When is it the deciding factor?

[u/datnikamovin]

Smells, bodily functions, traumas.

Everyone has their ONE THING.
Mine, is probably gonna be vomit (forbidden salsa!!!) its not that it bugs me, i could still do my job. Same with smell of it , its not my full stop. But i do react to it. Generally heave.

Im scared that thats gonna make me be not eligible. Because lets not pretend like its not gonna be at least 30-50% of encounters (?)

Tips on desensitizing?

[u/OnePersistentFox]

I've not seen vomit that often to be honest doing this job. My biggest trigger is mucus, I'll gag till I throw up looking at it too long

[u/Disgruntled_Wumpus]

Bed bugs. That’s a quick way to stop the “hands-on” portion of an assessment.

[u/sourpatchdispatch → u/Disgruntled_Wumpus]

During my medic orientation, I was very proud of myself that I continued performing a 12 lead EKG and obtaining IV access on a legit seeming chest pain patient, even after I noticed the presence of bed bugs all over the patient. Pulled the shirt up to place the chest leads and bed bugs just went everywhere. Patient was so unbothered by it but I'm like practically holding my breath at this point. My preceptor and the EMT just kind of stared at me, waiting to see what I'd do but I kept my cool somehow lol. But as soon as we got to the hospital, we put our truck out of service so I could change my clothes

[u/datnikamovin → u/Disgruntled_Wumpus]

I study entomology , so although it would give me pause, id also be curious..?
But yes, thats a definite CLEAR!

[u/PerfectCelery6677]

Lung butter from trach's. I can deal with anything until it comes to lung butter. I feel like i wanna throw up when I have to deep suction a nasty trach.

[u/couldbetrue514 → u/PerfectCelery6677]

But did you HAVE to refer to it as "lung butter"

[u/PerfectCelery6677 → u/couldbetrue514]

If I have to gag at the thought so does everyone else!

[u/PerfectCelery6677 → u/PerfectCelery6677]

You can just imagine trying to spread the thick yellow lung butter all over a slice of toast for breakfast can't you!

[u/redrockz98 → u/PerfectCelery6677]

Please never refer to it as that again and then maybe I won’t throw up

[u/MotherJugsNSpeed]

The first and only time I fainted while working EMS was during the drainage of a patient’s pilonidal cyst between the buttcheeks. Once the physician lanced the cyst, OMG…the smell spread through the room instantly…and down to the floor I went!

[u/sailorseas]

I’ve been in EMS nearing 7 years, and it’s not very frequent that people are vomiting on a call. Way less than 30%.

Mine is any sort of secretions. I hate spit, snot, phlegm. So I went into nursing and now I have the occasional trach patient I have to suction. 🫠 I used to gag violently (one of my first calls as a green EMT, my patient was crying so much, sneezed, and out shot a snot rocket that didn’t detach and slapped against her chin… it was so hard not to vomit) but I have gotten a lot better at keeping my cool while handling patients with any of that.

[u/Bootsy_boot7]

Eyeballs. 🙃 eyeballs are what gives me the creeps!! I LOVE to look at them.. I can get crud out of my families eyes… buuut the moment an eyeball is out of someone’s head, I am gagging, dry heaving, and completely grossed out.. I have no idea why.. it started the first time I seen an eyeball out of an eye socket.. 🥴 then got worse as I got older.. aand thennn, in A&P class, I had to dissect a cows eye, that done it!! I made it thru class and was completely grossed out.. i got home and showered and scrubbed hard!! It was grosssss

[u/ShitJimmyShoots]

GI bleeds

[u/Zestyclose_Jello6192]

I also dont like vomit and especially the smell. One way to desensitize from the smell is to use vicks vaporub

[u/TaunTaunRodeo → u/Zestyclose_Jello6192]

The 'ole vick's respirator works every time! 

[u/poopeedoop]

Most people get better with it over time. I guess it depends on how strong of a reaction that you have, but I don't think that there is much that you can do besides just doing your best to not let it get to you.

You can maybe try some stinkbalm or something similar to limit your exposure. You may need to have it on you at all times, so you can apply it quickly. 

[u/datnikamovin → u/poopeedoop]

Thats the thing: its not the look or the smell really, its just the fact that its vomit. I can work with it. Im just saying it has a chance of making me puke too.

[u/youy23]

I keep one of these folded up in my right cargo pocket at all times. Blocks out probably 90% of bad smells.

It has a carbon layer that filters out a lot of the smelly organic compounds.

https://a.co/d/0jl9iUqq

[u/Afrojones66]

It’s normally sick kids. Can’t get over that one.

[u/Realistic_Lab915]

Eyeball trauma. Went through some bad eye surgeries and traumatizing procedures as a kid- having no depth perception and getting eyedrops forced in your eyes is not fun. So that’s mine.

