What Freaks You Out?

lesliee · Mar 22, 2001

Nasty, nasty stuff! Ugh...I thought what freaked me out most was the sound of retching, but now reading all these posts I find myself lost for words..lol. Geez, it's critical that nurses have a sense of humor, isn't it? How else can we stay in this field? Keep up the good work!

nursejanedough · Mar 22, 2001

Hi, laugh. Those two words - digital extraction. No problem, let me triple glove, and I can dig em out. In the nursing home, those patients are called "impacted". I have a personal story to tell. My first baby was C-section. The doc sent me home with a bottle of pain pills. (years ago) First time on pain pills. Wow. I was poppin those pills, right and left, and before I knew it, I realized I had not gone to the bathroom in several days. I called my sis, opie, the ER nurse, and told her I am in pain, major constipation, what shud I do? She said, "You can come to ER and they will dig it out, or you can do it yourself, and stop taking those damn pain pills!" I did it myself and stopped the pain pills. She/opie is so smart.

grianstad · Mar 22, 2001

While in nursing school, I had to empty and irrigate an ileostomy bag, the kind with the clip on the bottom. As I unclipped it, instead of draining into the basin, it missed and the entire contents of the full bag ran off the chux, down the side of the bed, onto my stockinged leg and into my shoe. I was shocked at how much it burned my skin!!! ( I learned first hand about the pH of intestinal fluids!) Not only was I grossed out and embarrassed in front of the instructor and patient, I had to run into the patient's bathroom wash my leg in the sink and clean out my shoe! Luckily my instructor cleaned up the patient while I cleaned up myself. I've been careful around ostomies ever since!

As far as roaches go, I worked as a visiting nurse for many years and one place in particular totally grossed me out. In the middle of winter I would leave my coat and bag in the car, carrying in only what bare essentials I could stuff into my pockets. Roaches crawing all over the place, including the ceiling. Well, they had a light bulb hanging from the ceiling, controlled by a pullchain and at one point it hit the back of my neck. I nearly had an MI though 'cause I thought a roach had fallen from the ceiling!

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

Jay-Jay, RN · Mar 22, 2001

Originally posted by kaycee:
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.

Yup, that would do it for me, I'm sure! Snot I can handle, trachs don't bother me at all, poop, pee, most of the time, NO problem. But roaches hiding in someone's bandages/hair/clothing, etc...lemme outta here!!

Had a homecare patient with an indwelling foley who'd developed a chronic bladder infection, and he had just about the grossest smelling pee I've ever come across. I used to hold my breath when I had to empty his bag.

Well, one day, I noticed his catheter was blocked, and his member looked red and swollen, and so did the lymph nodes in the groin. I reported it to the RN in charge of his case, who came and flushed the catheter and got it going again.

By the following week, he had developed an abcess inside his urethra which had ruptured, right through the member. His wife was incapable of changing his diapers, and the poor man's groin was scarlet from the urine which was leaking out through this new hole in his member. It was terribly difficult to manage. They had to "wallpaper" his groin with duoderm, and use a miniature ostomy bag over the member. I never did find out if they got it to heal, as I started another job just about then and never saw him again.

laurasc · Mar 22, 2001

Originally posted by timonrn:
I hate emptying NG cannisters, esp if it is real mucousy or chunky!! And I hate vomit or spit--makes me dry heave!!

What about when the NG cannister explodes? Happened on my floor way back when...thankfully on a day when I wasn't on but my friend was. The hospital I worked at used some ancient (circa 1950's, I'm sure...) cannisters that sat on the floor and hooked to the wall suction. The lids were really hard to take off, especially when it built up a lot of suction. We had to wedge our nails in between the cannister and the rubber seal of the lid and release the pressure (kind of like opening up a preserves jar). It would hiss and the lid would come off.

Well one morning my friend was sitting in the nsg station when she heard a loud POP followed by enough profanity to peel the paint off the walls. They were never sure how she did it, but the NG cannister one of the nurses was trying to open exploded and she walked out of the room literally covered from head to hips in green bile. She took off her glasses, spit a few times and said something along the lines of not being able to measure the contents of the cannister.

