I can't get that smell out of my mind...........

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No disrespect to my resident, but I'm currently doing clinicals and I can't get the smell of my resident's bowel movement out of my mind. I'm not disgusted by it because it's normal but for some reason I just can't get it out of my mind. I smell it every 10 minutes and it's all mental!! RIGHT NOW I SMELL IT.

For me its the sight of it. We have cans of air freshner for the smell but I had one resident durring the last gi virus that was soooo bad, they'd had an enema the night before and then got the virus, it was very gross! When they got back from the hosp it was so hard to go into that room. I'm not on that hall anymore thank goodness.

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Specializes in LTC, Rehab, CCU, Alzheimers, Med-Surg.

Lol. Wait until you have to do a colostomy bag! Worst smell ever!

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Specializes in Infusion.

YOu could rinse with a saline solution too...and put a couple drops of tea tree oil in the mixture....

I figure I will walk around with a little bottle of lavender essential oil in my pocket to put under my nose....help to keep you calm and relaxed too! :)

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Specializes in LTC.

Are you sure it's not on your shoe? Because that happened to me tonight. Someone was having diarrhea all night, the whole wing smelled like it, and then I get in my car to go home and I could still smell it. Turn out I had a blob of it dried on the top of my shoe. :uhoh21:

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Are you sure it's not on your shoe? Because that happened to me tonight. Someone was having diarrhea all night, the whole wing smelled like it, and then I get in my car to go home and I could still smell it. Turn out I had a blob of it dried on the top of my shoe. :uhoh21:

LOL, ewwwwwwwwwww. No it's not on my shoe. It's in my head.

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Colostomy bags.....EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! They smell so bad!!!!!!!!

I had a Resident who had Cedif and she would put her hands in her brief and then paint the walls and everything else around her. It was so gross!!!! Every night it took me over 30 minutes to take care of her. I will never ever forget that smell!!!!!!!

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health.
Colostomy bags.....EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!! They smell so bad!!!!!!!!

I had a Resident who had Cedif and she would put her hands in her brief and then paint the walls and everything else around her. It was so gross!!!! Every night it took me over 30 minutes to take care of her. I will never ever forget that smell!!!!!!!

Ick! Gross. I had a resident like that. She would have a major episode then she would paint the walls and floor with it. Especially after she had chocolate candy or cake. Her family made sure to bring in chocolate every other day. I swear they did it on purpose!:banghead:

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I had the same exact thing! I have a 20 month old daughter, and every time I changed her poop, it would remind me of my resident and it just sent a shiver down my spine. I got over it after the first couple of days though...for some reason, actually changing them didn't bother me very much at all; I did that no problem. The smell did kinda get to me though. Here's my advice....take a deeeeeep breath of fresh air before you go in. Let it out, put on a smile, (It's so important to make it look like it doesn't bother you, for the sake of the resident) and then once you walk out, take another deeeeeep breath of that nice, clean, fresh air. For me, as long as I maintained my composure in front of my resident, I was fine.

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Oh wow I soooooo know what u mean...today I experienced the worst smell combination ever.... I think....yeah ever. I did Am care on a resident who was also a new admit. She has all sort of things going on, but the one that got me was the sight and smell of a Stage 3 pressure ulcer the size of an open palm and a bout of C-dif diarrhea. I mean OMG!!!!.....:barf01: I thought i was going to pass out. I'm thinking of it now and I am shivering. I washed my hands it seemed like a million times today but cannot get the smell off of maybe its the thought of the smell. Now I thought I was used to the smells by now but this is one for the books.

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Specializes in LTC, Home Health.
Oh wow I soooooo know what u mean...today I experienced the worst smell combination ever.... I think....yeah ever. I did Am care on a resident who was also a new admit. She has all sort of things going on, but the one that got me was the sight and smell of a Stage 3 pressure ulcer the size of an open palm and a bout of C-dif diarrhea. I mean OMG!!!!.....:barf01: I thought i was going to pass out. I'm thinking of it now and I am shivering. I washed my hands it seemed like a million times today but cannot get the smell off of maybe its the thought of the smell. Now I thought I was used to the smells by now but this is one for the books.

I've been there. It was sad. The poor woman I had all those issues you mentioned, a colostomy bag and she was dying. The whole unit smelled like her no matter what kind of deodorizer we used. All can say is ...........

:barf02:

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You know what asun21ta it was really depressing... throughout everything she kept saying "no more pain"......it brought with it a bag of mixed emotions. Today strangely I felt the need to hover near this lady's room to try to accomodate her more even with the smell...I dunno maybe its the newness of it all but she really got to me.

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Specializes in LTC.

You know what I can't stand the smell of? When someone takes iron supplements. It makes their poop smell soooo disgusting to me.

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