Yeah, I've started writing on this blog again so that maybe Robert will stop making fun of me for watching terrible television.
Clients always ask about what sort of things I see in community nursing. I guess since they're being treated at home, they're curious about whether there are other people who are equally unwell, if not more.
The other day, I was doing changing a dressing on someone's pilonidal cyst incision and she asked me, "Doesn't this gross you out?" It's a question I get quite often.
Believe me, incision wounds are a cakewalk. I LOVE pilonidal cysts. I could pack drained abscesses all day long.
Do you know what's surprisingly yucky? Tracheotomies. Oh sure, it's easy to think of it only as a tube in the throat to help you breathe. But people need them for a reason and that reason always leads to coughing and secretions. If one coughs hard enough, secretions can and will shoot out of the trachs like horrific projectiles of mucousy death. I will confess right here that when I used to suction trachs in the hospital, I had a silent scream frozen on my face under my mask every single time. Even disimpacting people's colons is less disturbing to the soul. Still, I've never actually dreaded doing trach care. I hid my face with a mask (and face shield, if I could get one) and got on with it. No one has to know that I did a little private shudder after it was over.
In the end, it comes down to the individual nurse's personal brand of heebie-jeebies. Eventually, you can get used to almost anything and will only feel a slight tingle running up and down your spine. The nightmares will only last a few weeks, tops. =P
