» The Dirty Secrets of Your Trade

nurses
When we say "Don't worry, I've seen it all before", quite often we haven't seen anything *exactly* like it before and we frequently go and laugh about it in the staff room.
(Fri 28th Sep 2007, 10:22, More)

» The nicest thing someone's ever done for me

In Goa
I visited a deserted, isolated beach in the north of Goa with my then boyfriend. The only thing on this beach and for about 10 miles in any direction was a very small shack in the middle of the sand which was a tiny cafe, run by an Indian family (Mum, Dad, three small children, two Grandparents). We went there in the evening for a cup of tea, having the intention of sleeping on the beach because we had no way of getting back to our hotel that day. The lady running the place asked us where we were staying and when we told her she insisted on us sleeping in the cafe. We gratefully accepted and assumed that they would go back to their house. Until it came to bedtime and it became apparent that all 7 of them lived in this tiny one-room shack. They very kindly made room for us, gave us blankets and kept us entertained all evening. They were one of the nicest and happiest families I have ever seen. In the morning they insisted on making us a cooked breakfast and hot drinks before seeing us on our way and refused to accept a penny from us. Lord knows what they were living off out there in the middle of nowhere but they seemed very happy to share. We hid some money under the things on the table before we left anyway.

I've never forgotten that.
(Thu 2nd Oct 2008, 22:40, More)

» My sex misconceptions

Front bottoms
I've met loads of otherwise intelligent men who are absolutely convinced that women wee out of their vaginas. It took me a long time to convince one boyfriend that I could still have a wee while wearing a tampon. Mind you, he also thought gravity was caused by the Earth's atmosphere so I probably shouldn't have been surprised.
(Thu 25th Sep 2008, 16:59, More)

» What's the most horrific thing you've seen?

I'm a nurse so...
...I've seen a fair amount of gore, bodily fluids and disgusting behaviour. The one that sticks in my mind is a couple whose house I visited when I was shadowing a district nurse. He was a schizophrenic heroin addict, she was an alcoholic/heroin addict. They lived in local authority housing and the nurse had to visit them every day to give them their medications. The smell in their house was unbelievable - there was crusted faeces on the walls and the ceiling. Their bedroom had a commode next to the bed overflowing with weeks-old vomit and faeces and it was all over their sheets as well. There was food covered in mould and maggots in their kitchen. They were both filthy and practically rotting in their clothes but they refused to have any kind of help with the house or their care. I felt most sick when I noticed that the lady was covered in love bites and had finger-shaped bruises on her arms. They'd obviously had rough sex on those filthy sheets.

Another vile thing I remember is a diabetic man who had regular leg dressings on his necrotic feet. Once I took off his old dressings and one of his blackened, rotten toes came off in my hand.

Thank heavens for latex gloves.
(Fri 22nd Jun 2007, 12:23, More)

» Stuff I've found

a bra!
I lived in a shared house many years ago and once when I used the communal washing machine I found a mystery bra in with my stuff. It was about my size so I just kept it. A few weeks later it was draped over a chair in my room when one of my flatmates (who was a lovely girl) came in for a chat and noticed it. She said "Oh, that's funny, I've got a bra just like that somewhere" then you could see her face changing as she realised that she hadn't seen her bra for some time..."yes, just like that...". There was a bit of an nasty, awkward pause while she digested the fact that I'd probably been going through her underwear drawer and stealing her lingere. She didn't say anything about it and neither did I. On reflection I should have just admitted everything at the time but I was too embarrassed. Instead I went to a huge amount of trouble to find an identical bra and buy it. I left the original near the washing machine in the hope that she'd find it and think she'd just left it lying around. I also made sure that the duplicate bra was on constant display in my room so that she could see that there really were two bras and I hadn't stolen hers! I don't know if it worked because I moved out shortly afterwards and didn't speak to her much after that. The worst thing is that a year later she found out she had cancer and died not long after. Now whenever I think about her all I can think is how guilty I feel for unintentionally stealing her bra.
(Wed 12th Nov 2008, 19:05, More)