Today I almost yacked ...

Nurses General Nursing

Published

I have seen wounds that I could fit a small child in, cleaned trachs with caked on goodies that took an eternity to scrub clean, been witness to the olfactory insult of a GI bleed, even been vomitted on, but never felt like I was going to lose my cookies until today. For dinner, I was beginning to feed a 90+ year old demented lady, very little interaction even with her hearing aids in. I gave her one bite of a toasted sandwich on the end of a fork and she began to chew. About a minute later, she put her hand up to her mouth and removed a very large piece of what HAD to be lunch that she had pocketed in her cheek five hours earlier. As soon as the smell hit me, my stomach began to turn. I had to get up and walk away to recover. She didn't end up eating very much either. Gag! Not real sure why that, above anyting else, bothered me so much ...

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Specializes in CAMHS, acute psych,.

That is strange. The thing I almost lose it over (far too often) is necrotic, pus-filled, disgusting-smelling pressure ulcers. I'm getting pretty sick of poo, uncleaned genitals and bad breath from uncleaned teeth, too.

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Specializes in LTC, Acute Care.

I'm sorry to say this, but I had to laugh. That is gnarly!

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Specializes in Med-Surg, LTC, Rehab, HH.

Its wierd, I think we all have our one little weakness. Pocketed food is yours!! Hopefully you wont see much of that. That IS funny, or maybe......your pregnant. lol

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Specializes in Cardiac Telemetry, ED.

That is pretty funny!

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I think I almost lost it when I had a patient who hadn't had oral care in weeks and was also on aspiration precautions. I went to clean his teeth and I told him to rinse his mouth out with a little water and spit into a basic (I had the patient sitting up and wall suction ready) so as the patient is spitting he can't seem to get it all out and when he spit out came this huge blob of sputum that I had to suck to finish getting out it of his mouth, it was brown, slimy and looked something like gack or flubber or something like that. I thought I was going to throw up but I held it together and took it to the bathroom and got rid of it (it was 150 mL just for an FYI.) So bring on the vomit, blood, urine and stool but sputum grosses me the hell out. UCK!!!

!Chris :specs:

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Specializes in Emergency Nursing.

I think I almost lost it when I had a patient who hadn't had oral care in weeks and was also on aspiration precautions. I went to clean his teeth and I told him to rinse his mouth out with a little water and spit into a basic (I had the patient sitting up and wall suction ready) so as the patient is spitting he can't seem to get it all out and when he spit out came this huge blob of sputum that I had to suck to finish getting out it of his mouth, it was brown, slimy and looked something like gack or flubber or something like that. I thought I was going to throw up but I held it together and took it to the bathroom and got rid of it (it was 150 mL just for an FYI.) So bring on the vomit, blood, urine and stool but sputum grosses me the hell out. UCK!!!

!Chris :specs:

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I can handle just about anything, blood, guts, vomit, gore...But what I CANNOT take, the thing that bothers me the most, is necrotic body parts that are still attatched to the body!

I have made it clear to my family that if I am ever in such a way, they are to have those parts removed, asap! Take 'em off, pronto! I don't care how much has to be removed, in fact, trim me like an azalea bush, but get those parts off. I don't care if you end up having to bury what's left of me in a cigar box, just do it!

(shudder!)

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I can handle just about anything, blood, guts, vomit, gore...But what I CANNOT take, the thing that bothers me the most, is necrotic body parts that are still attatched to the body!

I have made it clear to my family that if I am ever in such a way, they are to have those parts removed, asap! Take 'em off, pronto! I don't care how much has to be removed, in fact, trim me like an azalea bush, but get those parts off. I don't care if you end up having to bury what's left of me in a cigar box, just do it!

(shudder!)

Note to self, must have talk with family clarifying the removal of necrotic body parts ... LOL! Seriously, that is the truth! Sometimes when I look at these people's feet, wounds, whatever, I just don't think they can see the same thing I see! I wish I could be straight up honest and tell them, "Hey, sir, that is not just a flesh wound you got there, and the smell is not coming from down the hall ... it is your rotting flesh and it's not going to 'get better' no matter what we do here. Sorry, but it's just got to go. If it were me and I owned a hack saw ... "

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