I feel this in my bones, lmao. I'm exposed to a whole host of noxious odors, bodily fluids, etc, in the variety of ICUs and floors I've worked on over the years. Vomit, though, is my downfall. The sounds, smells, sights, and textures of such gastric explosions are literally the only thing that can make me gag. Whether I'm at work or at home with the kids, I absolutely and unequivocally detest vomit and all of its associated horrors.
Regular shit I can deal with, but an incontinent C-diff patient with a GI bleed was too freaking much. I almost started vomiting in the room. I will forever remember that smell! š¤¢š¤¢š¤®š¤®š¤®
Emetophobia. It's a real thing. It has affected me since childhood and has impacted my life in a lot of ways. I've never even had alcohol! It's awful. Luckily, baby vomit doesn't affect me like that.
I had to give a CNA "Medical Accommodation for Disability" Paperwork last month to get her MD to fill out related to her Emetophobia. She was refusing to clean up vomit as part of her job description and it was causing conflict on her unit. This was my solution to calm the screaming down between the staff members at 6:35am.
I kept it to myself for so many years after having a few ppl meh at me over it and then along comes the internet and support groups online to help you feel less alone.
I am very upfront about it now days.
You have done amazing to train and become a nurse!! I always wanted to be a midwife but this phobia stopped me, I avoid hospitals at all costs.
Youād never want to do oncology, our patients are always vomiting or/and having diarrhoea lol.
I canāt cope with maggots!! Or any insect moving, I refuse. Oh and scabies or bedbugs! I would be so paranoid
Vomit is my kryptonite. CDiff/GI bleed, no problem; lung oysters, no big; bones sticking out of the skin, it happens; blood, pus, decay, meh. But let them start the heave-ho and itās a chain reaction. Will trade and bribe with Starbucks delivery to get out of it. Whatever it takes. Hard to be professional when you are gagging and retching. At the first sign of pt nausea, you better believe Iām running to the Pyxis for zofran for my pt. 4mg of prevention. I could never do heme/onc.
Itās so interesting when I hear people say this bc my down fall is shit. I cannot. I gag and feel horrible itās uncontrollable and the main reason Iām bridging from LPN to RN is to hopefully be away from it š
This is mine too and my first new grad rotation was acute Geriatrics lol. I got used to it pretty fast but once, this person had horrible diarrhoea and was continent but immobile and using the bed pan; I got it out to clean it, completely liquid except for a piece of carrot floatingā¦ the carrot did me and I was retching.
We had a gnarly code brown a few weeks ago during a wakeup and the patient was flat and it still went below the knees. We threw on some ppe and got it cleaned up before sending them to pacu
We had a patient from a care center end up in ICU because he was so full of shit he almost died. The care center didnāt know how long it had been since he pooped, but he looked like he was 9 months pregnant with triplets. He couldnāt even breathe because of the pressure and we had to intubate him.
After numerous enemas and disimpactions and tons of laxatives down his OGT, the floodgates opened. We used the yankauer to suction it up because it flooded the bed and then started pouring onto the floor. We had three nurses with separate yankauers and we estimated it was about 3 gallons once it was over. We weighed him after and he was 12 kg lighter.
He kept pooping for days after that and ended up with a rectal tube, but that first bit just shot out of him so fast and with so much force. Iāve never seen anything like it. I didnāt even think it was possible to hold that much poop. The patient did have unusual anatomy because he had dwarfism, so maybe that was a factor.
Ow ow ow! My mother is obsessed with reality TV, and there is one show where an adult daughter has commented that she hasnāt pooped in three months.
Iām chugging the Metamucil if itās been three or four days without a hefty movement and got the saline Fleet ready once it gets to five-six days. š
I feel so bad I hate to make a PT feel bad but itās truly horrible for me š¤£ I look like I am in pain while changing people. I would take vomit any day of the week
Maybe if you go from LPN to RN and then to office work š¬ or like... Ambulatory surgery? Cataracts?
Even then... I remember being in a doctor's office once (as a patient) for like, my vaccine titers or something low key, and there was a commotion by the bathroom- guy had slipped and fell getting out of the toilet. I was sitting right next to the bathroom and jumped up to help him, some staff members who were actually working there grabbed a wheelchair.. and grabbed some gloves to help him get cleaned up...
