Tossing Your Cookies...

CanuckStudent · Jul 17, 2009

High five on that one.... :barf01:
Forgot about the dentures

I feel horrible to even mention this (poor lady), but one time a Resident vomited and her teeth came flying out and landed on the floor beside her bed. It was rather shocking. Double whammy. Good thing she had a great sense of humour.

sh1901 · Jul 17, 2009

So far in school I've done fairly well, but....one week I wasn't feeling so well and we were at LTC. I went in with a friend to change a diaper, and was so thankful that the patient was turned because I was silently gagging. She offered to just finish up without me, but I forced myself to keep going and finish.

I've used the vicks under the nose trick. I keep a small jar in my clinical bag.

leslie :-D · Jul 17, 2009

i find it odd that some find dentures gross.

really??

i feel compelled to clean them, and actually feel good when i put clean dentures back in my pt's mouth.

they always smile.

leslie

Blindsided · Jul 17, 2009

Mucous/sputum. Absolutely no contest!

tishirajan · Jul 18, 2009

As a CNA I have a high tolerance for most things. The one thing that still gets me though is sputum. I would rather take a beating than to come in contact with it. Working in a nursing home you will find it just about everywhere it seems. I have run out of a room dry heaving after putting down a bedrail and pulling my hand away with a cold, green, lob of hack! That's one thing that gets me and always will. I gag now just thinking of it. :barf02: After that experience I always put my gloves on before entering a room that is likely to have it "lord-knows-where" and I check the bed, sheets, clothing, bedside table for any before I do anything. BLEH!

coffee4metech · Jul 18, 2009

Colostomy bags make me wanna throw up, had one patient who was a para. and would fart and the bag would inflate eeewww.:uhoh21:

wants2BRN · Jul 18, 2009

What makes me wanna toss my cookies? How 'bout this thread...J/K!

But seriously, reading this has been good. The more prepared I am, the better.

Keep it coming...

vivacious1healer · Jul 18, 2009

I can handle sputum/mucus.....no problem. I actually enjoy doing trach care and suctioning.

But a lower GI bleed....the smell knocks me over! Then I swear it stays in my nose for the rest of the shift! ick!!!!

Changing/emptying colostomy bags make me gag! Good lord, I don't know how these patients learn to deal with the smell! ugh!

allnurses Guide · Jul 18, 2009

Just a couple of months ago, I became sick while at work and vomited ALL OVER myself and the floor of our cancer hallway... in front of many of my coworkers and whomever was in the rooms on that hall. So embarrassing! I was trying to make it to the bathroom and just didn't make it...

I had some sort of stomach virus. Stuff like urine, feces, vomit, has never actually made me sick enough to upchuck, but in the past, things that have come the CLOSEST to doing so include C-diff stool, vomit, and illeostomies with chunks of STUFF in them.

!

Ploppers · Jul 18, 2009

I can't belive no one has mentioned wound drainage!!! That is the one and only thing that kills me. I had one Pt. that had a pressure ulcer on her foot. We went to change the dressing and I got the wonderful job of holding the foot up. Well I made the mistake of no mask and when the bandage came off my tears came up. It smelled like death and well... feet, and worst it was oozing purulent drainage. It looked like the entired heel was rotting. Just the sight killed me and adding the smell.... nearly lost it! :no: Ick Ick Ick!!!!!

Virgo_RN, BSN, RN · Jul 18, 2009

As a pre-nursing student, one of my biggest fears of becoming a nurse (other than harming/killing a pt) is tossing my cookies or fainting on the job. I am not very squeamish at all, and can handle most things (vomit, feces, blood, etc), but I am still worried. :uhoh21: So...to all you nurses out there, what was that thing that activated your up-chuck reflex or caused you to pass out?

I've never vomited or passed out.

Tulip28 · Jul 18, 2009

A very demented patient had just crapped all over her sheets with diarrhea. It was pretty much from mid back to toes. The smell alone was in my top 10 list. I've worked on floors with liver patients and those with GI bleeds, and this was much, much worse than those.
Anyway, it was during my med-surg clinical, and my friend and I offered to help our classmate clean her up. As we're holding her over and wiping her, the lady gives me a nice titty twister. Meanwhile, I'm trying to pry her hands off of me while still holding her leg up. We slide the new sheet on and pfffffffffftttt, another large pool of poop that smells like hot garbage appears.
My other poor friend is holding her over on the side, I'm still holding her leg up midway in the air and trying to prevent another titty twister, and the girl who has her runs over to the trash can, starts gagging, and actually pukes. We were all laughing and gagging so hard that half of the floor's nurses and students came down to see what was going on. Once the smell hit them, they did not enter the room. My poor friend had to walk out into the hall, regain composure, and then enter the lady's room again to finish the cleaning
The best thing about this? After we were all done, the patient says "Why does it smell so bad in here, I think you stink!"

This is one of the funniest things I have ever read- it made me cry with laughter! The things we have to do that only other health care worker would understand :nurse: .

It made me start thinking of all my experiences over the years. First year of nursing a dementia patient scratched me with poo fingernails:crying2: (broke skin!). A big bowel motion by a young man in a vegetative state in a small hot steamy shower! The smell of a tracking groin wound that the patient said she didn't even know was there til she ended up in ICU. The wound ooze from an open abdo wound on a patient covered with a clear dressing who only had a few metres of bowel left- took your breath away!

Everyday life: emptying vomit into the toilet:uhoh21: always ends up in me wanting to vomit and changing illeostomies. Many moons ago when I was a student I dry retched the whole time I changed a patients bag ( the ones you didn't just changed but had to wash out!). Felt so upset that I had done that in front of the patient. Gotton better over the years but still...

Have never fainted but definately know that emergency and theatre are not for me. Also I have been known to feel a little light headed when assisting with ICC insertions or pleural taps- even after all these years!