Roaches are going to drive me out of home care!!!

[hoolahan]

I feel like I should be called the Orkin Nurse, and instead of a backback, I should carry an orificenal of roach-killing chemicals.

I need a roach repellant perfume or something.

Yesterday MONSTER roach appeared too close to my coat, and I swear I could barely focus on my new admit, and I admit, I skimmed that OASIs faster than fast to get the heck outta there!

Today, very clean house, in the midst of several abandoned ones boarded up in a drug-infested neighborhood, and I know that is always a bad thing, a draw for roaches and rodents, and it isn't the fault or lack of cleanliness of the people I serve but ...

People I have a serious issue, fear-factor, r/t roaches. I am not sure I could even get away w asking not to be sent there, it wouyld only mean some other poor nurse gets stuck w that many more roach motels.

Let me put it this way, if I were on that show fear factor and I could be given a million dollars to enter a room swarming w roaches, I would probably hurl at the thought.

Today, sitting in this clean rose among the thorns, and here comes da beast, crawling up the couch I was just sitting on, once again too close to my personal stuff. At least in the summer, I don't have a coat or so many pockets and stuff w me for the creepy critters to hide in.

I can't function like this, I get tunnel vision, and I do struggle to keep cool and remain non-judgemental, esp w the older folks.

Help me!! Should I seek deconditioning? I think this is NORMAL to not like roaches. Yesterday's man carried his med zippered bag in and tried to hand it to me w a monster roach on it!! I asked him to set it on the table and take out the bottles one by one so we could review it, I wasn't touching that freakin bag!!

I have been going into the dregs of the city w/o a roach-free home lately, and I can't take it much longer. I am not only afraid of these things touching me, or getting into my clothes, but of bringing them into my home by accident. My winter coat is still in my car b/c I was afraid to bring it inside. I am seriously stressing here!!!

What would you do? I have no problem w dogs, snakes, or other creatures, just bugs tarantula spiders, roaches, NASTY stuff.

[Furball]

One time, while speaking on the phone to a doc while at a pt's house, the chickens started a ruckus. Yup, the chickens were INSIDE this house! I'll never forget the doctor sounding so incredulous (is that a word?)

There..are...CHICKENS...inside his house!!! No wonder we can't get his infections under control!!!!

I'm sorry Hoolahan...off topic. I can't think of any roach remedies except carry a can of raid with you?

[BadBird, BSN, RN]

OMG!!! I would definately not return to those houses, time to find another job. Now I am itchy all over just from reading the posts, eeek.

[phn92]

I work in public health and we do home health care, too. I remember having to go to a home to the same family that I had seen on a number of times to talk about headlice. I stood in the middle of the living room and cockroaches were crawling all over the place! These people were sitting on furniture that were crawling with the dumb things! I reported it to the enviromental division of our dept and our enviromentalist saw at least three different types of roaches! She opened the kitchen cabinet and one flew in her hair! It really freaked her out, she had never seen so many of them! The yard was crawling with them and infested the neighborhood! It was unbelievable!

[sanakruz, ADN]

phn92-

Were the environmentalists able to eradicate them?(KILL KILL...)

I think Hoolahans client needs something like this.

Yes furball incredulous IS a word (A good one too):kiss

[phn92]

Actually, the homeowner had to pay for the exterminator to come in and kill the critters. They kicked out the renters who were living there. So these people moved to another rental home and infested it. I've seen this happen before. They just keep moving and infesting!

[Rapheal]

Roaches!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yikes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously though, I think you have to decide if this line of nursing is for you. If you do then I would definately recommend some sort of therapy to help rid you of your revulsion. Until then you have my sympathy.

[adrienurse, LPN]

OMG I would seriously freak out! I can hear the screaming already.

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Originally posted by Mimi Wheeze

Oh, hoolahan, you poor thing!

Can you talk to your patients about roach control? That is a health issue, isn't it? Do the patients not see roaches crawling toward you? Are they so used to it that is doesn't bother them?

Uuuggghh. That is so sad and disgusting at the same time.

Exactly!! Yes, I do address it usually, esp if the pt has asthma or copd, and who doesn't living in that situation, but honestly, in the highrises, if one or two people are pigs, it will infest the whole building. Many of these buildings it is all just lip service, yes they take your complaint, but nothing happens for these people after that.

The house today like I said was a rose among thorns, whort of buring down the other attached houses in the row that are boarded up and abandoned (this home was one of two in a row of ten on block that wasn't boarded up) the other house was a real center of drug activity (beepers and cell phones going, lots of derelicts coming and going...) there is nothing you can do about the bugs and rodents. I once saw an abandoned house that had a freaking tree growing inside it!!!!

I hate to make people feel badly about a situation they have no control over. Now, the little old people who are half blind, and so arthritic they can't take out the garbage that is piled up and bug-gy, those I call APS. But they are usually just plain unsafe at home alone anyway, so it isn't solely a roach issue.

And yes it is gross yet sad at the same time. It is the sad side of the equation that keeps me in battle garb I guess. But I feel they roaches are winning this battle and chipping away at my armor. I don't think I have seen so many in one week!

[coffeehound]

Some people just don't get it I guess. This reminds me of a story my uncle tells about when he was in the navy and stationed in Guam. My aunt didn't want to live on base so they rented half of a duplex. Right after they moved in they noticed roaches so they started cleaning and spraying. My uncle went next door and asked the neighbor if she was bothered by roaches, and she said no. My uncle figured it was their problem so they kept having the exterminator out to spray.

Finally, about a month after they moved in they had the neighbor over for dinner and she offered to bring dessert. After dinner she realized that she had left the cake at her place and my uncle offered to go get it. He says when he opened the back door into the kitchen there were roaches EVERYWHERE. He just left the cake there and said that he "wasn't hungry" when he came back in. Then he says to the neighbor "I thought you said you didn't have roaches." and she says "You didn't ask me if I HAD them, you asked me if i was BOTHERED by them. I'm not."

ICK UGH YUCK! My uncle paid for her to have a weekend stay at a hotel so that he could have the entire duplex tented and fumigated.

Wish I knew the magic formula to kill them all!

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Originally posted by sanakruz

I saw a roach in NYC on the sidewalk stop and LOOK BOTH WAYS for traffic before crossing.

I chased it and KILLED IT so it couldnt pass on any GENETIC KNOWLEDGE.

Boy I do hate them.

Bwhahahahahahaha! Thanks for makling me laugh, I really needed that. I saw one like that get on an elevator once. BUT, I heard if you kill a pregnant one, you can bring home the eggs on your shoes, so I never kill the suckers, just sweep them away w my chart.

I swear, the ones I saw in the high rise could be put on a leash and kept as pets!

[hoolahan, ASN, RN]

Originally posted by kids-r-fun

... don't carry in anything you don't absolutely have to, better to go back to the car to get something than to get a bug in your stuff....

Not in those neighborhoods, trust me, I should carry an uzi!

Plus, in the high rise, there is like no where to park. Today I parked in a church lot and walked a block b/c the parking garage has been shut down (maybe roaches took it over??) , not that I felt safe in that underground one anyway, but then we sometime will also have 2 or 3 people in a building (talk about punishment) so going back to the car is not an option, I'm usually relieved each time I go out and see my car still there!

[sunnygirl272]

oh gawd, hool...luckily although roaches are here, too....they are not near as bad in our territory as you describe...i think our weather helps keep them under control...lol...

no advice, just hugs.....