What Freaks You Out?

crnasomeday · Mar 16, 2001

Okay...I'm just a student, so I haven't yet been exposed to ALLLLLL of the really gross stuff, but I can say this: I can handle mucus, I can sometimes handle vomit, but I absolutely, positively lose it if I have to deal with *poop*. (I sometimes even gag from changing my own kid's diapers, so just imagine how I am changing the diaper of a 78 year old patient). I am so sensitive to being grossed out by it that the sight, smell, or even thought can make me lose my lunch. Anybody see the Austin Power's sequel (The Spy who Shagged me)? I threw up, seriously, on the theater floor when he kept putting that cup up to his mouth that was labeled - Fat Dirty Bast***'s Stool Sample. My husband, in between uproarious laughter, just said "Oh yeah. You're going to be a great nurse."

Louise http://www.geocities.com/crnasomeday

JennieBSN · Mar 16, 2001

Okay, one more comment...I was called to the floor one night to assist with foley insertion (an L&D nurse can cath anything) on a pre-op GYN pt.. She had a lady partsl fibroid, and I don't mean an INTERNAL one. It was a SOFTBALL sized fibroid HANGING OUT of her lady parts!!! It was big, floppy, nasty, and oooooooohhhhh did it STINK!! I tried so hard to be as gentle and 'normal' with the pt. as I could, you could tell she was embarassed. But man, I popped that foley in, and escaped into the hallway so I could CATCH MY BREATH!! Nast-ola. That's a story I save to torture my husband with when he's being a jerk. Heh heh.

ThisBeautifulMessKC · Mar 16, 2001

I'm a CNA and I use to work in a nursing home. Most of the things i saw there didn't really sick me out. i changed a lot of "briefs" as we called em. I do remember this one lady. oh she was the sweetest thing..but..man..she had the stinkiest poop ever! i mean i dont mean to be rude, but i woiuld go in at night to change her, praying she didnt poopoo. If she did, i had to hold my breath will changing her. and i would walk away when i had to take a breath in order not to lose it all! It's kinda funny now that i think back to it, but man was it raunchy!

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"I dont know why, had such fun at my GI, oh lumpy colon" Letterman

Brenda Braun · Mar 16, 2001

Puss. I hate it. I am an old ED RN and have done L&D. I can't stand to do I&Ds-- Once an ED dr. and I were doing one on a patient and the puss hit the ceiling, needless to say both he andI had to excuse ourselves. I can usually make it through any proceedure, but that is one thing I sceeve-Puussss!!!:eek!

night owl · Mar 17, 2001

I've worshipped the god of porcelin 2x in my 20 yrs. of nursing...

Once I had to do oral care on a mouth breather & the secretions were so dried on the roof of his mouth that I practically had to use a jackhammer to remove it all.eeeeewwwww the odor was so horrendous I ran to the sink &...Luckily he was the only pt. in the room & he was confused & had no clue as to what I was doing in his sink!

Then the vomit thing...It brings me to my knees every time.It's the re-eh-eh-ehtching,& more re-eh-eh-eh-eh-tching that makes me stop,drop&heeeeeeeve!

jp#1 · Mar 17, 2001

kday, Brenda Braun, & NiteOwl: I howled laughing when I read your posts!!!!!! This is the BEST post/subject I've read here in months!

Cletus · Mar 17, 2001

Okay guys I'm an OB/Gyn 7 peds nurse with past experience in geriatrics. old people pee, poop, 7 Sputum are gross but have you ever done a vag exam and came out with a hand full of cottage cheese as a prize????

Or how about rotovirus in a kid's poop. Guaranteed to make you heave!!!!

goldilocksrn · Mar 17, 2001

Two things I have seen so far have really grossed me out: one is a lady who was found down in her home. She had a open wound to her abdomen that she wasn't taking care of, and when you would touch it (I wouldn't) maggots would fall out. We would have to flush it with saline, and they would just pore into the basin. Let me just say that I couldn't eat rice for a long time! The other one was this lady that had PID. I escorted the MD with the pelvic exam, and when he pull the swab, it had a ton of slimy, smelly green stuff on it. The MD vomited, and I had to stick my head out of the window for some air! Seriously, how do these people walk around with those kind of smells? The MD and I wondered to each other how the husband could even go there without losing it.

st4304 · Mar 17, 2001

This happened to a RT friend of mine. He went to a patient's home who was on home O2 and needed percussion. He said the patient would hack and cough up this thick, green, nasty sputum and spit it into an old coffee can by her chair. During the visit, he was sitting by the patient talking to her, getting ready to leave when he heard this "slurping" sound. He looked down, and her dog was eating that nasty stuff out of the coffee can!!! He said he horked up his lunch right there in the lady's living room!

It's his favorite story and I get queasy EVERY time he tells it!

burger914 · Mar 17, 2001

As a nursing student, I am proud to say that I have been handle the gross stuff much better than I thought I would. The one time I came really close to losing it, was helping a nurse with a stage four, infected pressure ulcer.It was a teenager who was paralyzed. His friends would carry him down three flights of stairs the car several times a day. He was very thin and eventually the skin over his hips opened up. Well, to make a long story even longer, he wasn't very clean. When he came in he had poop all over his wounds. Lovely smell! But when the nurse was poking around in the wounds with those really long q-tips and stuffing about 3 rolls of Kurlex in each pressure sore...I thought I was going down for the count!

night owl · Mar 17, 2001

That's it.I can't read no more of these posts! That dog thing just did me in... Someone PLEASE come help me.....................................Only kidding. Seriously, I think I would have left nursing if I saw that one.

snappy · Mar 17, 2001

I also get really freaked out with ortho cases especially when they are drilling the pins in someones leg.UKKKKKKKKKK, I could just vomitt

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