How not to faint at the sight of blood

[1911ly]

I used to be able to gut a deer, accidentally slice open his stomach and go "that's stinks."

No more. The older I get, the more sensitive I've become to smell. The visual part really doesn't bother me but "Oh that smell.........", it makes me hurl. My kids blew chunks a while back. The sight didn't bother me until I tried to clean him up. I joined him.

My wife (the nurse) called me a social puker. I can't handle it!

As for blood. Mine doesn't bother me at all. But other people, animals I can't handle it. I'd love to hunt too. But I'd have issue with the gutting. The older I get the less I can handle it too.

Oh, and I am poop impaired too (wifes term) I can't clean that up either, although when she was really sick I handled it. So it's a mind over matter thing.

 

[bwframe]

tmi. I've pierced my own navel (really should have gone to a pro for that one...

 

[Lars1470]

Focusing on taking SLOW deep breaths and forming a plan of what needs to be done have helped me. Everybody is different though and different things help different people. One paramedic pal said he did the deep breaths and thought of a color...

 

[Tanfodude]

Hang out in the slaughter house?

 

[halfmileharry]

It's mind over matter.
One of the most badazz US Marines you'd ever meet could cut you in half and nail you back together. It wouldn't make him blink.
I swear IF he paper cut his own finger he'd puke and pass out.
He could cut your hand off and sit across the breakfast table with you and it not phase him.
Make up your mind that there are things you just have to do and you'll be able to do them.

 

[natdscott]

Still can't watch a blood draw (mine or anyone else's). Would pass me right the **** out.

I TOLD you to get a copy of Bassham's book and READ it immediately. Am I going to have to send you a copy? Every time you say, or exclaim, that "Blah Blah Blah, I can't do ABC Task..." you make it X-amount more likely that it is true, and that it will happen that way the next time.

Start doing something different NOW.

You have GOT to start thinking positively, writing positive statements, and setting positive goals in regards to this problem you have had in the past.


-Nate

 

[Kutnupe14]

Hang out in the slaughter house?

My grandfather drove beef to the slaughterhouse, and as a kid, I'd sometimes tag along. FOUL.

 

[VUPDblue]

As said earlier, mind over matter. Nothing will make you less squeamish over leaky humans than reps. Trust me....

 

[CountryBoy19]

Work a second job on a farm with animals.

Take up hunting, and gut your own animals with no gloves.

I struggle with similar issues and if it's anything like me none of that will help. I grew up on a farm, helped birth animals, care for wounded animals, gut/butcher livestock and wild game. I could do ALL of that without blinking an eye. The instant a needle was stuck into me or I saw something bloody/gruesome in regards to a human it was game over and I had better find a place to lay down quickly or I was going to hit the ground. Thankfully this has improved with age yet even just a couple years ago I fainted while getting a blood draw done.

I've done combat first aid type training multiple times, I've treated some pretty serious wounds on myself and seen them on others now and I'm mostly ok with it. Honestly, adrenaline is my way of not fainting. If I can get my adrenaline up and keep it up I don't have any issues. Repetitive and increasing degrees of exposure can help some but it will take time.

If I had to guess you could most likely shadow and autopsy if you so wished to do so... It's a weird experience all in itself. My mom still talks about her first one!

Lastly you don't have to see blood in med training so I wouldn't put it off!

You may be on to something. At least for a person of my type (no problem with animals but issues with living human body) that would be a good "bridge" from animal to living human. The non-living human body in the middle could help to "desensitize" this.

 

[Ruffnek]

Maybe I've seen too many movies, but shadowing an autopsy makes me nervous. I'm always afraid that those eyes will pop open followed by a blood curdling scream as the ribs are being cleared.

 

[halfmileharry]

Maybe I've seen too many movies, but shadowing an autopsy makes me nervous. I'm always afraid that those eyes will pop open followed by a blood curdling scream as the ribs are being cleared.

The smell got me more than the physical side of it.

 

[csaws]

Robby, you live in Lizton ask the fire dept. if you can tag along on some of their runs as a rider. I got my start out there and my brother is still on there. I will offer up that you likely in the heat of the moment be so amped up that none of your issues will hit you until after the fact. not sure an autopsy will cure you as the "patient" in this case is dead, but worth a shot.

I am thankful I don't have this issue, I grew up on a farm, hunt and gut my own game, flipped my fourwheeler through a barbed wire fence at 16 wrapped my t shirt around the worst wounds I could see and pressed that arm against the worst wound I could feel and rode the four wheeler back to my house about a 1/2 mile away (got 29 stitches and a dose of Demerol large enough to see superman walk through the halls of the hospital) and wound up becoming a career firefighter/EMT.

On a side note, there was a buddy of mine (dead now) that was a paramedic... he could start lines on pt's and work all kinds of issues but passed out at the sight of his own blood or getting a line of his own, saw it live. Laughed my butt off one of my favorite memories of him.

