It's official...

I can't remove staples!

Ahhhh. So embarrassing! The first time I watched staples being removed, I quickly excused myself from the room, ran to the bathroom -- with sweat pouring from my face, puked in the trash can and felt like I was blacking out. I stammered up the strength to make to the nurse's station and made it there just before passing out! Someone had to crack ammonia and wave it infront of my nose to get me back!

Since then, I've witnessed lots -- I mean several, staple removal procedures and haven't had any problems. I attributed my first meeting with staples to having an "off day" and was excited, thinking that I had overcome my fear of staples...

BUT THEN

I was in clinical yesterday, and a nurse asked if I wanted to take out staples on a woman's C Section incision. I smiled to myself and said sure! I then walked into the room, calmed the highly anxious mother (keep in mind anxiety is contagious), laid her flat and lifted up her gown. What I found was non-reassuring. Her incision line was sloppy. It wasn't crisp, the skin was beginning to grow over the staples, and a yellow crust covered the rest. AKA: the staples were covered by some form of human excrement/protection. SO, I began with the ones closest to me, and broke of the crust, dug the staple removers (similar to the ones on my mom's office desk) around the skin, grabbed a hold of the staple and pulled.

The first 6 weren't too bad.

The seventh was a totally DIFFERENT story. After watching her fresh incision bleed around the steri strips, I began feeling a little "funny." I proceeded, and when I tugged on the 7th one, the new mother yelped. THAT WAS IT. I placed the staple remover on the mother's abdomen, looked at my nurse and said "I'm just going to step out for a min."

Quick, I thought to myself, make it to the restroom before you vomit on the floor! After a lovely 10 mins of stripping down in the bathroom (to cool off -- I was COVERED in sweat by this point in time) and kneeling over the toilet, praying away any feelings of nausea, I emerged victorious. No vomit, and I hadn't even passed out! I suppose I've made improvement from last time, but the tally remains the same:

Staples : 2
Stomaching Staple Removal : Zero, Zippo, Zelch.


(Sample picture of a good looking stapled incision: thank you Google)