Things that make you go "EEEWWW"

Nurses General Nursing

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Stevielynn's thread about the nursing home with the signs on the food carts brings up (oops, no pun intended:D ) something that happened at work yesterday that turned even MY cast-iron stomach. I was the PRN helping with admits, and as I was charting vitals on one new pt., this lady came running up to me holding a patient gown literally dripping with fresh emesis and hollering that her mother was throwing up, and would I come quickly?

I followed her to the patient's room (even after she refused to give me the gown so I could deposit it in the linen barrel and NOT have a trail of slightly used vegetable soup running down the hall) and found a very confused elderly woman sitting up in bed, naked, with vomit EVERYWHERE--all over the bed, on the floor, even in her hair. Worse yet, she was just about to start eating again, apparently having already forgotten being sick, and seemingly unaware of the fact that she'd baptized the tray along with everything else!!

Well, it was all I could do to hang onto my own supper, and I had no choice but to deal with it alone because even the aides were too busy with vitals on the fresh post-ops we'd just gotten. Half an hour later I emerged from the room, smelling ghastly and feeling somewhat under the weather, but by gosh that little lady was nice and clean and her daughter pleased as punch with the service. At least I got a thank-you out of it.....but I hope I don't have to deal with anything like that again any time soon.:eek:

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

eeeeeeeeewwwwwwwww! That is truly disgusting.......

Specializes in NICU.

OMG, did no one check to see if it was intact when they realized he'd pulled it out back in JUNE??? Surely someone should have seen that the tip was not intact!! That poor man! That hurts me just to think about it!

I've found my weakness. It's the urethra. I can take all matter of "EWwwww" but things in or around the urethra make me clench my thighs together like a Christian virgin at an Alpha Chi Omega Beer Bash. Ouch.

Originally posted by nurseT

:roll Same bat place, same bat time. Confused little old lady who was incont of BM. As I was headed north from one end of the hall and the other nurse was headed south from the other end, just befor our paths crossed, a giant turd flew between us east to west and landed on the floor. We both looked at each other and then into the room it came from. The little old lady had a bm in her pants and took her pants off and shook em out.

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

once upon a time, a brand new nurse to surgery got to watch and smell her first turp. that was the worst smell in the world. but as time goes by, as it always does, the nurse got used to that smell. then came the peri-rectal abcess!!!! whew!

in the or we smell lots of bad bad bad things. blood doesn't bother me. one of the worst funniest things i ever did was put in a rectal tube under the sterile drapes. i looked at the surgeon and told her, no wonder her intestines were ballooning up. the patient had no rectum!!!! then i found it. and inserted it. all was well! the surgery continued without incident. but we all had a great laugh at my expense. including me.:roll

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

That BM story reminds me of a resident in one of my assisted-living facilities a few years ago. She needed heavy care due to her mental and physical disabilities and really should've been in a nursing home, but for a number of reasons (all financial) she remained despite my repeated recommendations to transfer her to an appropriate level of care. Her chief joy in life was throwing BM in the dining room, which sent the residents who were wrapped a little tighter into orbit. She wore a Depends, but unless we watched her very carefully---which was next to impossible with 3 or 4 staff members serving 50 residents---she'd dig around in there and start slinging the ol' hash. Then she'd look innocent and deny EVERYTHING.....she had some dementia, but I always suspected she was crazy like a fox.....and one day she confirmed it.

It was at lunchtime, and I caught her just as she was about to heave a handful on the floor. In total exasperation, I lectured her about this inappropriate behavior, and asked her why she did that. She looked me straight in the eye, smiled wickedly, and said, "Because I can".

