What Creeps You Out?

[BossyCow]

I know we all have that stuff that we'd rather not see in EMS. My husband, after almost 20 years of doing this has to cover up angulated long bone fractures with a sheet or towel so he doesn't have to look at them more than necessary during transports. I have a friend that I would rather have with me on a call than anyone I know because she is amazingly capable at what she does, but anything involving mucous sets off her gag reflex.

Personally, if its a rectal bleed, I'll be the first to volunteer to get stuff from the rig, unload the gurney,drive, traffic control, paperwork anything but get near that smell!

What gets you and what have you developed for coping with it?

 

[EMTWintz]

I can't say that there is much that bothers me. I can deal with feces, vomit, blood. There was one run on the interstate some years ago. A woman decided sitting in the middle of the road sounded a lot better than living. She met the grill of a big rig several times. While my hubby(FF) and a few others were shoveling her off the road (gagging and puking) I just kidda stared. Didn't really bother me much.

 

[Code 3]

I'm okay with the blood/guts aspect, but it's the disgustingly filthy houses that we are sometimes called to that gets me. I don't need to see animal feces, roaches, and flies making homes out of couches or trash all over the floor.

 

[emt19723]

although a new life beginning is a beautiful thing.....i would rather not run in to that situation outside a controlled environment ever again. what a mess!!!

 

[gillysaurus]

^ Hahaha. All those child birthing videos we saw in class were so gross, I just hoped the wonderful miracle of life would outdo the messy/gross part of that situation. I have yet to see a birth in person, though.

For me, it's stomas. More specifically, tracheotomies. We were taught how to clean the crusties, the mucous, the puss, etc. off of them, and I was about the vomit the whole time. And nothing makes me all that nauseous to begin with. But just thinking about it... *quivers*. Yuck.

 

[Ridryder911]

Guess, I have been doing it too long; nothing really creeps me out. Nothing shocks me anymore, rather I will say .. now; that is interesting.

I definitely will cover up the private areas of an obese person that have not seen soap and water for decades and possibly necrosed tissue that is invested with maggots. Not so much the maggots that bother me is when they start dropping off, when you are transporting and you have to kill them. I wished I was joking....

R/r 911

 

[sixmaybemore]

Exposed innards and brain matter. Gag, gag, gag. Things like compound fractures make me cringe.

My hometown had a jumper off the bridge (two blocks from the house I used to live in) yesterday. I'm sure that was not an easy clean up.

 

[sixmaybemore]

although a new life beginning is a beautiful thing.....i would rather not run in to that situation outside a controlled environment ever again. what a mess!!!

LOL I'm always surprised water birth isn't more popular. The mess is much easier to clean up! If you're on dry land (preference, necessity, etc) then chux pads galore to soak it all up.

 

[KEVD18]

Ob/gyn..........

 

[Hastings]

Tiny critters, mostly. Spiders and the such.

 

[Sasha]

Dead bodies!!!

 

[marineman]

Show me all the blood and guts you want, you can puke or spit on me if you'd like and my BP won't increase by a single point but like rid some of the more atrocious smells associated with the job can really play games with my olfactory sense. The worst smell to me is exactly what rid explained however I've not yet seen maggots, the second worse is burn patients.

Has anyone ever noticed the extension to the food rule? The food rule being the higher quality your food the sooner you will get a call after you're done cooking it. The extension being the better your food smells the worse your patient will smell and that smell will stick with you for days making you not even want to eat when you get back.

 

[Hal9000]

Feces covered rooms (Where it's deep, not smeared.) and, once, I had a suicide that got to me emotionally.

 

[daedalus]

Show me all the blood and guts you want, you can puke or spit on me if you'd like and my BP won't increase by a single point but like rid some of the more atrocious smells associated with the job can really play games with my olfactory sense. The worst smell to me is exactly what rid explained however I've not yet seen maggots, the second worse is burn patients.

Has anyone ever noticed the extension to the food rule? The food rule being the higher quality your food the sooner you will get a call after you're done cooking it. The extension being the better your food smells the worse your patient will smell and that smell will stick with you for days making you not even want to eat when you get back.

Lets be specific. Are we talking about a smell of a morbidly obese man's genitals that have not been cleaned in years? Is that what Rid was talking about?

 

[wxduff]

I used to have Trypanophobia. It started when I was younger and I had to get allergy tested. Horrible experience. I got close to 200 or something injections, it was like torture. From then on needles gave me the shakes, sweats, you name it. Even watching them on tv, or those fake syringe pens would creep me out. I even brown-ed out a couple times, but never passed out. I always ended up getting the shot eventually, but I was held down at least twice.

I eventually worked myself up to getting over it. My girlfriend saw me in my panic attack state probably twice, and after that she guilt tripped me into giving blood. Although I did whine a little bit, I eventually grew a pair and gave blood. I felt great about it, and have slowly gotten much better.

I did however false positive for some disease, and so I can never give blood for the rest of my life, plus my blood was thrown out.

That's what I get...

 

[Airwaygoddess]

If it is green..........

Pea green thick mucus from a trach...........:blink: feeling rather faint......

 

[LucidResq]

Although it's not EMS related, seeing animals in pain really gets to me. I can see all of people (even children) in the world suffering without being moved too much, but animals being hurt...

One time I was watching video of an arthroscopic knee surgery and almost passed out, but no other surgery, including open knee surgery, has bugged me in the slightest.

 

[mikie]

Feces. Yuck.

And smelly people.

But I can deal with it.

 

[Elliott]

John McCain.... oops, did I say that. :lol:

 

[Oregon]

mucus.

And there is this kind of beetle around here that clicks when it flies.

Oh, chew spit in a bottle left for a day or two in a cupholder.

With one of those stupid beetles crawling in it, all covered............