Just a little spittle

I am an RN.  I do labor and delivery.  I also do med surg.  I have done a few shifts in the ER.  I see some really gross and disgusting things. 

Hand me a finger in a cup on some ice that needs to be sewed back on?  No problemo.  Clean the laceration that involves a head that has been scalped in a car accident.  Right-O, I got it!

Wanna know what really gets to me?  Not the gore, not the poop, not the vomit, not the smells, not the 20" long lacerations…….

It is sputum.  Oh man, people, I CANNOT DO SPUTUM.  A doc needs a sputum sample?  DON"T SEND ME!!  I gag, I shutter, I shriek from the room.  There is nothing that I loath more than sputum in a cup.  I cannot handle sputum in a emesis basin, on a tissue, nor sputum in a tube as it is suctioned from a flaring nostril.  It is at these times that I HATE being a nurse.  I am known in the medical community for my sputum hating, saliva loathing touch of insanity.

So, as I am holding my daughter above me, letting her fly like an airplane, and a huge glob of saliva drops in slow-mo out of her mouth and stretches to 2 feet long as it plops into my open, laughing mouth, what do you think I did??????? 

I wiped my mouth, laughed, and resumed my "brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrommmm" airplane antics with her………

Now, THAT is love, people!!!!