blood aversion anyone?

MirrorTodd · May 18, 2006

Does anyone here have or had an aversion to blood, needles, gore, etc? Does anyone have any funny stories about this? I've noticed some people get physically ill when they see blood and a lot of males will pass out when they get stuck with a needle. As for me, I don't have a problem with. I like to see all that medical gore and such, although I'm sure there are still some surprises I've yet to witness.
Now my story: There was this one medic during my training for the army that was on the verge of passing out while administering IV's. That was a fun day.

thinknofu3 · May 18, 2006

I have no problem whatsoever with blood or guts (in fact, i want to be a surgeon), but I have a definite aversion to vomit...i mean, i know that everybody thinks it's gross, of course, but I can't see/hear/smell someone throwing up without almost getting to the verge of puking myself. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with it in med school, I guess I don't have a choice. Any empathy/suggestions?

LifetimeDoc · May 18, 2006

thinknofu3 said:
I have no problem whatsoever with blood or guts (in fact, i want to be a surgeon), but I have a definite aversion to vomit...i mean, i know that everybody thinks it's gross, of course, but I can't see/hear/smell someone throwing up without almost getting to the verge of puking myself. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with it in med school, I guess I don't have a choice. Any empathy/suggestions?

I hear ya. Blood and gore doesn't bother me at all! However, vomit does tend to bother me a bit, especially the smell. I think everyone has something that bothers them. It all depends on if you can continue working.

HelenaP · May 18, 2006

thinknofu3 said:
I have no problem whatsoever with blood or guts (in fact, i want to be a surgeon), but I have a definite aversion to vomit...i mean, i know that everybody thinks it's gross, of course, but I can't see/hear/smell someone throwing up without almost getting to the verge of puking myself. I'm not quite sure how I'm going to deal with it in med school, I guess I don't have a choice. Any empathy/suggestions?

I can deeply empathize. Last summer, I was drawing blood 10 times a day, and observing bloody trauma surgeries, and even observing wound care (I think non-healing wounds are visually the grossest thing possible). However, nothing really phased me until the day a patient vomited on me, and much of the exam room. I was literally gagging as I cleaned it and barely made it through the rest of the morning. Even after I changed my lab coat I could still smell whiffs on myself, and was practically having nervous breakdown by the time lunch came and I could go home and take a shower.
That almost made me want to quit the whole thing, but then it dawned on me that the doctor had nothing to do with it! I got vomited on, I cleaned it up. The doctor was off hiding the whole time. So, I believe the key is to become the doctor. Then it's really not your problem anymore 😉

Lilah · May 18, 2006

LifetimeDoc said:
I hear ya. Blood and gore doesn't bother me at all! However, vomit does tend to bother me a bit, especially the smell. I think everyone has something that bothers them. It all depends on if you can continue working.

Vomit is what gets to me too.
I think its because Im terrified of doing it myself. I can remember being sick and throwing up a few times and just the thought of it makes me cringe. So when I hear/see someone else it reminds meI guess.
I don't even like this smiley :barf:

But in general I can see and handle anything but smells tend to bother me.
I don't even like strong pleasant smells; cologne/perfume gives me a headache.

mj1878 · May 18, 2006

Blood-fine
Gore-fine
Stool-fine
Urine-fine
Vomit-fine
Sputum-Forget about it. Nothing worse than someone hacking up viscous green sputum out of a tracheostomy and onto your shoulder.

MollyMalone · May 18, 2006

mj1878 said:
Blood-fine
Gore-fine
Stool-fine
Urine-fine
Vomit-fine
Sputum-Forget about it. Nothing worse than someone hacking up viscous green sputum out of a tracheostomy and onto your shoulder.

You are a person after my own heart. I started out shaky on the vomit, but familiarity has bred contempt on that score. Sputum, on the other hand... 👎

Almost everyone gets to the point where they can function around gross substances eventually, though.

