People with gory jobs...how, just how, do you do it?!

[lookatgiraffenow]

Having a GP appointment this week, it hit me that I could NEVER be a phlebotomist or a surgeon or nurse or anything medical-related...HOW do you stomach it?? My job means I have to deal with extremely unpalatable things reasonably often but nothing too blood and gutsy.
I have a surgeon friend and my brain is boggled that she can operate on someone. Like, actually cut someone open and have a rummage around! Without passing out, puking or having shaky hands!
I'm in awe, actually.

I think you just kind of shut off to the gory side of things. Every so often I have a flash of "this isn't normal" while I'm doing something gory at work, but I just push it to the side and get on with it.

How about slaughtering animals? I know someone who killed chickens for a living. And another person who put make up on corpses before funeral.

I agree op, I think it wasn’t until I had children that I actually realised that doctors cut people up, like with their own hands and rummage around, totally gross

Although my job is not everyone’s ideal, grubbing around in mud, I was combing some grasses the other day with my rake, thinking; what a strange job I have

Different strokes for different folks?

I'm absolutely fine with blood, doesn't bother me at all, I could look at it / clean it up all day, but I absolutely can't do the dishes if we've left gravy or custard or whatever to form a skin. It makes me heave and my skin crawl, I'd rather throw out the pan and buy a new one. I'm much the same with any lumps of food in water, everything must be scraped to the edge of it's life before going in the sink.

So I could do forensic science or clean up murders scenes, but I couldn't be a pot wash in a restaurant 🤷🏼‍♀️

I wouldn't mind corpses, working with the dead, but like OP, I couldn't do the gory stuff.

@lookatgiraffenow

Having a GP appointment this week, it hit me that I could NEVER be a phlebotomist or a surgeon or nurse or anything medical-related...HOW do you stomach it?? My job means I have to deal with extremely unpalatable things reasonably often but nothing too blood and gutsy. I have a surgeon friend and my brain is boggled that she can operate on someone. Like, actually cut someone open and have a rummage around! Without passing out, puking or having shaky hands! I'm in awe, actually.

Not everybody has such a reaction to blood, shit or puke.

I'm not fussed by the first at all, would rather avoid the second (but litter trays and nappies generally got me over that), the third reached borderline when I witnessed Exorcist-style shenanegans in an enclosed area and had to deal with it.

I'm also not bothered by the Dead. They should be treated respectfully, but they don't scare me or elicit revulsion. Dead animals don't bother me. I either feel sorry for them or very little at all as they are removed from my immediate area at arm's length or on a shovel

But toddlers with luminous green noses and a little tongue sticking out? Cleaning the dishwasher filter where DP hasn't bothered scraping the plates off ? Or cleaning the shower drain of the skanky ex lodger's body hair where the Veet had removed it but not dissolved it, so there was a combination of decaying pubes, thioglycolate, stale water and soap scum bunging up the pipe? UUUUUUUURRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH.

Ooo I love it!
The dirtier the better.
But I have a strong stomach I love seeing how the body works - it’s fascinating
Also I have never really had a strong sense of smell. That helps i

I’m a dental hygienist btw

You get used to it, seriously not much bothers me anymore.

I've got / had a gory job - infected wounds, poo, death and dying - all ok.

But I have on no idea how nursery staff so their job, wiping other kids snotty noses 🤢

I work in pathology.
Recently I’ve encountered:
A nipple.
A Fallopian tube.
A severed toe.
The crusted lining of a nasal cavity.
Every single colour and texture poo you can imagine - red, black, green, yellow, orange, white, water.
Lots of toenails.
Occasionally we get sent chunks of bone.
Strangely I don’t really mind on those but I find the standard swabs with gunk on the most likely to make me vom.

I had a blocked soil pipe once. They had to cut a whole in it to get all the ‘stuff’ out.

I wouldn’t say I was squeamish, but absolutely fucking gross doesn’t even begin to describe it.

I retreated inside and just told them I didn’t want to know what they were doing just tell me when it’s done.

You get used to it. Being a bit of a sporner helps- I love incising a nice abscess for example!
Dentist.

Cheesess
I'm with you (biochemistry) fine with everything. We play can you guess what it is with the path samples before they get picked up. You couldn't pay me to work in microbiology though, sputum gives me the boak.

Though it is weird when the blood arrives so quick and the tubes are warm.

I had a job where I spent a lot of time dealing with phlegm. Honestly best job I’ve ever had and I miss it so much

Podiatrist - it is really interesting believe it or not .
I am concentrating on a specific area but at the same time have to think about at the patient as an entirety ( I just don't have to look at the rest)

Pus, blood , ulcers, ingrown nails , nail care , callus .
Smetimes removing pieces of bone from an ulcer or doing a swab or tissue sample .
Every patient is different .

And I have masks/gloves/aprons/visor

I couldn't work with the dead.
I respect anyone who does, the empathy and sympathy, tact and diplomacy these people have.
Unfortunately having witnessed several different firms in different areas I have never seen anything that wasn't just perfect.
Any on here

My daughter is working toward being a nurse but has a steel core, no matter what the cat drags in, parts or whole she scoops it up, dog sick, no problem, bad smells, no issue. Vomit, whatever.

Injections viewing me having them or on her, giving blood nothing at all bothers her, I’ve told her she will be either a great nurse or a serial killer.

The nurse in work's voice excitedly went up an octave when the GP mentioned a patient's sebeceous cyst to her. She was most disappointed the patient was not attending the surgery but just needed dressings. IME nurses love a bit of pus.

I’m a student veterinary nurse - totally fine with animal blood, poo, wee, vomit, pus etc and love a good abscess.

However absolutely can’t do human vomit, poo, wee, snot etc!!

I wouldn't want to be a funeral director. But man those people are Angels

I’m fine with blood and poo and even vomit better if I know it’s not Contagious!) and comfortable working with dead people as well and feel it’s a lovely service to be able to provide last offices.
However I have found that slimy mucous phlegm gives me the boak. 🤢

Nurse on bowel ward...love a bit of gore. There are some days when you are doing a job that you just think...yeah this isn't what most people are doing with their day. Can cope with blood, vomit, stomas, urine but can't cope with sputum or runny noses. Also the flake of dry skin that hits you in the face when you change a patients surgical stockings

@TroysMammy pus is the reason we put up with shit pay

A cup of cold phlegm handed to me when I was early on in my last pregnancy was the only time I threw up ever the professional I waited until I had fast walked to the sluice

I say that's all fascinating, I was allways intrigued by the TV series Embarrassing Bodies , and I have for some time been into watching Tv series of YouTube of True life murders of infamous serial killers but i can not stand the sight of Any disharges/waste from any human orrificeorrifice,But was fascnited by my mother who adopted me, old black/white book on Cantagious diseases an disorders of body she studied became a sister nurse worked at elderly ward hospital that used isolation contagious diseases In first world war.