things I love about nursing, # 97

Nurses have strong stomachs. It comes with the territory -- we deal with every variety of grossness, from the routine to the almost unimaginable. In labor and delivery you have it all -- blood, vomit, feces, amniotic fluid. In the nursery you have the standard new parent fare -- getting spit up on, peed on, etc, multiplied by 5 (or however many babies you happen to be taking care of that night). And nothing gets to me -- when I was pregnant and working med-surg, dealing with chest tubes and their drainage, c. difficile diarrhea, J-P wound drains, and colostomy bags (no trache care, thank heavens) nothing got to me.

The only thing that bothered me then was my drive to work -- I used to take a large latte with me for the drive in, but in my first trimester, my body decided to reject coffee. I had a big old cup, half full, in the car that I forgot to bring in one morning in my usual bleary state. And of course it curdled, and of course I managed to spill it in the car, and I couldn't sufficiently rinse the smell out of the carpets. That whole fall I bundled up and drove to work with the car windows down so I could drive without heaving.

But last night, I had to deal with the one thing that's ever managed to turn my non-pregnant stomach -- a dad with extremely stinky feet! I had a lovely couple and their new baby on my assignment, and they were just the sweetest things -- I was never in a hurry to hop out of that room. Until they got ready for bed and the dad took off his sneakers. The whole room became a no-go zone. I had to hold my breath every time I went in. Fortunately they sent the baby to the nursery for the night, so I only had to go in to do mom's vitals at 4am, and I could let them sleep, and give my lungs a break. I wanted to accidentaly knock those sneakers into a red bag and send them to the incinerator...

You know it's bad when your giving report, and feel obligated to warn the day nurse picking them up about the smell...