 

[rhino]

I'm a bit nervous when I think of blood and guts in the abstract, but when I've seen it in an emergent situation, I've been pretty calm. I think that's part of how I react to sudden stress, though, and not specific to bleeding injuries.

I wish I knew how to teach that to other people, but I don't have any idea why it happens to me. It's possible it's just an exaggerated form of how deliberate I am with ordinary tasks in life.

 

[eric001]

I'm a bit nervous when I think of blood and guts in the abstract, but when I've seen it in an emergent situation, I've been pretty calm. I think that's part of how I react to sudden stress, though, and not specific to bleeding injuries.

I wish I knew how to teach that to other people, but I don't have any idea why it happens to me. It's possible it's just an exaggerated form of how deliberate I am with ordinary tasks in life.

Phaw!! It's all the practice you get dealing with sliced and diced pachydermis. No other explanation needed!!

 

[obijohn]

As has been said, repetition could be helpful. Certainly the parenting process involves copious amounts of icky stuff. Think on this: get training. And more training. Rehearse what you've learned without real injury, like doing shooting drills. When you get mentally cross threaded, chances are the training will come to the fore. No matter the dire situation or the critical incident, we generally resolve to our default. If that default is a well trained, well rehearsed state, then there you have it. We can always get squeamish and light headed later.

 

[SMiller]

I can watch people bleading out or during, legs cut off no problem but damn I hate puke and ****. Not that I can't deal with it, just don't like it.


You can request a ride along, there are some busy medics in Indy, a sat night ride along and hanging out in the ER will straiten you out.

Autopsy is no big deal, its when they pull the 14in. tape worm out that gets me...

In a real life situation there is no time for bs, you will be so focused on the job you won't be grossed out till later.

You can always use your go to work to get yourself through, I use "push-push-push" to talk myself through shooting, through recoil, and to keep moving, works for all stressful situations and keeps you moving forward and getting things done.

 

[Zoub]

I figured something out here. People who may have issues did not spend their youth going to the Doctor or ER for unscheduled injuries?

I am 7 years older then my brother. The Dr. told my mom if it was another boy the delivery was free. He knew he would make his money back with another one like me walking around. From my earliest memories I remember watching docs cut, carve, poke, prod, stitch, patch and tape me.

 

[jblomenberg16]

I figured something out here. People who may have issues did not spend their youth going to the Doctor or ER for unscheduled injuries?

I am 7 years older then my brother. The Dr. told my mom if it was another boy the delivery was free. He knew he would make his money back with another one like me walking around. From my earliest memories I remember watching docs cut, carve, poke, prod, stitch, patch and tape me.

LOL. I'll probably jinx myself, but the first time I actually spent the night in a hospital was the birth of our first child. Being "admitted" as it were for us was a completely foreign concept to me, as I had never ever actually been to the hospital for medical care (other than when I was born I suppose). Now with kids of my own, we are frequent fliers it seems....

 

[RobbyMaQ]

As has been said, repetition could be helpful. Certainly the parenting process involves copious amounts of icky stuff. Think on this: get training. And more training. Rehearse what you've learned without real injury, like doing shooting drills. When you get mentally cross threaded, chances are the training will come to the fore. No matter the dire situation or the critical incident, we generally resolve to our default. If that default is a well trained, well rehearsed state, then there you have it. We can always get squeamish and light headed later.

I will sign up for your med course sooner or later. (probably more soonerish than laterish)
Mayhap it is just a thing of adreniline and acting on impulse (not really getting time to think it all through).
But man when I have time, it so makes me queasy... And that scares me, that I couldn't do anything if the time came.

I will read your book natdscott. my wife, she has a library card and such!

Rhino, I so expected more from you... But on the same token, I expected nothing less. So you have THAT going for you. (in seriousness, it made sense. in the abstract, it's scarier than in the present)

fwiw, I am a party puker. I've done all sorts of (non gory blood stuff) with my kids... puke, is not one of them.

 

[Trigger Time]

Any tips?
Looking forward to Rhino's thoughts

Seriously... been putting of med training because I really struggle with this. I can watch horror movies all day long. But if it's the real deal, or anything with 'fixing' broken human body stuff, I tend to get anxious easily... I don't really pass out, but I get all flustered and cannot think straight. Embarrassing to say the least. Any 12 step programs out there or other tips to become less anxious when dealing with all things trauma? Maybe 'think about baseball' or something?

Ask someone to slap you.

but seriously you might not ever get past that. Some people are just better at other tasks. Try to force yourself to stay focused on the task at hand and not the blood. If you do what you need to do the blood will stop. Just reinforce positive thoughts.
When I get focused I get serious and no longer joke. That's when I'm in the zone. Pleasantries go out the window
We can practice suturing on a live pig sometime if you want. I have plenty of suture kits and the knowledge to pass on but no pigs