Feed me, Seymour! When patients want forbidden food...

Specialties Emergency

Published

I love people that ask for food that are in no condition to eat! Anyone have stories to share about patients begging for food, sneaking food, etc.

Examples:

Last week, when someone going out from the propofol so we could stick his dislocated shoulder back in, his last words were "Can you guys bring me some chips and soda..."

And the day before that, a guy that had smoked a bunch of K-2 and showed up unconscious, covered in disturbingly recognizable taco-bell barf. He demanded popsicles and jello after he regained consciousness because he "didn't have anything to eat all day" and "this is a hospital so I KNOW you have jello and popsicles!"

Or the patient with a blood glucose of 1620 wanting a coca-cola because he's thirsty.

Do share anything food and nursing related. Cute, foul, funny, anything...

This was 1 of my peeves on the pet peeves thread. These stories are great!

Slight confession though.. I don't really bat an eye at the people who have abd pain and eat. I'm one of those people who could have narly abd pain or nausea or torn up feeling gut and I'm still trying to eat... I even say why am I trying to eat???!???

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Years ago when I worked in CCU we had a patient being transferred to our facility from a smaller one in another state. We heard the helicopter land on the roof, but when the team arrived in our unit, there was no patient. "He got up and ran off as soon as we unloaded him from the helicopter," they told me. "Apparently he knows he's NPO for a heart cath, and he wanted to make sure he got something to eat before he got to CCU. Security is looking for him. We have another call, so if they find him, he's yours." And then they proceded to give me report. Crushing chest pain and shortness of breath relieved with NTG and morphine, long history of cardiac issues and (who would have guessed?) noncompliance. Security located the patient in the hospital cafeteria, consuming a cheeseburger and fries he'd ordered from the grille there. Before they could get him up to our unit, he developed more chest pain. They took him straight to ER, and from there to cath lab where he coded and died -- after barfing and aspirating his cheeseburger.[/quote']

Wow!!!!!!

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My mom was recently in the hospital for hyperglycemia and MI. She became so "disenchanted" with the low sodium/low sugar/low flavor diet they were giving her that she talked my stepdad into bringing her an order from Long John Silver's!

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Specializes in ER, Addictions, Geriatrics.

I had a very angry grandmother yelling at the doctor and myself about why it was taking so long for ultrasound and woodwork results for her grandson that she had brought in with abdo pain. They weren't mad about having to wait, they were mad that he was hungry and she hadn't fed him breakfast that morning and we told him he shouldn't eat until his results were back. So since she was "a diabetic and also hadn't eaten today" she went and bought a snack, only to eat it in front of her grandson. Her ten year old grandson. And then proceeded to glare at us from his room.

I've also had a woman who was awaiting surgery to have gallstones removed sign herself out AMA because she hadn't eaten in twelve hours and didn't want to wait any longer. She was due to go to the OR within two hours pending any disaster. She said she'd just "come back and try again another day". I thought the surgeon was going to star ble me through the phone when I had to call in the news

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At least he wasn't pre op ... LoL... disaster patients! Food is an addiction... people will be resourceful to get their fix!

He was allowed a diet as tolerated post-op. Highly recommended against it, but I figured if he could get it he deserved to be allowed to eat it. The big blue basin I put on his side table in case of vomiting went unused, fortunately!

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Specializes in ER.
I had a pt in nursing school come in as a newly diagnosed diabetic with a glucose of 2000. Yes that is right 2000!.

O....M....G

Wow they must have felt HOOOOORRRIIIBLE!

But hey, bet the ice cream was good LOL

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Specializes in ER.

Quoted from Sassy5d

"This was 1 of my peeves on the pet peeves thread. These stories are great!

Slight confession though.. I don't really bat an eye at the people who have abd pain and eat. I'm one of those people who could have narly abd pain or nausea or torn up feeling gut and I'm still trying to eat... I even say why am I trying to eat???!??? "

I eat for comfort, so even if I'm in pain I'll stuff things in my face anyways. Sometimes I get really bad apthous ulcers and I still won't give up my jalepeno laden mexican nom noms or super spicy indian food.

If it's nausea and vomiting, no way!

Yet...some people don't mind eating through the barfing though. I remember this little girl with kidney problems that was banned from eating for a day. When she was finally allowed to eat again, she got her favorite food - a cheese quesadilla. She devoured half of it, barfed it all over her bed, then started eating the other half. She was completely unphased by the yet-to-be-cleaned quesadilla chunks on her bedding.

It's kind of like a poopy baby diaper - disgusting and adorable at the same time LOL

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Specializes in ER.

We have several patients that come in with vomiting regularly and insist on guzzling fluids. They want to have something in their stomach to throw up, and it becomes an endless cycle. If they'd just rest their gut for a few hours, but sips of clear fluid means constant water and jello hitting the gut and bouncing. Some of the newer RNs have trouble setting limits, but sips, to me, means a cup of ice over a few hours, not 15 minutes.

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Specializes in ER.
We have several patients that come in with vomiting regularly and insist on guzzling fluids. They want to have something in their stomach to throw up, and it becomes an endless cycle. If they'd just rest their gut for a few hours, but sips of clear fluid means constant water and jello hitting the gut and bouncing. Some of the newer RNs have trouble setting limits, but sips, to me, means a cup of ice over a few hours, not 15 minutes.

Hah... when I say "I'll get you some ice chips"... and I bring a cup with three little ice chips in it, I insist that "three is some", "two is a couple"... "one is an ice chip". :-)

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I recently had a DKA'r with an insulin drip (but a glucose far less impressive than ya'll have seen) insist he needed something to eat "because I'm diabetic and my sugar will drop." Sweetie, that's kind of the point right now.

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Specializes in CAPA RN, ED RN.

When they say they haven't had anything to eat all day I get real excited and tell them that it's great. They have done exactly the right thing and now we can proceed without having to worry that they have messed things up by arriving with a full stomach.

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Holy hell, when my blood sugar gets in the 300-400 range I get so nauseous, the LAST thing I think about is eating. My main concern is "please, please, please get my blood glucose down and please get me some anti-nausea meds!" When I got admitted, they'd give me the standard diabetic food, but I didn't want to eat anything at all, especially that. All I wanted was clear sugar-free soda and water.

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