Every once in awhile, you’ll take care of a patient, and they have got the funk. (One of the many things I have learned being a nurse — you can wash people in all sorts of places with shaving cream, to make them smell better. It even cuts down on that unkempt homeless smell.)
Sometimes, the funk is inside them. The past few nights I’ve had this patient whose every breath is just exhaling pseudeomonas, staph, strep, you name it, it’s in their lungs. They’re like a petri-dish. It’s gnarly. You can smell it in the air. You can taste it, even inside the room, even with a mask on, when you breathe. It’s a sick-sweet-sweat taste/smell. Once you know it, you know it. Knowing you’re in it, makes you feel gross.
So in the morning, coming home, i debated. I hate going to sleep with wet hair, and i refuse to stay up long enough to blow dry my hair, soooo…yesterday I just went to sleep with a ponytail, bunned up, after taking a rinse-off shower. So hopefully i only contaminated the top 3rd of my pillow. This morning, after the same assignment, i just crashed out, then woke up, showered, and stripped my bed entirely.
As soon as they make some sort of body-condom filled with alcohol sanitizer, or insane Andromeda Strain-type sterilization equipment for home use, i’m there. Especially if it involves lasers.