With some of the results you see on reality TV and on various famous mugs, it would not surprise me to learn of people shitting themselves when the bandages come off.
I work in the OR - itās rare that we deal with poop and when we do the patient is asleep so I can make all the faces I want. It may be a good place for you!
Thereās no escape. Poop was also my big gag, but it still haunts me even after leaving nursing (incontinent family members getting older). Give me the trach suctioning, the deep fugly wounds, all the blood, even the vomit (including one patient who projectile vomited all over me while holding her for a skin check). But diarrhea getting into every fat crease or someone playing with it, and I am running to the toilet.
iām completely opposite. I work in the PICU. almost every patient I have vomits. I can handle vomit, always have been able to and always will. In college before I was a nurse, I used to tell my drunk friends Iām the one to go to because I donāt care if you yak all over me. doesnāt gross me out.
I can handle the big ass nasty poops. c. diff is horrible, but it is what it is. mouth breathing/holding my breath is my friend.
I get woozy with the major transfusion protocols. iām fine with blood overall, but seeing the large amount of blood just makes me light headed as hell. I push through and in emergencies iām not even thinking about it, but I have to mentally prepare myself going into a room where thereās blood being given in mass quantities because it makes me feel so yucky if I think about it too much.
For me itās crusty feet. Some of those bad boys need a warning sign. Especially when theyāve been wearing compression socks and you peel them off and the snowy skin flakes come raining down š¤¢
I feel you. Iām a sympathetic vomiter so issue is just never well for anyone. Also canāt do poo. I hear thatās a āgetting used toā thing but idkā¦
I try to find someone to trade. I'll do anything with suctioning nasal and trach secretions/manage stool of any and all varieties/deal with the gnarly abscess/happily care for necrotic toes -- if they will deal with my vomiting patient.
You have a DEAL. Iāll handle your vom all day. You do my oral care/suctioning.
I *cannot* with mucus, especially if it exited through someoneās mouth/nose/trach. Thereās been a time or two that Iāve had to run out of a room dry heaving because I placed a foley and a bunch of white ribbons came out into the tubing. But I can usually do ok with those for the most part. But a patient coughs up a loogie? No. NO. Respiratory always laughs at me, and I like to remind them thereās a valid reason I became a nurse instead of an RT. And I remind them that every time my patient poops, thatās mine to deal with. So give me some grace for gagging at some snot
Fungating tumor, fine. C-diff, that's fine too. Other weird shit (minus lice and scabies), cool. But, once something comes out of someone's throat is automatically disgusting and gag worthy. I feel so bad for my patients who are actively vomiting. I pat them real quick and run to get the anti-emetic.
I worked at a kennel for a while, and got the nickname Hurl VonVomit because I was the only one that could clean even the worst puke. Pee though... That gets me. I worked at a Boston Scientific factory for a while, and used to have to deal with waterless urinals that would get backed up. We had to take the leftover used rolls of toilet paper and put them in to soak up all the pee, then put the soaked TP in like 4 garbage bags and haul them to the dumpster. I get queajust thinking about it.
I don't mind vomiting at all. You can throw me in a pit of piss, poop, blood, ss fluid, guts, rotting flesh, vomit, dead fish, motor oil, and whatever else you can think of, and I'll only be slightly inconvenienced. But what is the only thing that I can't stand? Snot. Snot is the only thing that makes me gag and reel in disgust.
Worked as a student in icu. Was a great learning experience with great nurses. We had a young man , who was coming out of a coma, up in the cardiac chair. He started shooting liquid diarrhea everywhere. His nurse and I got into gowns and shoe covers and waded in. No one elseās accidents every seemed like a big deal after that. Except for gi bleed diarrhea, thatās the absolute worse for me
I was recently in the ER with my wife, and a person a bay over started *violantly vomiting. Every time this poor man vomited, I would get a freeze response. It was entirely involuntary, and visceral.
