What Freaks You Out?

bigjay · Mar 15, 2001

Ahh, something lighter... let's see what freaks me out.

One nasty thing I hate is c-diff. We have a few on our floor and it's just nasty! The smell almost made me throw up a few nights ago.

Me personally I can't stand getting needles. Giving them, I'm good but getting them, no way. I had to get my titres tested a while back so I just popped over to the lab to get blood drawn. They didn't want me to go back to the floor cause they thought I was going to pass out!

Cheers,

J-P

Trauma Columnist · Mar 15, 2001

Ok, well, I'm an ER nurse and I don't like teeth things. I don't mind if they are completely gone, but just hanging there makes my skin crawl. judi

JillR · Mar 15, 2001

I am an EMT as well as an RN, so I have a pretty strong stomach and thought that there would be nothing that really bothered me after being exposed to it enough. Ortho surgeries drive me crazy, even the thought of an ortho surgery gives me the willies. It's weird because, having seen my share of open fracture, I thought that this would never be a problem, but I guess you can count me out as a surgical nurse.

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Mar 15, 2001

We were talking about this at work the other day (in ICU). I hate trach secretions too. Somehow, it's worse thru a trach than thru our closed suctioning endotracheal tubes. But what would really freak me out is a situation I heard another nurse describe (I haven't, Thank God, encountered it myself): once she took a patient off a bedpan and it was full of BIG intestinal WORMS. AAAACCKKKKK!!! Other nurses also described having to apply leeches as their worst nightmare (haven't done that yet either but I think I could handle leeches before BIG INTESTINAL WORMS!!!!). AAAAACCCKKK again!

Mijourney · Mar 15, 2001

Hi kday. Pretty much most bodily fluids gross me out. Somehow, I've managed to stay at the bedside all these years in spite of this. Someone indicated in their post that c-diff grossed them out. Ever smell Kleb. or Hemop. Even seeing germy looking sputum or sputum sitting in a container caused me to barf. Vomitus, especially with food contents, has about the same effect for me. Gross.....

I use to cringe sitting at the meal table when respiratory therapists or nurses didn't think twice about discussing a patient's sputum or vomitus. Gross.....

Imagine how the patient, if they are with it, and the families must feel when they know what's going on. I've had families not visit their loved ones in ICU because of being fearful or grossed out over bodily substances.

jp#1 · Mar 15, 2001

External pins in orthopaedic surgical pts. and vomit!! Just can't stand it.

JennieBSN · Mar 15, 2001

BLEAH!! The ortho comments DEFINITELY made me screech 'eeeeeeeeeeeewwwww!!' Yeah, the pins-in-the-skin thing is nasty. I had to have that MYSELF once as a patient, and thought I was gonna HURL! Thank GOD for valium!! As for the vomit stuff, I see so much puking on L&D, that I actually can tell what the patient had for dinner by looking at the vomit...ISN'T THAT SCARY? But I still can't deal when my CAT barfs up a hairball. NO WAY!! Uh-uh. Not cleaning THAT up!

OBNURSEHEATHER · Mar 15, 2001

What a refreshing change of pace from the venting...

I'm an OB nurse, so anything that comes out the "bottom half" I can handle! I'm even OK with vomit. But snot, sputum, or any other respiratory secretion absolutely grosses me out! I must also look away while a woman gets an episiotomy. The aftermath is OK, it's the actual cut that bothers me. Must be the equivalent of a guy watching another guy get kicked in the testicles!

Thanks for the humor you guys!

Heather

timonrn · Mar 15, 2001

I hate emptying NG cannisters, esp if it is real mucousy or chunky!! And I hate vomit or spit--makes me dry heave!!

mustangsheba · Mar 15, 2001

Trach lugies! Nothing worse!

Stargazer · Mar 15, 2001

Okay, I guess I'm done with lunch now. Several things give me the heeby-jeebies (or the gaggies). In no particular order:

--vomit (esp. the smell)

--lower GI bleeds (definitely the smell)

--some mouth care, as discussed on another thread, esp. brushing crusty old stained dentures [dry heave]

--any abdominal wound so large that I can fit my arm up to the elbow in it and it takes 24 rolls of Kerlix per dressing change

--anything where I have to use a flashlight (or wear a miner's helmet)to see what I'm doing, as in the previous dressing change or putting in a Foley in some large elderly women ["I'm going in--if I'm not back in 30 minutes, send in a search party"]

--any sputum that isn't crystal clear

--anything to do with fingernails, like removing a nail or evacuating a hematoma--I get sympathy pains

Sometimes it's the weirdest things that freak you out. The first time I helped a neurosurgeon put in a ventriculostomy at the bedside, watched him freeze the scalp--no problem. Drill the burrhole--no problem. When he threaded that big knitting needle through the scalp to secure the catheter, the veteran ICU nurse standing next to me and I both went, "Eeeewwwww!" The surgeon started laughing and said, "Okay, NOW you're going to get grossed out?"