What Freaks You Out?

Elenaster · Mar 18, 2001

These posts are hilarious and disgusting. I have a really strong stomach and some of this stuff has just made me run for the toilet! As far as what grosses me out, the trach/respiratory mucous is disgusting and GI bleed smells make me kind of ill as well. When I first started working in the ED, I thought third degree burns were the worst yet until I smelled wounds infected with pseudomonas. YUCK!!! The latest gross-out for me was this man that was hit by a car. He was FILTHY! His feet smelled horrible and were about as funky as anything you've ever seen and to top it off, he was intubated and when they gave him the meds he crapped everywhere. It wasnt just the run-of-the-mill poop either, I'm talking 3 days worth of drinking really cheap beer poop. Everyone was gagging and one of the nurses helping take care of him hadn't eaten all day and nearly passed out from the smell.

iamme457 · Mar 18, 2001

GI bleed poop has to be the most gag inducing smell for me.

Trauma, ICU, ER, Paramedic....usually the stuff in the field that you have no warning about is what shocks me the most. Jaw dropping, stare for 30 seconds stuff. Decapitations and guns to the head and face give me the willies for a week or so...complete with nightmares for a night or two. It takes a lot of showers to get rid of the smell of something that has been dead for a few days, same smell as those sores that need debrieded only bigger odor.

That about covers it for me

opie · Mar 18, 2001

Elenaster, the poop from the patient that had been dringking for three days brought back bad memories. One time in the ER I had to get a "nasty" smelly person undressed. When I pulled his socks off, they didn't come off, but just disintergrated into dust. The smell was terrible.

HazeK · Mar 18, 2001

Oh, how hysterical this posting is!

I feel so, so much better knowing others have things that bother them! I loved the chicken feathers one--I'll be sure to bath daily, just to keep my feather count down! Also was grossed out by the dog & coffee can one--will be sure to have a lid for the can, when I am old w/ COPD!

Mine? I can't stand lugies/spit/respiratory slimewads of any type! Left ICU because of it! ('course I'm in L&D now and do blood & amniotic fluid to the elbows without difficulty...go figure!)

I sympathize w/ the RN who hated circumcisions! When I saw my first one, in nursing school, I grabbed my crotch & dropped to the floor in sympathy pain...then the doctors started laughing & teasing me 'cuz I don't have the right equipment to BE sympathetic! LOL!

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Jay-Jay, RN · Mar 19, 2001

The closest I came to losing it was when I was assisting a veterinarian pin a cat's dislocated leg. He was a BIG man, ex-football player, and he took this little kitty's leg, and twisted it around like it was a piece of sphaghetti. Disconnected it from the anesthetic machine, rushed it to x-ray, back into OR, nope, not in yet...twisted it some more, back to x-ray (etc). Having had many badly sprained ankles in my life, I guess I was imagining how much pain the poor cat was going to be in when it woke up...

Finally, he got it, and began to insert a pin, using a carpenter's brace and bit. The sound of that pin going through bone (crunch, crunch) REALLY did it! I had to leave, or I would have been flat out on the floor!

[This message has been edited by Jay-Jay (edited March 21, 2001).]

fyrnymph · Mar 19, 2001

I am failry season nurse and the one thing that just gets way under my skin and grosses me out is nails....

I once had to assit with the removal of an ingrown toenail the sound that the nail made when it seperated from the toe.... yuck

I have goosebumps just thinking about it

nursejanedough · Mar 19, 2001

Yes, PINKYEl, when I was a nurse extern in surgery that cauterizing "smell" was horrible. I did not eat red meat for about a year after working there. And to Opie, I know you have better gross ER stories and even better Elvis nurse stories, either write a book or post your experiences here. They are great.

mlvogt · Mar 19, 2001

Originally posted by bigjay:
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

mlvogt · Mar 19, 2001

Originally posted by bigjay:
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

I can pretty much handle anything snot, blood, most smells but I just cannot handle mouths. Dentures make me gag I dont know how I got through all those years at the nursing home. I think it must stem from the pika patient i had.

Mumzy9697 · Mar 20, 2001

I am Ok with trachs, vomit, colostomies, gaping wounds,ect what bothers me is feet!!!dry,scaly long thick toenails. can't understand why anyone would want to be a podiatrist??Please don't ask me to take off your socks, LOL

bunky, BSN, RN · Mar 20, 2001

I have been reading these and laughing hysterically. I can do trachs, spit, snot, pus, even when the pus (a lovely gray toothpaste like never ending string of it)came from and 8 yr old scrotal cyst that suddenly came to a head when the guy was on abt's for something else and just happened to squeeze it and out it rolled. But the grossest I have to agree is maggots and poop eaters! Once in nsg school a classmate was changing the diaper of a 4mos old who was in with AGE and this student tended to be a mouth breather and the baby shot out a fountain of diarrhea right into my classmates mouth! GROSS!!!!!!!

MartyL · Mar 20, 2001

Oh guys, between the laughing and the gagging I think this is the best I've seen yet. Having been a respiratory therapist you would think secretions are a breeze for me--well they are so long as they don't touch any part of my skin! I had a luggie lunged at me from a trache with me at the foot of the bed and the sprinkles across my face made me want to barf right there and then! I ran to the bathroom as soon as I put the vent back on the patient and scrubbed my face with betadine soap! Next would have to be teeth--dentures! I'm sorry but I tell my patients I don't "do" dentures. I will given them the cup and the essentials but I cannot stand teeth. Nor can I watch someone brush their teeth. The white foam churns my stomach -- I myself rinse my mouth AND toothbrush a dozen times to brush my own teeth. I can't stand that yuky white foamy stuff in my mouth.

And last but not least, would have to be any kind of malodororus hinny. Its bad enough having to hold your breath through a catherterization; I could NEVER be on the other end of the speculum! Yuk! I have no idea how male GYN docs can go home to their women after a heavy day at the clinic!

[This message has been edited by MartyL (edited March 20, 2001).]