What Freaks You Out?

ktwlpn, LPN · Mar 24, 2001

Originally posted by MartyL:
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).]

Don't ya think that the wives of male gyns use alot of douche? ROFLMAO!!!

Jay-Jay, RN · Mar 24, 2001

Hi, Laura! Our landlord lives in Burlington, he's the minister at a church there, and his wife works as a nurse at St. Mike's in Toronto! Small world!

Isn't it great being able to laugh about this stuff? How often have you had your family throw up their hands just as you're getting to the good part, and say, "STOP! NO MORE NURSING STORIES>>>>I' DON"T need to hear this!!"

About the woman who tossed her husband's member in the trash: remember the Bobbitt case? Didya know that after it was all over, both John and Lorena got new jobs? She works for Magicuts, and he works for Snap-on-Tools!

Yuk, yuk, ain't I awful!!

Elenaster · Mar 24, 2001

Boy did I ever jinx myself by posting on this one. I went to work today (in the ED) and we had 3 GI bleeds! The first one was an elderly woman that was having melena stools about every 15 minutes (eeewwww, the smell!). The next was doing the same thing and was going into hypovolemic shock, but the last one takes the cake. He was in liver failure and came in having huge amounts of coffee-ground emesis. We put an NG down him and he was filling up those cannisters FAST. Gastro came down with their portable endoscope and did their thing but the doc had to pull the NG. Of course he started puking again and this time it had big chunks of fecal material in it (YUCK, YUCK, YUCK!) It then started coming out the other end and by this point he was just swimming in it, we turned him over to clean the bed and I felt something liquid run down my leg (AAACCCKKK!) I had pretty much had enough at this point and after I came back from changing my scrubs, I found out he was VRE positive.

rjcpdc01 · Mar 24, 2001

God this brings back memories. Well, gangrenous leg ulcers and psuedomonas trache secretions absolutely REEK!

But you guys made me remember something I found right after I got out of nursing school. Dean, a fellow new grad, and I were spiffing up a new admit from the LTC. She was very young, but had a neuromuscular disorder noone could put a diagnosis on. I had worked in the ICU as a SNA for 2 years, but poor DEAN had only been in the ICU for 5 months. I started doing mouth care, and found something hanging in the back of her throat. He got a tongue blade and I had the tonsil suction and we pulled out this huge glob of GOOK. I mean it looked like a RAW OYSTER! I looked over at Dean and asked him if he had a cracker. He turned green and almost passed out. I had to leave the room because I was laughing so hard I was about to pee my pants....whew! Thanks for a good laugh!

beckyjo · Mar 24, 2001

I had a quadraplegic patient that asked me to hold the kleenex while he blew his nose. He liteally filled the kleenex! I tried so hard not to have a disgusted look on my face as i felt the warmth of the mucous in the kleenex. I thought I was going to vomit right there.

beckyjo

nursejones4 · Mar 24, 2001

You know, I have only been a nurse for about 8 months now, but the grossest thing I've seen so far is penile implants. I've seen them get infected and rot away. Or mummified body parts. Putting someones shirt on and fearing that you'll find a finger on the floor when you finished. Yuck!!!!!!!!

Q. · Mar 24, 2001

Drains and having to empty the bloody, pus filled, whatever it is that is draining into those digusting little bulbs - ICK. Also, anything that is draining from the head - eye drainage, head wounds, snot, ear wax and sputum.

The one thing that nearly got me to faint was the flashback of blood into the IV tubing - like when you go to withdraw air and forget to clamp off the tubing at the site, and WHAM the tubing is like in a micro-second filled with blood. That creeps me out. Also, in our OB unit, when the anesthesia machine in our OR is beeping and the lights are off - that gives me the whillies.

Doc · Mar 25, 2001

Oh yeah I just remembered the pt at neurosurgery, who had an abcess in her skull. They actually tried grafting the bone segment back on, but she ended up getting meningitis, and the site kept getting reinfected, and they had to debride. She wasn't helping things out by picking the scab all the time. Eventually there was almost nothing left to debride and her brain had herniated through the hole in her skull (gives the word "conehead" a whole new meaning!), and because there was no skin you could SEE it! Everyone kept trying to reinforce the importance of infection control measures and told her not to touch the wound. "This is your BRAIN!" we would say. By this time small bits of her brain came off with the debridement. One registrar was of the opinion that she was just too far gone (neurologically) to understand how she contributed to her state. The neurosurgeon said he thought she understood, but he knew she had broken parole and this was her way of staying out of prison. I don't think I could be that desperate in her situation.

Doc

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Q. · Mar 25, 2001

Doc that is disgusting!!

I never understood how patients can just insist on doing the total opposite of what they seem to want done. They come to the hospital for care and then trash the whole plan. But picking at her head? I think I will look at head drainage completely different now.

[This message has been edited by Susy K (edited March 25, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by Susy K (edited April 07, 2001).]

mustangsally · Mar 26, 2001

bloody emesis, I mean the stuff that is semi fresh yet with clots, ok gotta stop description to go gag

edie · Mar 26, 2001

I see that I've got all of this to look forward to. Of the bits that I have seen I must admit that pressure sores are just gross. They smell of rotten pickled onions and just make me gag every time.

I had this patient who had lower intestinal bleeding. He asked for the bed pan, so I got it and told him that he was to let me clean him up as I had to check what he was passing. The patient decided that he could do it himself, so he only called me to take his pan away. The stools were liquid and they stunk. I had to squeeze out the tissue that he had so thoughtfully put in the pan to hide the smell so that I could measure how much he had passed. End result? One student retching like crazy

morningwind · Mar 26, 2001

Originally posted by dawngloves:

Originally posted by traumaRUs:
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
I knew a nurse that couldn't handle dentures! She told me it was worse in the old days before gloves and people would just pop 'em out and hand them to ya!

Yeppers, you got it. Its the teeth for me too. Old slimy stinky dentures with nasty old smelly green decayed food will get me everytime.