungating breast tumor is horrific to see and the odor is horrendous.

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Specializes in Corrections, Psych, Public Health.

"Green drip" coming out of a member that the patient had stuffed with toilet paper. He came to see me, dropped his pants and proceeded to put the toilet paper out which was breaking off cause of the "green drip"...Can you say Gonorrhea!! Welcome to the world of Public health nursing in Prison!!

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Specializes in MICU, SICU, CICU.

I had a male IVDA who had the worst looking skin I had ever seen. His member was in shreds from who knows what STDs and injecting drugs in those veins.

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Specializes in Med nurse in med-surg., float, HH, and PDN.

I think it is particularly gross when the unicorn trips over the rainbow and in the resulting fall, accidentally guts the kitten with its horn.

*wince*

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Sigh. Have you done a search at all, new account? Seriously, spend some time poking around instead of posting a beaten down topic. Revive an old thread!

Hi BuckyBadgerRN. Yes, this is a new account and also my first post. I've realized now that I should have done a search before posting this thread. My apologies. I'm still learning how to use this tool. But thank you for the suggestion.

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pt I have in the dialysis clinic farts constantly and stinks up the entire clinic!

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Specializes in Community, OB, Nursery.

Little old guy s/p I&D of back abscess and I'm doing W--->D dressing changes. The wound is so deep I can see his lung tissue when he breathes.

I will never ever ever get over the sound abdominal fascia make when being ripped open for a c/section.

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Specializes in Med-Surg.

Someone with bilateral high AKA amputations (like the very top of thighs down) who was so non-compliant that basically his whole bottom was a rotting deep wound. Changing his dressings (when he allowed it) were like changing a baby. The dressings ended up being like a brief because everything was rotting. The stench was horrible. It took an hour to do them. At least he had a colostomy... No more orifice to speak of.

It creeped me out because it reminded me of a scene from a book where someone is eaten from their feet up.

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- A guy with what started out as three wounds variously on buttocks, hip and sacrum, which eventually merged into one big wound, tunnelling into his abdomen and exposing significant pelvic bone. Incredibly stinky. There would be a puddle of exudate on his wheelchair cushion when he would transfer onto the bed for wound care. Pants, incontinent pad, all soaked. We didn't have any products that would soak up the exudate sufficiently, the best thing we had was called a super soaker, basically a pad made out of what's in a diaper, but it would get saturated, fall apart and shred on his exposed bone. I spent an hour irrigating and picking this material out of his pelvic bone one day.

- A dry necrotic toe dangling off an older diabetic man's foot - you could twist it 360 degrees. It would flap in the wind while you were doing wound care to the rest of his foot

- Wound care to a necrotic member (left a ring around the base for several months before presenting to care - poor guy was very psychiatrically unwell). It was swollen and purple/black and a weird lumpy texture.

- General stinky legs/feet after removing a compression wrap that's been on for a week, even if you do a really good job of washing them

- The smell of a fresh ileostomy

- Finding bedbugs UNDERNEATH a dressing (how in the hell did they get in there?!)

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Colostomy behaves most mysteriously, for no apparent reason... a condom accidentally found sticking out of it. Stomal sex and big surprise upon getting the news that it is not a good idea.

Ugh. Just when I think I have heard of every hole someone will stick something. I guess having plenty of interesting holes myself I just don't have the imagination to dream up new ones in which to poke things. Why bother with the condom, though?

ETA: Just read the thread about an STD in a stoma. Wow. Just wow.

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