Its_MurDAH · May 18, 2006

testicles

that is all.

newbie1kenobi · May 18, 2006

No problem with blood, but vomit is a killer, just seeing somebody gag brings up a bad taste in my mouth 🙁

MossPoh · May 18, 2006

None of that stuff really bothers me...if I have a really bad headache then maybe vomit ...but even then is rare. My friends always made fun of me because I'd eat like spaghetti and meatballs while watching surgeries on t.v. and stuff... I have to say that a really gut wrenching agonizing scream of pain doesn't go too great for me....but that doesn't really happen much to worry about it.lol

GAdoc · May 18, 2006

MossPoh said:
None of that stuff really bothers me...if I have a really bad headache then maybe vomit ...but even then is rare. My friends always made fun of me because I'd eat like spaghetti and meatballs while watching surgeries on t.v. and stuff... I have to say that a really gut wrenching agonizing scream of pain doesn't go too great for me....but that doesn't really happen much to worry about it.lol

I've worked as an orderly in an ER with a Level 1 Trauma Center and I've seen it all. None of it bothered me. Not the vomit, feces, no procedures, gore, blood, etc, etc. But I'll tell you the one thing that nearly had me hitting the floor.

I was shadowing a family practice doc in a local volunteer clinic where I work once a week. This Hispanic lady came in with a wicked in-grown toenail on her big toe. She had it removed once before while in Mexico, but it was back and needed to be removed again. The doc asked me to hold her foot. He proceeded to make a cut down the center of the toe nail. I was mostly OK at that point. Then he takes some hemostats and starts prying up each half of the nail. At that point the nail bed began bleeding (I'm getting queasy just thinking about it right now). Then he began yanking the loose pieces out of the nail bed with some glorified pliers. At that point, the nurse had to leave the room because she got sick. And to top it all off, he had to dig around in the nail bed for remaining fragments of nail. By the time he was done I had broken out into a cold sweat and I was using every psychological tool I had to keep myself from passing out.

The doctor has been in medicine for years. He was an LPN, then an RN, then he went to med school. I don't know how he did it, but I can't figure out how I'll handle it the first time they ask me to do something like that!

LifetimeDoc · May 18, 2006

GAdoc said:
I've worked as an orderly in an ER with a Level 1 Trauma Center and I've seen it all. None of it bothered me. Not the vomit, feces, no procedures, gore, blood, etc, etc. But I'll tell you the one thing that nearly had me hitting the floor.

I was shadowing a family practice doc in a local volunteer clinic where I work once a week. This Hispanic lady came in with a wicked in-grown toenail on her big toe. She had it removed once before while in Mexico, but it was back and needed to be removed again. The doc asked me to hold her foot. He proceeded to make a cut down the center of the toe nail. I was mostly OK at that point. Then he takes some hemostats and starts prying up each half of the nail. At that point the nail bed began bleeding (I'm getting queasy just thinking about it right now). Then he began yanking the loose pieces out of the nail bed with some glorified pliers. At that point, the nurse had to leave the room because she got sick. And to top it all off, he had to dig around in the nail bed for remaining fragments of nail. By the time he was done I had broken out into a cold sweat and I was using every psychological tool I had to keep myself from passing out.

The doctor has been in medicine for years. He was an LPN, then an RN, then he went to med school. I don't know how he did it, but I can't figure out how I'll handle it the first time they ask me to do something like that!

I had the same procedure done on my toenail a few years back, and I asked the doc if I could watch her while she performed the procedure being that I'm interesting in all things medical. She refused to let me watch, and I was really disappointed not to have observed her cutting, yanking, etc. You are under a local anesthetic, so I would have had no problem watching. Now, working on that toe myself without anesthesia, now that makes me want to pass out.

tomorrowgirl99 · May 18, 2006

My cousin got really sick and the vomit passed through her nose and eyes. She had just finished eating spinach so there were strings of spinach coming out through her nose and eyes. I guess it was trying to get out anyway possible. :laugh:

Wackie · May 18, 2006

I'm okay with sights and sounds. It's the smells.

Vomit and an upper GI bleed. Worst smells evar.

AggieJohn · May 18, 2006

LifetimeDoc said:
I had the same procedure done on my toenail a few years back, and I asked the doc if I could watch her while she performed the procedure being that I'm interesting in all things medical. She refused to let me watch, and I was really disappointed not to have observed her cutting, yanking, etc. You are under a local anesthetic, so I would have had no problem watching. Now, working on that toe myself without anesthesia, now that makes me want to pass out.

The anesthesia could have made you even more queasy.

GAdoc · May 18, 2006

AggieJohn said:
The anesthesia could have made you even more queasy.

OK, on the note of nasty smells, let me add a couple. While I was working in that ER, they brought one woman in who was drunk as they come. They had to shackle her to the bed. They sent me in (probably because they knew what was fixing to happen) to get her vitals. About the time I walked in, she sat straight up, rared back, and projectile vomited all that beer and a whole can of chili she had just eaten. That junk coated the entire floor. It was nasty.