I gotta say the worst I ever had was when I worked Medical ICU and we had a GI bleeder that just wouldn't quit. The doctor decided to take a roll of Kerlix and saturate it with Factor VIII and then stuff it up this guy's rectum and by God, THAT would stop the bleeding!! (despite numerous diagnostic tests, they just could not pinpoint the origin of the bleed) The doctor and I had a great working relationship and I told him I was glad I would be off the next day, when he'd indicated he wanted to remove said Kerlix. He told me that since he was such a nice guy, he'd wait until I was on duty again the day after that. Keep count now folks, that makes 2 days after the initial "stuffing". He was true to his word and waited until I returned 2 days later to remove the "stuffing". You can imagine the smell of 2 day old GI bleed and fecal matter on a roll of Kerlix!! To try to relieve the smell, all we had on hand was some Air Freshener that smelled like leather. Later that day when my relief nurse came on duty, she entered the hall, took a few sniffs, made a horrendous face and said "My GOD, it smells like somebody sh*t on a saddle in here!" I've had a good laugh about that many times since!! The second worst was assisting /c a thoracentesis, again in ICU. The mess draining out of that was of such a stench, the pulmonologist held the tubing and threw up in the trash can as it drained out.:eek:

Specializes in NICU, PICU, PCVICU and peds oncology.
Originally posted by stillcrazy

Later that day when my relief nurse came on duty, she entered the hall, took a few sniffs, made a horrendous face and said "My GOD, it smells like somebody sh*t on a saddle in here!"

:roll :roll :rotfl: :rotfl: :roll :roll

mjlrn, we have that wonderful "pleasure" of the dead mice in the wall quite frequently it seems. One time it got so bad that my dad has to cut a hole in the sheetrock wall and get that thing outa there !! Of course, then it still stinks for a while and you have a large gaping hole in the wall to fix then ! Ahhh, the joys of life !! ;) :)

Specializes in ER!.

:rotfl:

Thanks, y'all, for cheering me up! I have been laying around sick as a dog all week, and reading this has made me feel better than I have in days. My hearty horse laughs about the Lift N' Squish babies were only slightly interrupted by an "EEWWWW" over the "lotion" story. Normal people just don't know that they're missing!

And for those of y'all who have cats, try giving them those little Pounce treats with the hairball gel in them- worked on my little retcher like a charm, no more nighttime pillow-to-ear surprises.

Well, it's always the vomit-smell thing that gets me worst, but here are a few things I've encountered:

Getting assigned, my first semester of nsg school, a patient who'd shot off most of his face with a shotgun to avoid jail (not the brightest star in the sky...) with a guard stationed outside his door. Most of the seasoned nurses on the floor said they didnt like to go into that room! My instructor said she had a hard time looking a him. Yeesh. I actually got to debrede his face...it was pretty kewl once I got going. Anyway, I just *thanked* her for giving me such an *interesting* patient. Argh.

Then their was the girl who had to wear a protective helmet and when it was removed for her bath,(it was hot summer weather), we found that she had a sore under there, on her scalp, with *GAG* maggots in it.

Then there was the patient I had in a med/surg clinical who'd had a perforated duodenal ulcer. She had a huge would on her abdomen with some tunneling in it. For some reason the doc had said it was ok for her to start on solid food that morning. I had to do the wet-to-dry dsg. change on it. It looked like it had dirty gray dishwater with some coffee grounds in the bottom of the gaping hole. What was worse, were the scrambled eggs that were rising up out of the mess....OMG!!! Yuck!!

There are probably others, but that should do for now....LOL!!

Specializes in LTC, assisted living, med-surg, psych.

This must be the "thread that wouldn't die"!

Autumn-moon, that has to be just about THE most disgusting thing I've ever read.......the mental pictures (ulp) are enough to gag a vulture! Congratulations! You have just made my all-time gross-out list!!:eek:

Specializes in Alzheimer's, Geriatrics, Chem. Dep..
Originally posted by robynrn2b

All of his clothes went into the trash-needless to say.

A guy in the hospital too large to wipe himself after using the toilet, so he started pooping in the shower instead, double duty ...

Hate to pull the hair out of HIS drain!

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