What Freaks You Out?

burger914 · Mar 17, 2001

Cletus,

That cottage cheese thing did me in!!! UGHHHH

I might think twice about OB nursing now!

ktwlpn, LPN · Mar 17, 2001

Originally posted by Duckie:
We had a resident in our facility that had extensive surgery to her face, removing her eye, most of the roof of her mouth on one side and part of her nose, due to cancer. We had to clean her oral cavity twice a shift. I absolutely could not do this no matter how hard I tried. We had to take dressings down through her eye socket and clean all the mucous and food from her eye, mouth, and nose as is was open and allowed everything to mix. And to make it all even worse, she could watch you with her other eye. Even after 20 years experience with many kinds of situations I could not do this. Thank goodness my Supervisor was a gem and found someone else to do it that didn't hurl at the thought. I get the weemies just thinking about it!!!!

O my-she watched you with her other eye???? o-my, o-my...I can handle most anything and keep a game face but cerumen is the worst for me...I hate to touch anyone's ear-even members of my own family....Maggots in open wounds are a bit of a challenge to me I will admit-even if they were put there for the purpose of debridement....yuch....This thread is a hoot-when I read about the dog slurping the lugies up and the PID lady I was done...but like any true nurse-got to go get dinner ready.......no problem...tee hee.But-on the serious side all of the disgusting experiences I have had helped alot when I had to take care of my mom-she died of squamos cell ca of the vulva-which was necrotic by the time she was staged and started treatment-with all she went thru she never lost her sense of humor.The poor thing had a supra pubic cath,a colostomy(an "innie" because the stoma rotted off post-op) and a really foul open wound from her rectum to who knows where-foul drainage which required a lot of packing...before her many surgeries she would joke about sticking post-it notes to the docs on her thighs....

[This message has been edited by ktwlpn (edited March 17, 2001).]

JennieBSN · Mar 17, 2001

Oh, man. That is so sad!! Okay, gotta give the folks an 'upper.' One of our nurses had a total vag. hys., and chose to have a spinal for her surgery instead of general. She and the CRNA decided to write 'GOOD MORNING, DR. ----!!' in giant black marker across her inner thighs...I hear the look on the MD's face when they put her up in the stirrups was priceless. Hee hee!! On the PID thing...one of my buds had a similar experience in nursing school when she rotated thru the VD clinic. A chick came in c/o smelly green d/c x3 weeks. The NP stuck the speculum in, asked for a sponge stick, and pulled out a 3 week old TAMPON, which just flopped open like a gutted fish when she laid it on the table. AAAAAAAAAAAHHH!! And who HASN'T worked the GYN floor and had the patient who forgot about her IUD 15 years ago and it was imbedded into her uterus. YUCK! We've seen 2 of those.

Eeeep!!

TraumajunkyRN · Mar 18, 2001

I have seen so many grose things that little bothers me....EXCEPT.....EYEBALLS! They are so nasty. Last summer we had a pt that removed both of his eyes with his fingers and thank GOD I was off but I had at least five different phone calls from people at work telling me about it...including the EMT-P that picked him up and a security guard at work! Thanks Guys!!!! Everyone knows I hate eyeballs and they are always trying to trick me into looking at things in eyes...sticks, bottle rockets, finger nails! What great co workers I have!

LisaPRN · Mar 18, 2001

Working as an ER nurse I've seen many things but I have to say 2 things make me leave the room. One is definately penetrating eye injuries, the other finding maggots in decub's. uuuugggggghhhhhh......

rosemarie · Mar 18, 2001

This topic is great!!!! The two things that get me is suctioning and mouth care when there is a lot of gross tings in the mouth like dried ichy mucous, espicially in the mouth of patients with g/tubes. Also any wound that is draining. I took care of a lady that had an infected toe, the MD came in and lanced it, pus and sangrenous material spurted out all over the place, it was gross. I had to leave the room, I was starting to get queazy, the funny thing is I had a student nurse with me that day, she loved it!!!. The doctor asked if I was alright after the procedure. The funny thing is after it was drained and dressed, I was fine.

LPN2RN · Mar 18, 2001

Eww, that maggots thing is GROSS! I've been in Nursing for about 10 years, most of that time on a pulmonary unit.

What can I not handle? Suctioning plugs of mucus from trachs - gives me the dry heaves -weird thing is the feeling of accomplishment I have when I help them clear it...

AND slimy, green, algae like C-Diff stool. YUCK!

PINKYE1 · Mar 18, 2001

This is too cute, I'm rolling around laughing. The thing that freaks me out most is the smell of burning flesh in the OR when they're cauterizing. That is seriously STIIINNNNNKKK!!! Yyuuuuuccccccccckkk!

Anyone else grossed out by this??

nursejanedough · Mar 18, 2001

The dog slurping got to me also. I just called my sis, ex ER nurse, to please post some of her stories. She told me one about a patient coming in with a horrible smell, had dead leaves in lady parts (an herbal thing), that is hilarious. She was also Elvis's nurse, but she won't talk about it. Talk about ethics!

Kaliko69 · Mar 18, 2001

OH my gosh. you guys are really freaking me out. hahaha

and I am a student nurse.

oh what I have to look forward to.

opie · Mar 18, 2001

OK Nursejanedough, I forgot to tell you of two other things that gross me out. The smell of dead and infarcted intestines. UGHH! When the surgeon makes the abdominal incision, everyone has to put oil of wintergreen on their masks to keep from puking. Also, I have come close to losing it when drunks come into the ER and start vomiting, it STINKS.

snappy · Mar 18, 2001

one thing that makes me want to vomit is toxic sock syndrome!!!!!!!!!!! I cannot stand stinky feet, and homeless people in the winter are the worst

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