Ick factors

HotelCo

Forum Deputy Chief
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Colostomy and trachs.


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CAOX3

Forum Deputy Chief
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Burnt flesh

Fatal fires, car fires, Its awful.

Once you smell that, you smell it everywhere for weeks.

Coffee beans do help.
 
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abckidsmom

Dances with Patients
3,380
5
36
fingernail and toenail injuries, eyeball injuries, and nasty feet in general.

And the sound of vomiting.

I can handle nasty stuff and nasty smells, it's nasty sights that get me.

And I hate when I'm cleaning up stinking filth and can taste it. That makes me gag.
 

Epi-do

I see dead people
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Anything related to poop. Suctioning, although I have gotten better. It used to be just hearing the unit turned on would trigger my gag reflex. I also have a pretty sympathetic gag reflex.
 

dixie_flatline

Forum Captain
310
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I'd like to think that I have a fairly strong constitution. I might go "ewww" when someone starts yakking, but if I'm working then barf (so far) hasn't bothered me at all.

Some things that have made me cringe....
  • Man who (for reasons I will never know) put his junk into a bottle of lotion, where it promptly go stuck. He didn't call EMS for several days. By the time our people got there, they said it looked like someone dropped a grenade down his pants. Just all swollen, purple, starting to rot/die. I understand he had to have some serious surgery and it still wasn't fixed back to normal. I used to have a problem just thinking about catheters going into my johnson until I heard about this guy.
  • Older lady who got dehydrated due to the runs and ended up trapped in the bathroom too weak to stand. I think she was there 2 days before we got called. Everything was covered in poo - the walls, floors, and her head-to-toe.
  • Pt who had a malfunctioning colostomy and ended up vomiting feces. Probably the absolute worst. Like I said, I can do vomit, and I can (usually) even handle a code brown. But when you're vomiting a code brown, even I have to take a step back.
 

adamjh3

Forum Culinary Powerhouse
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fingernail and toenail injuries, eyeball injuries, and nasty feet in general.

And the sound of vomiting.

I can handle nasty stuff and nasty smells, it's nasty sights that get me.

And I hate when I'm cleaning up stinking filth and can taste it. That makes me gag.


Pretty much spot on for me, especially the aforementioned nasty feet.

Oh, and not so much "ick factor" as the heebie jeebies factor; Catatonic pts who do nothing but stare at you. I know they can't help it, I know it's beyond everyone's control, but for some reason it just creeps me out.
 
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katgrl2003

Forum Asst. Chief
776
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Puke and anything respiratory. I'm a sympathetic puker and my old partner knew if we had a puker to hand them a barf bag and me the trash can. I can handle suctioning someone, but the sound makes me queasy. And whoever mentioned lung butter earlier.... agreed!
 

samiam

Amazing Member
332
34
28
The sound of snapping or grinding bones (especially blown out skull) and exploded Colostomy bags
 

Epi-do

I see dead people
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Puke and anything respiratory. I'm a sympathetic puker and my old partner knew if we had a puker to hand them a barf bag and me the trash can. I can handle suctioning someone, but the sound makes me queasy. And whoever mentioned lung butter earlier.... agreed!


At least I had him well trained for you, when you got him! :p
 

johnrsemt

Forum Deputy Chief
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I remember that from both Katgrrl and Epi-do. All I had to do was turn the suction on in the back and the truck would start weaving. did it even when I didn't need it
 

EMT2B

Forum Lieutenant
162
4
18
I haven't yet started classes nor been in the field, but my ick factors *outside* EMS are: vomiting, poop (though I do okay with baby diapers), meat baby food, and canned pet food. Blech!
 

Epi-do

I see dead people
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poop (though I do okay with baby diapers)

Hopefully this won't be true for you, but for me, baby poop doesn't really bother me. However, baby poop and anybody that either currently is or is old enough to have ever been out of diapers poop are two completely different things.
 

katgrl2003

Forum Asst. Chief
776
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I remember that from both Katgrrl and Epi-do. All I had to do was turn the suction on in the back and the truck would start weaving. did it even when I didn't need it

Yeah, and you got a clipboard upside the head when we were done with the run because of that.
 

EMT2B

Forum Lieutenant
162
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Hopefully this won't be true for you, but for me, baby poop doesn't really bother me. However, baby poop and anybody that either currently is or is old enough to have ever been out of diapers poop are two completely different things.

Yeah, grown-up diaper content is an Ick for me. I never did like the ... aroma I got when visiting my grandfather in the nursing home. Yuck!
 

Addicted2Narcan

Forum Probie
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I once had a girl who called 911 because she got her man's spunk in her eye and "it burned". Soooo other dudes' spunk is at the top of my list.
 
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Sasha

Sasha

Forum Chief
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Yeah, grown-up diaper content is an Ick for me. I never did like the ... aroma I got when visiting my grandfather in the nursing home. Yuck!

That aroma is cdiff.

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emscrazy1

Forum Lieutenant
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I once had a girl who called 911 because she got her man's spunk in her eye and "it burned". Soooo other dudes' spunk is at the top of my list.

She couldn't just rinse her eye out? That would be embarrassing for ems to come after I came in her eye. So funny though.
 
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