On another shift (you ought to be catching on about all you get to see shadowing in the ER) I had to transport a patient who was morbidly obese and diabatic. Her feet were literally rotting off. I had to ride in the elevator with her, and I'm going to tell you, rotting flesh is THE nastiest smell on the face of the earth.

And finally, I was watching a doctor at the clinic where I volunteer do a pap smear on an obese lady. This lady had a reputation around the clinic. She was half crazy. As soon as we entered the room and the doctor lifted the drape, the smell of vaginosis wafted all over the room. That was bad enough, but to make matters worse, the lady goes "Is that smell coming from my cat". I nearly had to leave.

The North Face · May 18, 2006

GAdoc said:
This lady had a reputation around the clinic. She was half crazy. As soon as we entered the room and the doctor lifted the drape, the smell of vaginosis wafted all over the room. That was bad enough, but to make matters worse, the lady goes "Is that smell coming from my cat". I nearly had to leave.

HAHA, that is awesome. You should have said " Yeah, your other cat!"

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

I do fine with everything but watching people put in contact lenses (stupid eh?) or childbirth. Sputum doesn't bother me, but that's what being an RT will do for you. As for rotting flesh, I've fished enough bloated corpses out of bodies of water and removed enough from houses for the funeral home that it doesn't really phase me any longer.

Chinorlz · May 18, 2006

DropkickMurphy said:
I do fine with everything but watching people put in contact lenses (stupid eh?) or childbirth. Sputum doesn't bother me, but that's what being an RT will do for you. As for rotting flesh, I've fished enough bloated corpses out of bodies of water and removed enough from houses for the funeral home that it doesn't really phase me any longer.

Haha, it's always the smallest things that can bother us.

Doing autopsies... I'm pretty much used to just about everything.... decomposing bodies, necrotic tissue, all the wonderful sights and smells from opening up the bowel etc. etc.

I've heard as well that upper GI bleeds smell absolutely disturbing. In the sense that they're this weird mix of sickly sweet and downright horrific. I'll have to experience that smell at some point :laugh:

What DOES bother me is any sort of visible parasite/insect in a living body. I've been told of cases where people get maggots inside their diabetes-induced ischemic toes and other things like that. To have to PICK OUT THESE MAGGOTS with a pair of forceps as they peek in and out of their little burrows just really disturbs me to no end. I've seen videos of a doc pulling some sort of larvae out from their burrows made into a woman's breast. :scared:

Needless to say, I got a bit vasovagal. hahaha

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

The visual of maggots isn't so bad as the sound.

LizzyM · May 18, 2006

This thread is the perfect example of why I define "clinical experience" in terms of the question "Has the applicant smelled patients?"

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

LizzyM said:
This thread is the perfect example of why I define "clinical experience" in terms of the question "Has the applicant smelled patients?"

DrBowtie · May 18, 2006

Smells don't bother me, blood doesn't bother me, but massive facial trauma turns my stomach. I almost had to leave a presentation given by people on the facial transplant team.

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

BrettBatchelor said:
Smells don't bother me, blood doesn't bother me, but massive facial trauma turns my stomach. I almost had to leave a presentation given by people on the facial transplant team.

Brett, come to work with me sometime. We'll get you over that. Help us rebuild a face of a trauma victim so their family can view them at the funeral and it'll break you of that nausea.

DrBowtie · May 18, 2006

DropkickMurphy said:
Brett, come to work with me sometime. We'll get you over that. Help us rebuild a face of a trauma victim so their family can view them at the funeral and it'll break you of that nausea.

Ugh! I know Plastics isn't in my future.

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

BrettBatchelor said:
Ugh! I know Plastics isn't in my future.

There's just something about forcing the bones back into their proper alignment by pushing down the base of the cranial vault...... "CRUNCH! POP" "Hey Mike, look, he has a nose again!" CRACK!!! "YOu owe me lunch....I told you that underbite wasn't there before he kissed the dashboard!"

Bluntman · May 18, 2006

tomorrowgirl99 said:
My cousin got really sick and the vomit passed through her nose and eyes. She had just finished eating spinach so there were strings of spinach coming out through her nose and eyes. I guess it was trying to get out anyway possible.

Oh. My. God.

