What would be your best advice?

Listen I'll apologize for my inappropriate language. I actually have pretty thick skin at the fire station but that's cause I have too and most of the time I know the guys are doing for a reason. Here I cant tell if I'm being made fun of or not. Honestly this is a real concern for me cause I have always delt with this issue ever since my first health class in middle school.
 
Yes, I was making fun of you and yes it was for a reason....tough love its called.

You really need to spread your wings. You obviously cannot do this job as it has serious gross factor for you. You cannot be just a firefighter and avoid it either as the departments and work overlap. You already admit taking the job for wrong reasons. You already have issue with your new class. You have parental issues. In short, neither Fire nor EMS is a good fit for you.

Grow up, assert yourself and do what you want to do. Mommy and Daddy will still love you, even the Italian overbearing Mom.

Your age and your comments caught many of us by surprise. Please do the country a favor and go "adult" for a while.
 
People here are giving you more of their time of day than you'd get anywhere else so I would be grateful if it was me.

I could stick in a smart assed comment but instead picture this- you have a 6 month old daughter who is covered in urine, faeces, blood and is screaming- the EMT/Paramedic arrives and despite it being an emergency and your daughter might die...is hesitant to go near your dying child because of the fear of getting ones hands dirty. How would you feel being the parent of that child?

Time to re-evaluate your career choice and consider a desk job.
 
nightmoves123 said:
you have a 6 month old daughter who is covered in urine, faeces, blood and is screaming- the EMT/Paramedic arrives and despite it being an emergency and your daughter might die...is hesitant to go near your dying child because of the fear of getting ones hands dirty. How would you feel being the parent of that child?

Time to re-evaluate your career choice and consider a desk job.
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If you can't tolerate urine/feces/blood, I suggest not even having children. Babies tend to poop and pee often.
 
Sometimes I feel that urine, feces and blood are among the nicer things we get on us too. I remember being in one house for a lift assist when we had to lay blankets down on the kitchen floor because the grease was too thick we couldn't pick the patient up without slipping ourselves.

To the OP, I recommend listening to your gut and getting out before you get in too deep. It sounds like you have had this problem for a while and I would think after a year you would have learned how to deal with it. Since it disturbs you so much, I would think you would be too distracted to focus on the task at hand. We have all been on calls where we just want to take a shower and change our uniforms when we are done. That is just part of the job, worrying about it non-stop is a stress I wouldn't wish on any of my partners.
 
I guess let me just put it to you this way, you will have things you don't like at every job. The blood and urine and bodily fluids as an EMT, the "world today" as a cop, the fire is too hot as a firefighter, crabby patients as an RN, sweaty client as a trainer, patients are too old, patients are too young, I wanted steak but got chicken....you see where I'm going with this? If the blood and vomit and urine offends your delicate sensibilities then find something else. Doesn't make you less of a man or a quitter or whatever other negative words you may dream up but it makes you fair, fair to your potential partner and fair to yourself. Don't do something you can't handle. Do something you can see yourself doing...

Long winded tonight....woah. Back to lurking.
 
Yesterday some old lady had a code brown (took a ****) on my gurney. I've had blood, urine, vomit, and other heebie jeebies on my pants. Even blood on my skin. Like others have said your skin is doing its naturally intended job: being a barrier to foreign pathogens. Some friendly advice to you:

1) Grow thicker skin on here.
2) If blood grosses you out I would highly recommend a self evaluation of your decision to be employed within emergency services (Fire, EMS and PD).
3) Only worry about blood exposure if your skin is broken i.e. cuts and scrapes.
4) You're 22, act like it. You don't need mommy or daddy's approval to do something else, just do it. You're the adult now.
 
New drug on the market may assist...
 

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Okay everyone, since I have had a little time to really think this through I came to the conclusion that I can't just quit this job due to the fact that I am terrified of contracting HIV, Hep C or TB. I am not trying to sound cocky when I say this but I do like the EMS field and helping patients and I am good at it. The only thing I need to overcome is getting used to the fact of bodily fluids and coming into contact with it. This past week I been feeling ill and been having a mild cough with some muscle weakness in both arms while having nausea feeling but no vomit. I guess I was having panic attacks and kept thinking I contracted something or worse kept thinking I already did contract something and am scared of living with it cause I wouldn't know where to begin. I know getting a blood test would calm my nerves tremendously but I just don't want to cause I am scared of the results and I hate the waiting game. Anyways I also want to apologize for anything I may have said in previous comments that seemed immature and ignorant. I just want to say that this is a demon that I have just like everyone else has demons and instead of me running from it I wanna face it and hopefully one day overcome it. Corny yes but I am just being honest. This is forming a little depression but its not severe yet and I hope it doesn't.
 
