The kinda gross thread

[Aggie_Ama]

Last night we were giving Maggie her SubCu and it slipped out and she bled. It was weird, I have seen dogs blood when they cut themselves and it was dark but I guess it is different because of the needle? It was BRIGHT red, quite a few little drops on her black fur. Anyway, I am suddenly really bugged by my Koozie I use at work because it is the color of Maggie's blood.

Am I the only one who ever needs somewhere to express kinda gross thoughts?

[Zen]

Funny that blood doesn't bother me but when we did blood labs at school I couldn't bear to prick another persons finger.

Not because of the blood but because of inflicting pain :o

[salsabike]

Here's the gross thing that I remembered instantly when I saw this thread: When I was an undergrad at Cornell we had to dissect a cow's eyeball in biology. It wasn't the eyeball so much that bothered me but the smell of formaldehyde that followed me to lunch and for many weeks after (in my head). Oog, that smell. Blechh.

[Tokie]

My human anatomy lab (with cadavers) was 2 hours long - and then I had to rush back to the cafeteria at my dorm before they shut down the dinner line. Not so hungry, but last chance to eat with pre-paid meal ticket : - (. True about the smell of formaldehyde - it seems to linger in your brain forever. Tokie

[Mr. Bloom]

Bad associations:
- In 1983, I had hepatitis. I ate a ton of peanut brittle just before I became gravely ill with nausea and vomiting; I still associate the sight and smell of peanut brittle with that experience.

[bmccasland]

Still can't face Italian Wedding Soup. I made a pot of it in prep for having food to eat after having minor surgery. It was a BIG pot. Yes I froze some. But I really got tired of eating it, and haven't been able to face the recipe since. I associate how I felt after surgery with that big pot-o-soup, that translated in to multiple containers in my frig and freezer. bleh.

[Aggie_Ama]

I usually do not gross out at other's blood. DH had a pretty bad wreck a few weeks ago, while I was cleaning a nasty puncture that just didn't want to stop bleeding all I could think was "this is a pretty cool injury". :p I could not pack his open wound after his apendectomy got infected because he wrenched and screamed. My own blood in anything more than a minor cut will make me panic though.

At first Maggie's blood didn't gross me out then I got slightly queasy and now I have a maroon koozy.

I am not sure I could do human cadavers. My college roommate is a doctor, she was so excited about it in med school she called me "WE GOT OUR BODIES TODAY!!!" Different strokes.

[OakLeaf]

I can't watch my blood getting drawn, but blood generally doesn't bother me. Although I have to admit that this fall when I cut the tip of my thumb nearly off at the dinner table, ten minutes later after I'd gotten the bleeding more or less under control, I really didn't have much appetite left for the rest of my plate.

[SlowButSteady]

Blood doesn't usually bother me but whenever my son had a nosebleed, I'd freak out. I also get very, very anxious about the finger prick blood tests but not about needles in veins, scalpels, etc.

[Tuckervill]

When I was about 6 months pregnant with my last child, my job entailed training medical people on how to use dictation equipment. One of my last assignments was in the pathology cutting room of a major public trauma center. While I tried to remember all of the specimens represented a human who was having a rough go of it, I will forever be scarred by the sight of one man's entire ear and all the innards that accompany it. That, and the fluid filled fallopian tube 10 times its normal size that exploded when the technician touched it. eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww. (Okay, my keyboard actually stuck when I pressed e and w.)

Karen

[TsPoet]

We shared a walk-in freezer with an orthopedic lab when I was in Grad school. I was the only person in our group that was willing to go in the freezer, so I was often the errand girl. I never had any trouble with the human limbs and disarticulated torsos. Until one day I walked in and a woman's leg was exposed with perfectly manicured and beautifully polished toenails.
I still get upset when I think about that. No idea why that bothered me, so much more. Why was displaced beauty more gross than the stark reality?

[Biciclista]

When I was 12, a friend of the family was an EMT and she regaled us with stories of car wrecks and such. The stories she painted onto my brain were so graphic, I can still summon them up even though I personally have never witnessed a really bad car accident.
Also disturbing to me was that she said people's shoes always come off in car accidents. so whenever i saw shoes in the road...

