I had to think long and hard for an answer, but what I arrived at I found too graphic to put onto this forum. I hadn’t thought about it in almost twenty years, though.
First week on the job - back when I was an aged care nurse for a few years. A resident who has survived cancer may have a hole in the larynx fitted with an artificial voice box. It has to be cleaned every day and it smells something dreadful. Likewise the pouches that substitute for intestines. Some haemorrhoids can hang out like large bunches of grapes. They need daily cleaning. The smells stick in the nose for hours after having left the work place.
To cope, I imagined I was them, and focused on being gentle, not showing my feelings, and allowing them as much dignity as possible. But the truth is there is nothing dignified about those situations.
Eventually my sense of smell became an asset. I could smell the ketone smell of a diabetic in time to provide a savoury snack to prevent an attack. I could smell it in the skin if a schitzophrenic or a bi-polar had pocketed their meds.
This post was edited by inky at June 4, 2020 7:13 AM MDT
Once I had to help control the bleeding on the leg of a guy that cut himself with a chainsaw. The chain on a chainsaw is a 1/4 inch wide so it was a wide and deep cut. I think how I managed to do it was because the other guy that was there helped keep me calm. After it was over I passed out. Cheers!
Cleaning a mess of dried vomit where I work. The drunken arsole missed the toilet. I had to scrub it partially by hand as it was stuck in the floor. I threw away the mop.
I worked for the State maintenance crew one summer and had to go down in a rest area's cesspool to unclog some pipes and was in over my ankles. I was nominated as was the youngest and newest worker. Once I got started I just adapted and did wind up with ticks as well but none bit. My Mother was not happy to see me come home that day.
killing bedbugs, ive had my place heat treated and sprayed 5 times, ive had to get rid of my bed and couch, i got an airbed after, one way to get rid of them, theres no mattress for them to live on, havent had an issue in two yrs cause of it