Obviously you didnt pay attention in your BBP/RTK class, because you would know that the most effective barrier to pathogens is unbroken skin. Mother nature knew what she was doing when she built us. if you didnt have a broken skin where you got blood youre fine
 
If you get clinical depression from getting body fluids on you, you need to find a different career.
 
italianlifter said:
Okay everyone, since I have had a little time to really think this through I came to the conclusion that I can't just quit this job due to the fact that I am terrified of contracting HIV, Hep C or TB. I am not trying to sound cocky when I say this but I do like the EMS field and helping patients and I am good at it. The only thing I need to overcome is getting used to the fact of bodily fluids and coming into contact with it. This past week I been feeling ill and been having a mild cough with some muscle weakness in both arms while having nausea feeling but no vomit. I guess I was having panic attacks and kept thinking I contracted something or worse kept thinking I already did contract something and am scared of living with it cause I wouldn't know where to begin. I know getting a blood test would calm my nerves tremendously but I just don't want to cause I am scared of the results and I hate the waiting game. Anyways I also want to apologize for anything I may have said in previous comments that seemed immature and ignorant. I just want to say that this is a demon that I have just like everyone else has demons and instead of me running from it I wanna face it and hopefully one day overcome it. Corny yes but I am just being honest. This is forming a little depression but its not severe yet and I hope it doesn't.
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Weakness in the arms? Can't be skipping arm day now can we.

As for the rest this, well. You sound insufferable when you say you are "good" at EMS when you are still a student. There is a reasonable a chance that you will have a real exposure at work, and you are going to have to get a blood test, regardless if you are afraid the results. This is not a demon. This is a part of the job that is dealt with fairly often. You cannot overcome it in the future, you overcome now or not at all.

And I would stay away from being a cop, more hours than being a firefighter and they get blood on them too. Plus people bite them and other stuff.
 
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Italianlifter, let me tell you about my first exposure. I wasn't even an EMT yet, I was 18 and worked as a lifeguard at an amusement park. I was on duty in the wave pool and saw someone face down in the water. He was facing away from me, so I lifted his head out from the water from behind with my arms under his arms. HIs head was by my chin and I got a mouthful of blood from his mouth and nose. What I didn't see happen, was a wave threw him face first into the concrete side of the pool. He was transported to an ER and I received a bunch of tests from the exposure. At the end, it was a little gross but nothing else happened.

If you work this job long enough, you will suffer an exposure too. No, it is not pleasant, but it is an occupational risk. It is not always bodily fluids either. TB is common in my city, influenza and meningitis. An ambulance is pretty close quarters, especially if you have long transport times. You may not realize the need to gown up or wear your N95 until it is too late. If you cannot tackle your fears and stay calm, I would not want to be your partner. Will you hesitate when you are attempting to control a bloody gurgling mess of an airway after an accident? What about the obese patient who had a recent bowel surgery, the ostomy bag broke open with fecal matter inside the healing incision? Now your patient is obtunded and septic and it is time to act without worrying about your partner having a panic attack.
 
I'll just echo what others have said. You are going to be exposed to all sorts of fun crap. I've been exposed to mumps, pertussis twice, had the swine flu (2 days before I was supposed to get the shot), been through 2 ebola scares and get the respiratory infection of the year each fall. I've been on HIV prophylaxis after cutting myself with contaminated scissors. It is just a part of the job when you deal with sick people in an uncontrolled environment. If you don't learn to just roll with it you will not do well. Only you can make that decision.
 
Anybody else feel like this is a poor attempt at trolling?? Not trying to be an :censored:, but damn man, come on. If your willing to put patient care on the back burner cause your scared of a little mess then you should seriously reconsider your career path, which has been stated numerous times. I wish you the best if this is truly an issue for you and hope it works out in your favor, but :censored: man stop thinking so much on this.
 
I promise you I am not trolling. I don't even know what trolling is honestly. I appreciate you guys sharing your experiences and it was helpful. Like you guys said, this is something only I can figure out on my own. I'm not going to lie when I say I am still terrified of contracting HIV, TB and Hep c but at the same time I do not want to leave EMS cause I been coming so far with it and it would be real hard for me to leave even if I wanted too. I've come across patients with TB and HIV before and I never hesitated to help cause my adrenaline always kicks it. My problem is the aftermath of worrying when the call is all over. I hear and read all the time how Nurses and Firefighters and Ambulance workers are all at a high risk for these diseases and that worries me cause it's like saying sometime in your career you will develop such a disease.
 
HIV is hard to get from a typical exposure. Even a simple cut or break in your skin carries a low risk of transmission. It takes a deep needle stick with a gross amount of infected blood or tissue. There have not been very many cases of a health care worker contracting the virus due to occupational exposure.

TB is spread by droplets, but casual exposure is not a high risk. We work in close quarters with our patients, but the time we spend with them is usually under 2 hours. I feel the risk is manageable. Most of us in my area fail TB skin tests for the antibodies, but have no signs of active or latent TB disease.

As far as risk to us, disease transmission happens but standard precautions, good hygiene, common sense and utilizing PPE like safety glasses go a long ways. Even something simple like placing a paper mask on your patient with a cough helps. In my experience, you are more likely to be treated yourself for a back injury, MVC in your rig, or assault rather than disease transmission.
 
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Agree, traumatic injury is the higher risk to self within this profession.

Now if you worried about all them cooties...stay off the dating scene. LOL
 
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