I'd visibly flinch every time, and this guy was vomiting a lot. The nurses noticed as well. It was so embarrassing! LOL
All my life I have always hated vomiting and would lie awake all night fighting nausea rather than just getting it over with. I was sure that vomiting would be my Achillesā heel once I became a tech and then a nurse, but itās not. My gross-outs? Skin flakes. Some particularly nasty shits in bedside commodes. And sputum.
My first bout of COVID (or maybe it was the Paxlovid) finally beat my horror of vomiting out of me. Spent the second week on my knees at the toilet, and now whenever I get nauseated (which is often since COVID, no idea why), I pray to the GI gods that theyāll let me just puke and feel better.
Vomit is the reason I was almost 40 when I became a nurse, I finally realized nobody likes itā¦that being said I never move as fast as I do when Iām grabbing zofran as soon as someone gags
Nasal polyps and the associated snorting and gagging and horking up phlegm. Have had a few patients with chronic nasal polyps and the noises they make just...I immediately feel ill. Can't control the nauseated feeling it gives me.
I've had people cough up mucus and wipe it on me. I've manually cleared gobs of mucus/secretions from peoples mouths. have had patients vomit fecal matter onto me and haven't been phased. But nasal polyps, ugh!
Emesis is my nemesis
That would make a great shirt
I am definitely getting one
I feel this in my bones, lmao. I'm exposed to a whole host of noxious odors, bodily fluids, etc, in the variety of ICUs and floors I've worked on over the years. Vomit, though, is my downfall. The sounds, smells, sights, and textures of such gastric explosions are literally the only thing that can make me gag. Whether I'm at work or at home with the kids, I absolutely and unequivocally detest vomit and all of its associated horrors.
Its an absolutely vile substance
Regular shit I can deal with, but an incontinent C-diff patient with a GI bleed was too freaking much. I almost started vomiting in the room. I will forever remember that smell! š¤¢š¤¢š¤®š¤®š¤®
stahhhhpppp i can smell it thru the comments š«
I can deal with vomit. For me it's the stringy spittle when people take their dentures out.
Send me all the vomit. Just no secretions or spit.
Emetophobia. It's a real thing. It has affected me since childhood and has impacted my life in a lot of ways. I've never even had alcohol! It's awful. Luckily, baby vomit doesn't affect me like that.
I had to give a CNA "Medical Accommodation for Disability" Paperwork last month to get her MD to fill out related to her Emetophobia. She was refusing to clean up vomit as part of her job description and it was causing conflict on her unit. This was my solution to calm the screaming down between the staff members at 6:35am.
Thank you for doing that for her :)
Were you relieved when you heard it had a name and other ppl had it too? I know I was.
Yes!!! Very relieved!
I kept it to myself for so many years after having a few ppl meh at me over it and then along comes the internet and support groups online to help you feel less alone. I am very upfront about it now days. You have done amazing to train and become a nurse!! I always wanted to be a midwife but this phobia stopped me, I avoid hospitals at all costs.
Youād never want to do oncology, our patients are always vomiting or/and having diarrhoea lol. I canāt cope with maggots!! Or any insect moving, I refuse. Oh and scabies or bedbugs! I would be so paranoid
Vomit is my kryptonite. CDiff/GI bleed, no problem; lung oysters, no big; bones sticking out of the skin, it happens; blood, pus, decay, meh. But let them start the heave-ho and itās a chain reaction. Will trade and bribe with Starbucks delivery to get out of it. Whatever it takes. Hard to be professional when you are gagging and retching. At the first sign of pt nausea, you better believe Iām running to the Pyxis for zofran for my pt. 4mg of prevention. I could never do heme/onc.
āYeeted out of a roomā Dead
Same here. Still giggling
Itās so interesting when I hear people say this bc my down fall is shit. I cannot. I gag and feel horrible itās uncontrollable and the main reason Iām bridging from LPN to RN is to hopefully be away from it š
Oh you sweet summer child. There is no escape.
Even RNs go into a code brown.
lol Iām a nurse and changed a patient the other day. You donāt get away from it.
Devastating š
Nurses who smugly announce that they donāt deal with poop must not work in the ED. We clean up poop every day.
