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 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.
originally posted by janfrn

he had also ripped his scrotum from shaft to rectum. ouuuuuuch!!! (i wonder if it was like having an episiotomy? at least he was anaesthetized for the first four days... )

:eek: i hurt just reading that!

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

OOooooooooo......that hurts just to read, and I'm not even a man!!

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Specializes in ER, ICU, Nursing Education, LTC, and HHC.

Still to this day,the smell of vomit is the worst of all I think I dealt with, sights are not really a problem for me. The one other thing right up there with vomit is the smell of changing a colostomy bag. Now, coming from a nurse, I am sure i should be more matter of fact about this....but it is a "different " kinda smell to me, and I have a real problem dealing with that one!

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Specializes in 5 yrs OR, ASU Pre-Op 2 yr. ER.

GI bleeds. Enough said. lol

Or nothing like bending over to take off someone's slippers, the pt. coughs and you feel something hit the back of your neck, and wipe it off to find it's green phlegm.

So much for my fries tonight...

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OMG green phlegm on the back of the neck......eeeWWWW!! I think I can handle pretty much, but snot and phlegm make my stomach roll, especially when they are coughing it up and then don't, or can't spit it out and they sit and gargle on it. Or when you go to take someone's gown off and get a surprize on your hand (shiver).

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Specializes in OB, surgical, pediatrics, ER.

I've got a couple.

Surprisingly, in a newborn. We had a mother come in to deliver and she tested postitve for Meth. Well, we needed a specimen to test baby so we could notify CPS. With newborns, the best source is meconium (baby's 1st poop). So, here I am trying to scrape poop off this baby's diaper and mec is like bubble gum. It's sticky and stretches...Sooooo nasty.

One other story. I have a friend who works in ER. She came down to OB to visit and was telling us about an elderly lady that was in ER. She had been taking fiber to help her go, but she had not been drinking enough water. So, she's down in ER filled to the brim with S**T and vomiting liquid S**T! Can you imagine what that musta looked/smelled/tasted like???:imbar :imbar :eek: :imbar

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For all the dieters out there...read 2-3 pages of the EEEWWWW thread a/c and h/s.....hehehe

I swear I was starving before reading some of these stories..but now....NOT....lol :)

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My husband was recently in the ER for an extremely acute kidney stone attack (he had stones in both kidneys). He was writhing and moaning in pain. It was a bit much for a wife to take.

Anyway, he was hanging in there until the nurse came over to put an iv in place. One thing about my husband is that he is VERY squeamish about needles and blood. She started to place the needle in his arm....and he told her he was getting nauseous.

All of a sudden, he started to projectile vomit...(of course I RAN OUT OF THEIR as quickly as my feet could run) He barely missed the nurse, but it was all over himself, the floor, the bed.. To make matters worse, he is not quiet when he throws up. He makes the most awful gagging, retching noises! I could still hear him in the waiting room.

When I came back in, the IV was in place, & he was cleaned up. But let me tell you, the nurse's there told me that their stomaches were ROLLING while he was puking. In fact, the patient advocate had to run out of the area for fear she was going to puke right there on the spot with him.

I give you nurses such credit! Vomit to me is revolting..EWWWW!

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It's all sort of gross when you look at it from a distance. I mean, even if you come into the hospital feeling pretty good, anesthesia and surgery will generally take care of that...

I find the whole situation of nursing today very sad. I say, EEEWWWW to the staffing levels that are found acceptable by the powers that be, to the need for continued sticks to fragile, confused elderly patients, and to rude co-workers and physicians.

You know, I am really grateful for good nurses, and I consider myself one of them. But as my body ages, and my mind gets tired, I can't tolerate "gross" like I used to.

Now, this is really bad, but I join anyone who pukes. I had a young ortho patient, and this guy was just determined to puke everything up. So, on op day, I got him antiemetics, TLC, etc...I was working evenings, so apparently the guy puked all night and all day. Well, I knew I couldn't take it, so when I made my initial rounds, I said, "John, I have to explain something to you. You are not allowed to vomit on my shift. If you feel queasy, I will get you something for it, BUT you really need to start taking something by mouth to settle your poor stomach." No more pukes. What a great patient, huh?

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I work Endo, so yeah, GI bleeds are bad, but nothing compared to what one of my coworkers experienced in a Bronchoscopy!

How about the doc taking a biopsy of the lung, a chunk, (and I mean chunk), of tissue that came with the forcep, it was solidified empyema with continual oozing of liquid empyema from the bx site! The bronch lasted over an hour with alternating bites and oozing. (A normal bronch usually only takes 5-20 minutes at the most!). I was on vacation and missed the whole thing. All the good stuff happens when I'm not there!

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Or nothing like bending over to take off someone's slippers, the pt. coughs and you feel something hit the back of your neck, and wipe it off to find it's green phlegm.

ROTFLMAO, LPN2B!

That is soooo sick, but somehow, I can't stop laughing! So sorry you had to endure that, but thanks for the laugh! I hope that never happens to you again!

:roll

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Some years ago, when I worked in the nursing home, I had a patient that her husband came everyday at lunch time and brought her a ham sandwich. Well, on this day like clock work he came but when he got to the nurses station, his daughter called and ask to speak with him. He went around to answer the phone and while he was talking , he let out a big cough and bllod went EVERYWHERE. The man passed away, but I had never saw anything like it!! I was marked for quite a while, if someone coughed, I was afraid to look at them!!

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