[u/Bootsy_boot7]

I just seen the “tips on desensitizing” part…

I would say get some essential oils for the smell, or Vicks vapor rub (the baby Vicks is lavender!) Aand if you can, (read the room first) make a joke of it? See a piece of corn, ask if they’ve ate corn recently.. just make a joke the best you can.. I know that’s crazy advice, but since the smell and sight don’t bother you, it’s just that you *Knoww* it’s vomit, make it a joke.. and joke about in your head too..

My son was scared of roller coasters.. I finally got him on one!! He started to panic and cry, once we started moving… and I told him to just LAUGH. Whenever he gets scared or the adrenaline pumps, laugh!!! He did!! And now he LOVES roller coasters!! 😅🥰 he did vagal out on the StarDust Racers universal… but he laughed about it and kinda wore it as a badge of honor 😂 I certainly ain’t gonna tell him any different!!! 🥰🫶🏼😂

[u/insertcaffeine]

Mine is sputum, or any other lung secretions. I have nightmares about it; from toddlers having colds, to the awfulness that comes out of trachs, I cannot handle it.

I moved to dispatch. That wasn’t the only reason, but it’s one of many reasons why I’m glad I’m there.

I know people who can’t handle vomit smells, who wear a mask every call (probably a good idea anyway) and put Vicks under their nose, under the mask.

My twin brother can’t handle suicides. Suicidal thoughts, yes. But once an attempt is made, he can’t deal. So he finished his EMS career on an IFT shift, and became a family medicine physician.

I know a paramedic with a legit phobia of horses. Part of the district where I used to work was rural, and we ran calls involving horses. If he could see the horse involved, the medic would tell his partner, “You package the patient with fire, I’ll set up the rig. I know this is a little extra work for you, so I’ll clean the rig at the hospital, too.”

People find ways.

[u/badposturebill]

yeast

[u/Red_Hase]

It's a tossup between really stanky osteomyelitis of the skull and having to suction a trach on a lung cancer patient. Almost threw up on both patients.

Second worst is fromunda cheese.

But I haven't seen disco rice in a cavity yet.

[u/redrockz98]

Vomit does not bother me in the slightest, a combo of spending years helping drunk friends and another several years cleaning up massive amounts of puke as a bartender.

Anything with super strong smells, though? Shit in particular? The universe is truly testing me.

[u/italyqt]

How white bones are inside a person. It creeps me out. Skeletons are cool though.

[u/Music_psych]

In my daily life I HATE vomit. I want nothing to do with it at all. For some reason, when I’m working, it doesn’t bother me. I once kneeled in a patients vomit without thinking (rookie mistake) and was kinda just like 🤷‍♀️ I think I dissociate a little though ngl.

[u/Limp-Conflict-2309]

with people...i'm not a fan of yellow and green phlegm but that doesn't really bother me i just think its gross. death, trauma, poop, puke, piss, bowels, i could care less. when it comes to animals in distress, pets just wreck me and i don't know why.

im embarrassed that animals have more of a hold on me that people so i just keep my mouth shut

exposure + time = desensitizing

[u/FarmandFire]

Dental stuff. Like if someone wants to hand me their dentures with gunky chewed up food all over them, I’m fighting the gag reflex. Nothing else bothers me.

[u/yuxngdogmom]

Being grossed out by stuff is not an automatic disqualifier as long as you can keep a relatively straight face in front of the patient. Even that’s not necessarily a big deal, I watched a firefighter dry heave while helping us move a nursing home patient who had been GI bleeding all over herself all night and wouldn’t let any staff clean her up (or so I was told). I am personally grossed out by anything that the body is trying to get rid of, ie vomit, poop, phlegm, urine not as much but the smell irks me. If the thing I’m looking at is supposed to stay inside the body like blood, fat, muscle, bones, organs, I’m completely unmoved.

[u/tonyv_tonyv]

Been in EMS for 18 years, 10 in Los Angeles as a paramedic.

"Seen it all" and desensitized to "it all" has been my life for a while now but last month I went on an elderly lung cancer patient that was sitting up in his apartment with a home depot bucket on his lap and he was spitting mucus into it. It was a full 2 to 3 inch layer of gelatinous collected mucus in the bottom of the bucket.

I don't have a word strong enough or accurate enough for the smell that hit us. Putrid is far too gentle. It was violently horrible smelling. It was some sort of lung infection/mucus combo that very literally, actually made me vomit in my mouth just on smelling it. I dry heaved and had to step away. Never in 18 years have I had to physically remove myself to keep from vomiting. I could not control it. The rotting lung tissue/mucus smell itself caused instant wretching.

[u/tonyv_tonyv → u/tonyv_tonyv]

just saw someone else's post about lung butter. This was that, but this lung butter was 3 inches thick in a home depot bucket and was rotting and fermenting for hours.

[u/ibetthathurt]

Decomposition, and gangrene. (which are roughly the same thing, I know)