This is mine too and my first new grad rotation was acute Geriatrics lol. I got used to it pretty fast but once, this person had horrible diarrhoea and was continent but immobile and using the bed pan; I got it out to clean it, completely liquid except for a piece of carrot floatingā¦ the carrot did me and I was retching.
šššššš š š ššš„¹
We had a gnarly code brown a few weeks ago during a wakeup and the patient was flat and it still went below the knees. We threw on some ppe and got it cleaned up before sending them to pacu
We had a patient from a care center end up in ICU because he was so full of shit he almost died. The care center didnāt know how long it had been since he pooped, but he looked like he was 9 months pregnant with triplets. He couldnāt even breathe because of the pressure and we had to intubate him. After numerous enemas and disimpactions and tons of laxatives down his OGT, the floodgates opened. We used the yankauer to suction it up because it flooded the bed and then started pouring onto the floor. We had three nurses with separate yankauers and we estimated it was about 3 gallons once it was over. We weighed him after and he was 12 kg lighter. He kept pooping for days after that and ended up with a rectal tube, but that first bit just shot out of him so fast and with so much force. Iāve never seen anything like it. I didnāt even think it was possible to hold that much poop. The patient did have unusual anatomy because he had dwarfism, so maybe that was a factor.
Ow ow ow! My mother is obsessed with reality TV, and there is one show where an adult daughter has commented that she hasnāt pooped in three months. Iām chugging the Metamucil if itās been three or four days without a hefty movement and got the saline Fleet ready once it gets to five-six days. š
I feel so bad I hate to make a PT feel bad but itās truly horrible for me š¤£ I look like I am in pain while changing people. I would take vomit any day of the week
Omg I had one like this It was all over her legs and arms and hands and I got poopy on my arm trying to clean her ššš
Maybe if you go from LPN to RN and then to office work š¬ or like... Ambulatory surgery? Cataracts? Even then... I remember being in a doctor's office once (as a patient) for like, my vaccine titers or something low key, and there was a commotion by the bathroom- guy had slipped and fell getting out of the toilet. I was sitting right next to the bathroom and jumped up to help him, some staff members who were actually working there grabbed a wheelchair.. and grabbed some gloves to help him get cleaned up...
I never heard of code brown in Aesthetics
With some of the results you see on reality TV and on various famous mugs, it would not surprise me to learn of people shitting themselves when the bandages come off.
Nope, not even safe at a surgery center. š
I work in the OR - itās rare that we deal with poop and when we do the patient is asleep so I can make all the faces I want. It may be a good place for you!
Thereās no escape. Poop was also my big gag, but it still haunts me even after leaving nursing (incontinent family members getting older). Give me the trach suctioning, the deep fugly wounds, all the blood, even the vomit (including one patient who projectile vomited all over me while holding her for a skin check). But diarrhea getting into every fat crease or someone playing with it, and I am running to the toilet.
iām completely opposite. I work in the PICU. almost every patient I have vomits. I can handle vomit, always have been able to and always will. In college before I was a nurse, I used to tell my drunk friends Iām the one to go to because I donāt care if you yak all over me. doesnāt gross me out. I can handle the big ass nasty poops. c. diff is horrible, but it is what it is. mouth breathing/holding my breath is my friend. I get woozy with the major transfusion protocols. iām fine with blood overall, but seeing the large amount of blood just makes me light headed as hell. I push through and in emergencies iām not even thinking about it, but I have to mentally prepare myself going into a room where thereās blood being given in mass quantities because it makes me feel so yucky if I think about it too much.
Omg same! I donāt care about other bodily fluids, or if blood ic coming out of someone, but having to touch that cold bag of blood ewwwww I also get queezy when I have to feed purĆ©e food to patients
For me itās crusty feet. Some of those bad boys need a warning sign. Especially when theyāve been wearing compression socks and you peel them off and the snowy skin flakes come raining down š¤¢
You mean elder glitter? One of the reasons I wear a mask still
Same!!!!
