What Freaks You Out?

Zee_RN, BSN, RN · Apr 5, 2001

C.Diff is short for Clostridium difficile which is an anaerobic spore-forming microorganism that is found in the bowel. It can become virulent and "take over" the normal intestinal flora, particularly if the patient has been on antibiotics. It produces mucusy diarrhea with it's own special odor that you will recognize forever more after your first encounter with it. Flagyl is prescribed to combat it; vancomycin is also used.

Q. · Apr 7, 2001

This is kinda gross but not related to bodily fluids - but just yesterday we had a patient arrive via ambulance in labor - a gravida 9!!!! who weighed about 70 lbs, positive cocaine and a few others; anyway not only did she smell horribly like BO but when I swabbed her arm to start the IV, the alcohol wipe came back BLACK!!! Yuk! Thank god for standard precautions!

I usually don't wear gloves for IV starts (I know, I know!) but for some reason I did with this chick.

HotSpam · Apr 17, 2001

I have been a nurse for 9 years. I've been lucky to have a good range of experience. I'll give a couple good gross-out examples before I reveal what really turns my knobs.

Pulling over 10 rolls of kerlix slowly out of a chest cavity with an opening just big enough to squeeze my hand into was fun. Of course you normally don't really need to put your hand into a would completely, but in this case the kerlix kept getting caught on bone fragments. This wound care followed having the right lung removed and becoming abscessed. Repacking was nice too.

Not generally considered gross I find I have a hard time watching a c section. Something about slicing that taught belly.

I have attended two abdominal aortic anuerysm repairs. Those 10cm clotted arteries look nasty but don't send me over the edge.

I like wounds and events that are a little grosser than normal to help distract me from the tedium of daily routines. So the occasional maggot infested wounds, pack around the bone decubs, lareg yellow/white tumors popping out faces involving eye socket thru to chin - are really cool with me, even though they are gross.

I could go on and on, as we all could. To get to the point - 2 things in my career have mildly traumatized me. (3 including the c-section) a bone marrow biopsy at the bedside without anesthetic. Drilling that woman's hip- eeeewww. Second wasn't at work.

I was driving to the hospital to pick up my wife and newborn. An elderly man was riding a little rascal against the traffic right next to the busy road. He slipped off the curb and fell over into the path of a pickup going about 40mph. I pulled over and attended his death while we waited for paramedics to arrive. That sight and feeling is still with me.

HotSpam

maikranz · Apr 17, 2001

This post is hysterical!!!

ditto all the barf, snot, poop, hematemesis---even maggots (NYC) and

DEFINITELY the dog "treat" and the cat hockers.

Had a patient come in over the winter holidays--a diabetic, mentally challenged, lived alone, etc., >300#. Well, she somehow got a nick in her thigh and did not know it.

ANYWAY, she comes in with way altered mental status and FUO--turns out, has a gas gangrene infect of the thigh with crepitus and audible 'hissssss' if you pressed down near the site. Ended up with an open amputation of the leg--it was YEARS before I could look at a ham, let alone eat any.

JennieBSN · Apr 17, 2001

Originally posted by maikranz:
it was YEARS before I could look at a ham, let alone eat any.

OH, MAN!!! I DID NOT NEED TO READ THAT PART!!! BLEAH!!! LOL!

TLynn · Apr 18, 2001

Originally posted by kday:
Okay, people. It's time for a nice, fun, light-hearted discussion to blow off some steam.

WHAT FREAKS YOU OUT? What bodily fluid can't you STAND? What wound gives you the absolute WILLIES? It doesn't matter if you're an ADN, BSN, LPN, CNA, PQRST, ABCDEFG...every body gets the heebie jeebies over SOMETHING...even you stomach-of-steel ER nurses!

Mine is eyeball injuries/surgery...aaaaaaaaaackkkkkkk!! Gross! Makes my skin absolutely CRAWL. Or when someone gets a little cut on their finger/toe/whatever and then squeezes it to make it bleed!! Bleah!! Then there's the ever-popular RESPIRATORY SECRETIONS. I can handle poop, pee, amniotic fluid, lanced boils, pus, whatever...but give me a nasty snot-filled trach, and I'm OUTTA THERE.

Share, share, share people!

I have gone to medical science labs, seen corpses cut up, I have been shit on, pissed on, thrown up on. I have seen head injurys that have blood flowing everywhere and none freaked me out. This may sound crazy, but what does freak me out...the very site of my own blood!

Mysti · Apr 18, 2001

Snot and puke those are the things that make my skin crawl.

NurseBettyBoop · Apr 18, 2001

The grossest thing for me is putting lambswool between rotted out toes. I swore if the toe fell off I would scream first, then hurl.

journeyy · Apr 19, 2001

Hmmm....looks like I have lots to look forward to.

funniest: in nursing school one of the students assisting a resident to the BR yelled 'look out she's gonna blow!', the student came out with feces from head to toe, it was even dripping from the ceiling!

freakiest: LTC situation. Two residents in the room, both COMPLETELY bed bound. On my first night, I turned both residents, straightened up the room, returned to the nursing station 10 ft away. The charge nurse said 'now listen'. I could hear noises coming from the room. I went in and all the drawers were out of the dresser! Apparently one of the residents in the room believed herself to be possessed, she spoke in different voices. The charge nurse said that many times the room was put in total disarray with no apparent explanations. Lots of witnesses, and, I saw it twice more myself. Too scary for me. Telekinisis or not, I couldn't work with that resident anymore. It was standard policy that all care given to this woman was done by at least a team of two. Some initiation.

jamistlc · Apr 20, 2001

Whay grosses me out, not much! As an 11 year vetern in Nursing I have seen alot of things most of the time I stomach it no problem. I had to disimpct a elderly male after the Doc's who were doing it lost thier cookies, no problem!

What has grossed me out , never lost my cookies though are two incidents I can think of that actually occurred. First while doing a Cadavear Donor procedure and the corpse had an episode of emesis and I saw peas and corn in my sterile feild. The other was a MR and indigent female client who said she was raped, I set up for the forensic exam (Masks for all to reduce the smell) after the exam we closed that room off and sterilized it with bleach trying to get rid of the smell. It stayied all day, this is probably as close to loosing my lunch as I have gotten! That was what I would definately call a rotten crouch. We did find she had syphllis and had it chronically for a long time, yuk!

StaceRacer1 · Apr 20, 2001

Definately the smell of impacted stool. Yukk!!!! We all know it!!!!!!!!

Joybug · Apr 20, 2001

Okay, here goes. It was as a student in the OR that I had my worst experience.

A woman was having a vag assisted lap hysterectomy. In the OR were 2 surgeons,

the anesthetist, 2 nurses, myself and a ?saleman from an equipment company. Also lots of equipment including a very large TV monitor which the sales guy was promoting.

So, absolutely no extra room to move. I was standing near the bottom of the tablewith a prime view, right next to the TV in case I missed anything. The woman proceded to bleed. and bleed. and bleed... Next thing I was feeling funny. I looked at my hands and they were WHITE and so was the rest of me. I was escorted to the lounge almost immediately.

The woman had blood loss = 3.0 litres. They found out later that she had a rare clotting disorder that hadn't been diagnosed previously.

In five years of nursing, nothing has affected me like that again.