LizzyM · May 18, 2006

Stay away from head & neck surgery, too, Brett. The cancer patients are a sorry sight. (And thank God that some people have the gift of working with those patients.)

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

Bluntman
MATLAB extraordinaire
500+ Posts

*DOUBLE TAKE* Oh, I thought that said "METHLAB Extraordinare"

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

LizzyM said:
Stay away from head & neck surgery, too, Brett. The cancer patients are a sorry sight. (And thank God that some people have the gift of working with those patients.)

Amen. I couldn't do head and neck surgery. *shudders*

Bluntman · May 18, 2006

DropkickMurphy said:
*DOUBLE TAKE* Oh, I thought that said "METHLAB Extraordinare"

Haha I'll leave the meth to Brittany Spears' part of the country! btw have you seen that "Faces of Meth" video that's on YouTube/Ebaums/etc.? Poor bastards.

DropkickMurphy · May 18, 2006

Nah, I see enough of those type of people when I run with the volunteer fire department (note: I'm talking about the patients, not my fellow EMT's and firefighters

)

BTW, if you want to see something dramatic you should see an exploding large meth lab. It'll fling a toilet around 100 yds and bury it in the corn field where it lands. 👍

deleted50541 · May 18, 2006

GAdoc said:
Nasty toenail pulling story

I've pulled off many of my own toenails. Of course, they had all separated from the nail bed after blood pooled beneath them because of running. As a matter of fact, I recently pulled three nails off after breaking in a new pair of running shoes. Just thought I'd share that.

Worst smell, huh? Not so much the stench of patients' bodily fluids, but rather the nauseous stink of cat piss and feces in their poorly ventilated homes. :barf:

BaylorGuy · May 18, 2006

Onto the topic at hand, after being around it all the time, you get used to it. It may gross you out and maybe make you woozy, but you'll get used to it after being around it and putting your hands in it. Just dont be the one to pass out in the OR and contaminate everything around you.

BrettBatchelor said:
Ugh! I know Plastics isn't in my future.

On the other hand, you are more likely to just be doing boob jobs more than you want.

TypeA · May 18, 2006

Well, I DID have an aversion to needles, but after reading this thread...I think I cured. Now the whole toenail thing....hummm. Nope, that would not be one of my favs.

vomit - fine
blood - fine
heck.. any body fluid-fine

Needles...like I said...

DrBowtie · May 18, 2006

LizzyM said:
Stay away from head & neck surgery, too, Brett. The cancer patients are a sorry sight. (And thank God that some people have the gift of working with those patients.)

I was thinking about Rad Onc.

One of the cases that made me the most squimish (sp?) was I think facial bone cancer where essentially all of the bones of the face had deteriorated and they were fitting a plastic prosthetic nose/cheek/upper lip onto this guys head.

I started to sweat and had to close my eyes on that one.

Depakote · May 18, 2006

LizzyM said:
This thread is the perfect example of why I define "clinical experience" in terms of the question "Has the applicant smelled patients?"

Ugg. That brought me back... I was shadowing a doc and I found out I can diagnose a staph infection by the smell.

:barf:

deleted50541 · May 18, 2006

Depakote said:
Ugg. That brought me back... I was shadowing a doc and I found out I can diagnose a staph infection by the smell.

*Enters a patient's apartment*

Me: Jesus, what's that smell?

My partner: *Sniffs* Mmm, smells like a UTI to me.

MirrorTodd · May 18, 2006

Wow, great stuff people. I think the vomit would get me nauseous too, just something about it. Surgeries aren't too bad, cuz they're mostly cleaned up before and during surgery right? Smells don't bother me either. Although, I feel like I'm breathing in an infectious substance when I do the breathing through the mouth trick. Makes me think I'll get a disease from the smell. Weird I know.

LizzyM · May 18, 2006

MirrorTodd said:
Makes me think I'll get a disease from the smell. Weird I know.

Not weird but very nineteenth century of you. :laugh:

Lilah · May 18, 2006

There are some really disgusting examples in this tread. But this is stuff we all have to deal with and will get used to. 😱 This is part of the reason doctors get paid a lot, I bet lots of people wouldnt be able to do half this stuff for any amount of money.

thinknofu3 · May 18, 2006

One more personal example:

At my internship (foot and ankle) last summer a guy - who we guessed was probably homeless - was diabetic and had had a procedure on his lower ankle, and it got unbelievably infected. I was in there as they were taking off the bandages, and kept thinking to myself, "is it supposed to smell like that"? Eventually it got so bad I had to leave the room. It was green and yellow and all sorts of wonderful bacterial/fungal colors. He had to go back for a repead I&D (obviously) and almost lost the whole foot.