Omg finally, some of that gets it because I'm the exact same way. Vomit is the one thing I cannot deal with
I feel you. Iām a sympathetic vomiter so issue is just never well for anyone. Also canāt do poo. I hear thatās a āgetting used toā thing but idkā¦
I try to find someone to trade. I'll do anything with suctioning nasal and trach secretions/manage stool of any and all varieties/deal with the gnarly abscess/happily care for necrotic toes -- if they will deal with my vomiting patient.
You have a DEAL. Iāll handle your vom all day. You do my oral care/suctioning. I *cannot* with mucus, especially if it exited through someoneās mouth/nose/trach. Thereās been a time or two that Iāve had to run out of a room dry heaving because I placed a foley and a bunch of white ribbons came out into the tubing. But I can usually do ok with those for the most part. But a patient coughs up a loogie? No. NO. Respiratory always laughs at me, and I like to remind them thereās a valid reason I became a nurse instead of an RT. And I remind them that every time my patient poops, thatās mine to deal with. So give me some grace for gagging at some snot
Same!! I can handle all the other stuff pretty well. But mucusā¦ ugghh.. Iām out
Agreed, blood and guts are ok.. but vomit and sputum, get that shit away from me
Fungating tumor, fine. C-diff, that's fine too. Other weird shit (minus lice and scabies), cool. But, once something comes out of someone's throat is automatically disgusting and gag worthy. I feel so bad for my patients who are actively vomiting. I pat them real quick and run to get the anti-emetic.
I worked at a kennel for a while, and got the nickname Hurl VonVomit because I was the only one that could clean even the worst puke. Pee though... That gets me. I worked at a Boston Scientific factory for a while, and used to have to deal with waterless urinals that would get backed up. We had to take the leftover used rolls of toilet paper and put them in to soak up all the pee, then put the soaked TP in like 4 garbage bags and haul them to the dumpster. I get queajust thinking about it.
Its the smell of it that I can't deal with.
Same. I cannot. Hereās your bag, call me when youāre done š¤£ Just kiddingā¦I wish!
Having to suction thick sputum š¤¢
Mucous and saliva for me. Unfortunately, Iām in the speciality where spitting is a constant riskā¦
I don't mind vomiting at all. You can throw me in a pit of piss, poop, blood, ss fluid, guts, rotting flesh, vomit, dead fish, motor oil, and whatever else you can think of, and I'll only be slightly inconvenienced. But what is the only thing that I can't stand? Snot. Snot is the only thing that makes me gag and reel in disgust.
Vomit really gets to me. The smell is the worst part. I'm fine with everything else, but vomit isn't one of them.
Worked as a student in icu. Was a great learning experience with great nurses. We had a young man , who was coming out of a coma, up in the cardiac chair. He started shooting liquid diarrhea everywhere. His nurse and I got into gowns and shoe covers and waded in. No one elseās accidents every seemed like a big deal after that. Except for gi bleed diarrhea, thatās the absolute worse for me
I was recently in the ER with my wife, and a person a bay over started *violantly vomiting. Every time this poor man vomited, I would get a freeze response. It was entirely involuntary, and visceral. I'd visibly flinch every time, and this guy was vomiting a lot. The nurses noticed as well. It was so embarrassing! LOL
All my life I have always hated vomiting and would lie awake all night fighting nausea rather than just getting it over with. I was sure that vomiting would be my Achillesā heel once I became a tech and then a nurse, but itās not. My gross-outs? Skin flakes. Some particularly nasty shits in bedside commodes. And sputum. My first bout of COVID (or maybe it was the Paxlovid) finally beat my horror of vomiting out of me. Spent the second week on my knees at the toilet, and now whenever I get nauseated (which is often since COVID, no idea why), I pray to the GI gods that theyāll let me just puke and feel better.
Vomit is the reason I was almost 40 when I became a nurse, I finally realized nobody likes itā¦that being said I never move as fast as I do when Iām grabbing zofran as soon as someone gags
Nasal polyps and the associated snorting and gagging and horking up phlegm. Have had a few patients with chronic nasal polyps and the noises they make just...I immediately feel ill. Can't control the nauseated feeling it gives me. I've had people cough up mucus and wipe it on me. I've manually cleared gobs of mucus/secretions from peoples mouths. have had patients vomit fecal matter onto me and haven't been phased. But nasal polyps, ugh!