[OakLeaf]

I went to a spinal anatomy seminar at a convention a few years ago. The presenter had cadaver parts, displayed on an overhead projector. I learned WAY more than I ever could from photos and drawings. Still, I was clear at the back of the big "ballroom," and that was as close as I wanted to be to that stuff. :p

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I still get upset when I think about that. No idea why that bothered me, so much more. Why was displaced beauty more gross than the stark reality?
Because the carefully painted toenails reminded you that the abstract 'piece of meat in a freezer' had only recently been a feeling and cared for part of someone. But you probably know that already. :o

I had to get used to a lot of 'gross' manifestations of death and decay during my mother's dying process two and a half years ago. I now push those images out of my mind and try to remember her as the beautiful woman she was.

On a different note...I recently started up a worm composting bin in a corner of my kitchen, and I had been a tiny bit apprehensive about handling a pile of squirming worms in my hands. I have enthusiastically raised snakes, tarantulas, and various creepy-crawlies in my day, but a solid mass of worms were something new to me.
Not that I 'had' to hold them in my hands, but I felt if I were going to raise worms then I should not be afraid to get my hands right into them. I was pleasantly surprised when the 1000 worms arrived and I dumped them on the table- I quickly got over any squeamishness and in fact they felt kind of pleasant, all wriggly slowly as a mass in my hands. Not slimy or gross, more smooth and cool feeling.

[Biciclista]

Because the carefully painted toenails reminded you that the abstract 'piece of meat in a freezer' had only recently been a feeling and cared for part of someone. But you probably know that already. :o

I had to get used to a lot of 'gross' manifestations of death and decay during my mother's dying process two and a half years ago. I now push those images out of my mind and try to remember her as the beautiful woman she was.

On a different note...I recently started up a worm composting bin in a corner of my kitchen, and I had been a tiny bit apprehensive about handling a pile of squirming worms in my hands. I have enthusiastically raised snakes, tarantulas, and various creepy-crawlies in my day, but a solid mass of worms were something new to me.
Not that I 'had' to hold them in my hands, but I felt if I were going to raise worms then I should not be afraid to get my hands right into them. I was pleasantly surprised when the 1000 worms arrived and I dumped them on the table- I quickly got over any squeamishness and in fact they felt kind of pleasant, all wriggly slowly as a mass in my hands. Not slimy or gross, more smooth and cool feeling.

eewww~~!!!

[Biciclista]

My son has a pet snake. My stepfather has studiously avoided the creature. On sunday, at our Easter brunch, daughter in law gets the snake out as usual.
People were touching him handling him, talking about him; and very quietly, stepfather sticks out a finger, touches him, the puts his hand out and feels it.
That was kind of cool. Never said a word.

[Tuckervill]

My son is totally grossed out by worms, to the point that even if they are mentioned he cannot eat for the rest of the meal, and many times not for the rest of the day. I was just like that when I was young. My older kids were pretty old before I could allow the book, "How to Eat Fried Worms" into the house. Needless to say, we did not see the movie. I was finally able to read the book about 5 years ago, but youngest would not allow me to read it out loud.

Karen

[Selkie]

In early March, I attended a week-long conference on Capitol Hill. Attendees were Federal employees from across the Govt. I discovered, too late, that the person I sat next to had a penchant for picking his nose. He did it the entire day - including during meal times. I don't even think he realized he was doing it. I'm not talking about subtle nose picking - he was DIGGING in there. ugggh. It goes without saying that I tried not to sit near him again.

[Owlie]

In my physiology lab last year (I'm a bio major), we had to dissect an earthworm, a frog, and a roach. The frog and the worm didn't bother me. The bug did. (At least we got the dead one! Another group had to cut up a live one. Eew. Also, cruel.)

[malkin]

Bad associations:
- In 1983, I had hepatitis. I ate a ton of peanut brittle just before I became gravely ill with nausea and vomiting; I still associate the sight and smell of peanut brittle with that experience.


I have that with tequila, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't hepatitis.

[cylegoddess]

I get IVs fortnightly. One time, the needle slipped and blood spurted everywhere!! I just laughed. It was pretty, the colour.I must be desensitized to blood.
But, Im still haunted by two experiences that made me vegetarian( and please, no horror storys - thats getting political). One, in 4th grade I bit into a Kentucky fried chicken breast and found something resembling a mouse intestine( what WAS it, I still wonder?) and eating beef ribs( I loved meat) , rather underdone, cold and tasteless( bad restaurant), I pulled out a vein - rubbery, it stretched, rather than broke. That killed it for me. I liked my meat burnt and that, was underdone. Too much like, well meat!