Btw - I love LizzyM's definition of clinical experience. It's classic (and the funniest thing I've read all day)

kypdurron5 · May 18, 2006

It's nice to see others share my concerns. I'm not sure about vomit yet... haven't come across it in a clinical setting. What REALLY bothers me is smells. I've gotten to the point where I just stop breathing through my nose the second I walk into the hospital. My first day there was this one room from which emanated the absolutely worst smell I've smelled in my entire life. I can still remember it like it was yesterday....sewage had nothing on this! I'm really not looking forward to encountering other such smells over the rest of my career, but I'm willing to accept this fact. Yesterday I observed wound cleaning where this guy had an external apparatus with 4 screws into his leg bones...it didn't make me nauseous but I admit it gave me goose bumps >). It's just a weird thing to think about.

Chronic Student · May 18, 2006

I have a problem with other peoples blood on any of my mucosal surfaces and I really despise those trauma cases where you forget to put on the booties and you have to squish around in blood because you've been at it for five hours and gone through a 100 units and blood is everywhere including the walls and ceiling.

The sound that bothers me the most is someone being suctioned. Give me wino/GI bleed vomit for days, just don't make me listen to someones trach getting suctioned.

As for the worst smell I've ever encountered, dead bowel would win hands down. That smell can penetrate the entire OR suite and linger for days. You can wash your hands as much as you like, take seventeen showers and even clean the inside of your nose with soap and scrub it till it bleeds and you can still smell it for three days.

-Mike

TypeA · May 18, 2006

Upon thinking about it, the thing that makes me squeemish is the first incision. Once you get to the meat of the matter, it's no biggie---but the first incision.

PBandJ · May 18, 2006

no probs with vomit...i used to get carsick nearly every time i got in the car until i was 12 years old, so i'm pretty used to it.

infected toenails can be pretty gross, fo sho.

Hopeful_Doc · May 18, 2006

im surprised noone has mentioned burn victims. Having seen a few it never gets easiar to cope with the sight or smell 🙁

QofQuimica · May 18, 2006

scentimint said:
no probs with vomit...i used to get carsick nearly every time i got in the car until i was 12 years old, so i'm pretty used to it.

infected toenails can be pretty gross, fo sho.

Heh, I still get carsick. You can ask MM. We were sharing a cab to the airport, and I was pretty green by the time we got there. Stop-and-go traffic does not do me good.

I think smells and sounds are bad for me, too, maybe worse than sights. And the vomit is something I seem to just not get used to. To this day, just hearing one of my cats retching will make me want to start myself. The other thing that really grosses me out are bones that are not where bones are supposed to be. Even hearing someone describe these things in graphic detail and looking at x-rays can make me feel woozy, let alone actually seeing them for real. I have the same problem when watching surgeries. But I've never actually passed out or puked in a hospital even when I felt like I was going to, and I think it's because I just learned how to deal with constantly feeling lightheaded and nauseated the entire time I was there. For vomit, it helps if I hold my breath and wait until it's not warm any more before cleaning it up. For feeling faint, it helps me to sit down, and if it's really bad, I have to put my head down too. I actually had that happen a few times on med school interview hospital tours, and even once on a lab tour. Interestingly, no one ever asked me why I was sitting/squatting and looking at the floor. Maybe they see interviewees doing this routinely. 😛

Don't feel bad, Brett. Surgery is not in my future, either. I just want to survive the rotation in a conscious state....

DrBowtie · May 18, 2006

QofQuimica said:
Don't feel bad, Brett. Surgery is not in my future, either. I just want to survive the rotation in a conscious state....

I'm looking forward to Surgery. I just won't be doing any ENT or Plastics electives.

deleted50541 · May 18, 2006

Q, your post reminded me of the time when I was holding traction on a drunk woman's fractured tib-fib. She had blown a .38 upon arrival to the trauma unit and she kept wriggling about while the orthopod wrapped her leg up in preparation for surgery. The sound and feeling of her bones' shattered ends gnashing together as she continually shifted her weight was almost too much for me to take.

Edit: She was a chronic alcoholic btw.

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