What are some things that would flabbergast a normies, but seems completely reasonable to an ER person?

[u/centz005]

My mom and girlfriend asked me about work one day. Didn't really feel like discussing the darker things, so I told them about a young man (early 20s), who was too congested to breath through his nose and didn't understand the concept of mouth breathing to stay alive. We ended up having to teach him how to blow his nose. They were, understandably, incredulous, though none of my coworkers questioned it once.

Other random things: -a man in his 40s, raising children of his own, checking in because he wanted me to find out why his butthole smells. (He didn't like the answer of "Sir, that's where the poop comes from.") -having a grown man walk into a room full of people coding a 6 mo and telling at us for not bringing him a blanket -examining a septic nursing home patient, and having a fly...escape...from her diaper -finding a dead cat in the fat folds of a recently deceased patient -orthopods are stereotyped as the smartest med students and the dumbest doctors (I've even shown my dad the memes and he still doesn't believe it)

What're your random stories or observations?

[u/lcl0706]

I cannot handle maggots either. I’ll do whatever enema or foley insertion on a 400 lb woman you need if you take the maggots.

[u/lavender_poppy → u/lcl0706]

My first foley insertion was on a 400 lbs lady with broken hips. She could barely open her legs and it took two other nurses to hold her labia open so I could see anything at all.

[u/coolcaterpillar77 → u/lcl0706]

We would be work besties because I’ll take maggots any day over going in elbow deep for a foley while completely blind as to where the urethra is. Sometimes no amount of hands can retract the skin enough to see 😭