We laughed about it for weeks.

Now all that I could handle....even did some leaches once...that was cool. But PLEASE, don't make me watch someone vomit. When I was just a few weeks pregnant with my first and working in an ICU, I was caring for one lady who proceeded to vomit up semi-digested black beans and rice. I couldn't clean it up, in fact I was gagging and dry heaving so hard I thought I was going to upchuck my baby! Thankfully another nurse (a mom) took pity on me and cleaned up the mess.

Laura

[This message has been edited by laurasc (edited March 22, 2001).]

Jay-Jay, RN · Mar 23, 2001

Laura: ROFLMAO!! Only a nurse could laugh at something so gross! And only a nurse would respond as that one did..."sorry, couldn't measure the contents of the cansiter!" Hope you gave her some sort of medal for maintaining her cool while under fire!

opie · Mar 23, 2001

laurasc, aren't our co-workers great, especially other mom's!!

Doc · Mar 23, 2001

Okay, here's a few good ones. One time at the gastroenterology ward a resident was trying to assess what was causing a mysterious GI pain for the last 24 hours. The patient was kind of vague about it, and none of the history seemed to match anything. The resident decided to do a PR, put on gloves and went in. In next to no time he pulled out a vibrator that was still buzzing, and remarked: "isn't that a great advertisement for Eveready!" Another patient had an x-ray and they found a mouse skeleton in his rectum. In the ER there was this woman who dropped her husband off, saying he was bleeding. On her way out the triage nurse noticed she threw something in the bin. It turned out to be his member. Luckily they were able to sew it back on.

When I worked in the psych unit I got used to seeing some pretty strange behaviour, but no-one is exempt from being surprised from time to time. There was one patient who pulled out both his eyes and ate them - the voices told him to do it. The doctor used to affectionately refer to him as "socket head". I thought nurses were the twisted ones!!! One of the psych nurses who was like a veteran - had been there 30 years - told me there were two people that used to get their rocks off by putting their members in the wringers on the washing machines and rolling the wringers up and down. OOOOOOOW!

I personally can handle sputum, urine from catheterised patients, vomit, eyeballs, cauterized flesh, maggots and all that sort of stuff but I can't stand the sound of bones being sawed or the stench of malaena. Most people haven't seen true malaena. I once had to clean up an elderly guy who was swimming in malaena - the real black stuff. The only thing that smells worse is a cadaver that has been left for a few days.

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Ann4 · Mar 23, 2001

The one procedure that really freaked me out and almost made me pass out was watching a neurosurgeon insert a ventriculostomy drain at the bedside. The patient was fully awake (think "Hannibal"). The doctor was standing at the head of the bed, drilling away with the hand drill and cracking jokes about the man not having osteoporosis because his skull was so hard. The worst part was when he threaded this long needle into the guy's head and out the second hole. I felt my knees about to give out. (This happened during my orientation in Neuro ICU.)

[This message has been edited by Ann4 (edited March 23, 2001).]

Ann4 · Mar 23, 2001

Sorry about all the edits to the last post - I was playing with the smilies.

laurasc · Mar 23, 2001

Originally posted by Jay-Jay:
Laura: ROFLMAO!! Only a nurse could laugh at something so gross! And only a nurse would respond as that one did..."sorry, couldn't measure the contents of the cansiter!" Hope you gave her some sort of medal for maintaining her cool while under fire!

Actually, I think all she got was a 30 minute shower and a scrub suit to wear that day. By the time I left the floor, she was still known as the bile nurse. We would all scatter when she would approach an NG tube.

BTW...I just noticed, you're in Richmond Hill? We're almost neighbours...I'm in Burlington. Howdy NeighboUr! (written like a true Cannuck! )

Laura

winniewoman9060ret · Mar 23, 2001

try large open wounds i had a pt with a hemipelvectomy many years ago. it was the 24 fluffs and abd etc. full isolation, and it still stunk!!

also drilling burr holes one time in the icu made me a bit ughhh