I was ok with dissection, being raised by a biochemist but the smell of formaldehyde, was the pits. We had a cat, and I said, should it smell THAT bad. Well - no. Turns out it had spoiled.As if the lingering taint of the F. wasnt enough! ewwww!
Give me worms anyday

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

Give me worms anyday

Ok, here you go!:
http://strumelia.blogspot.com/2009/04/arrival-of-canadians.html
:D :D :D

[cylegoddess]

wow!! I need some!

[malkin]

In 1980 I was a graduate student extern at a VA hospital as part of my training to become a speech-language pathologist. It was a fantastic experience.

One day a week there was a group of laryngectomee guys who would come in for a group session. I was never in charge of the session, but all the students sat in and got to ask questions and stuff. I was kind of strangely charmed by the guys- crusty old, cancer survivors who'd seen and done more than I'd ever dreamed about, and they got a kick out of all of the sweet young students.

But whenever any of them would cough, and gag, and spit mucus out of his stoma, I could supress a gag reflex, and had to leave the room a few times.

They were nice, and told me I didn't have to leave in order to puke...but still, I work with kids.

[solobiker]

I was in one of the many meetings I have to go to at work, well lets just say the medical director loves to go off topic or talk about bits of trivia. Last weeks was about...ummmmm. Poop,and poop transplants. :eek: Yes...you did just read that. Hard to beleive but I looked it up. Kind of makes sense I guess.

[OakLeaf]

Okay, that's really disgusting. I looked it up, and it still doesn't make sense. Why not grow the organisms in vitro? I mean, yeah, on an intellectual level the only thing really gross about poop is the organisms, but it seems like given the prevalence of C. diff., it would be way easier to keep some cultures going in the lab, than to test a donor for everything under the sun every time you need some? And it would have to be a whole lot easier for the patient to ... [I have to say it] stomach.

[Biciclista]

it's a really fast way to fight a really bad diarrhea. I've read about it, it's medical science. saves lives.

[colby]

Last night we were giving Maggie her SubCu and it slipped out and she bled. It was weird, I have seen dogs blood when they cut themselves and it was dark but I guess it is different because of the needle? It was BRIGHT red, quite a few little drops on her black fur. Anyway, I am suddenly really bugged by my Koozie I use at work because it is the color of Maggie's blood.

Am I the only one who ever needs somewhere to express kinda gross thoughts?

I've seen the subQ blood, too, with our cat - it is very bright (not exposed to air for very long, I suppose?). It is hard not to think of that the next time knowing they read your every thought and feeling and it just makes them more uncomfortable ;)

I ate Kashi Golean Crunch cereal before my first Ironman, then proceeded to have GI problems. I could not eat the cereal for months. Thankfully no vomiting, but it still had an identifiable smell going the other way. :o Last time I had the stomach flu it was movie theater popcorn. Took a while for that to be enjoyable again, too (and we see movies fairly frequently).

I find medicine fascinating, but I have no idea how I'd do actually being in the room with major open surgery or anything. I've seen a dead body and animals, but never explored one (other than the dissecting of frogs). :p It's really interesting how magically all of those systems come together to make people and animals go. Watching medical shows on TV (which I do alone, because my family can't take it) is really intriguing.

The mucous in the laryngectomy dudes might not be something I could stomach.

My mom could never clean the bathroom after the kids got sick (assuming they missed, which kids are prone to do), the smell and sight of it would make her get sick.

Interesting thread idea. Hopefully nobody reading with a seriously weak stomach. ;)

[Lesley_x]

The worst/grossest thing that I've ever experienced was in anatomy class, we had to use circular saws to cut the top of the skull off and quite a few of the bodies had had brain haemorrages. Blood was spilling out of the exposed brains. It was something out a horror movie.

I never went back to that class, actually.

Most of my grossest moments have come from anatomy class, actually. I missed the one where they cut the heads in half using a massive electric saw (thankfully!)

[RolliePollie]

I will be forever traumatized by the cats we dissected when I was a senior in High School.

I think we got the bargain basement cats, because they still had fur and the veins didn't have red and blue latex like they were supposed to. We kept them for a whole semester in a janitor's closet in big clear plastic bags. When you'd open the door, you were faced with a pile of reeking formaldehyde soaked wet-furred dead cats. I will never forget that sight. Nor will I forget that smell.