What is the weirdest thing someone has been admitted to the hospital for?

[SweetsRN522]

I am in the mood to read some reasons that patients were admitted to the hospital. Working on a general medical surgical unit, I see a little bit of everything. I often see patients admitted for strange conditions and I thought we could all compare stories and get a few chuckles. Ok so I will start I have a toss up between internal hemorrhoids and constipation x 2 days(no bloating, no abdominal discomfort they just said that they felt they should poop everyday and were concerned). Nursing can be happy, sad, humorous and stressful so with that being said let the stories begin.

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

Yea I hated taking care of the 32 yr old female admitted for constipation d/t opiate use from an abscessed tooth. She was actually crying and carrying on to get IV dilaudid claiming abd pain 10/10. The dr who ordered it got tired of me paging for stupid odd requests from this pt and D/C'd the IV dilaudid and ordered GoLytely. I told the pt if she kept getting admitted for this problem she'd end up needing a colonoscopy and possibly a colostomy bag. Never saw her again, tee-hee.

I've had that patient about 100 times.

[MN-Nurse, ASN, RN]

During the holidays it's not unusual for us to get LOL who are admitted to the hospital for anxiety symtoms. SOB, C/O chest pain. When they finally reach the floor they admit they just didn't feel like cleaning their house or cooking the dinner for children, grandchildren, and assorted relatives.

Their anxiety symptoms disappear as soon as they're admitted and arrive to their room.

They'll see all their relatives. As a pt in the hospital.

I had a guy who did that because he didn't want to get married that weekend.

[ClearBlueOctoberSky]

I was called non-emergent 911 for an allergic reaction to a bee sting. When I got there and did my H&P, bee sting was 24 hours old, pt in no distress. She was stung on her toe and it still hurt.

When I looked, there was this green gel paste all over it. She said her mother told her to put a baking soda paste on the bite. You got it, she used a baking soda TOOTHPASTE. Washed it off, no signs of allergy, inflammation. I told her she didn't need to go to the ER, much less by ambulance and that I would be more than willing to help her make a doctor's appointment. She declined and said she would go to Urgent Care.

[Libitina]

During the holidays it's not unusual for us to get LOL who are admitted to the hospital for anxiety symtoms. SOB, C/O chest pain. When they finally reach the floor they admit they just didn't feel like cleaning their house or cooking the dinner for children, grandchildren, and assorted relatives.

Their anxiety symptoms disappear as soon as they're admitted and arrive to their room.

They'll see all their relatives. As a pt in the hospital.

Over here we get 'Granny dumping' during the xmas season and peak summer holidays. The elederly patient is admitted 'off their legs'. When you ask for contact details of nok, you find that they will be away and uncontactable. Some even do it every year. It's so sad for the patient.

[DavidFR, BSN, MSN, RN]

When I was an Occ. Health nurse, we would be called out to "emergencies" around the organisation. I once got called to an "emergency" in a conference hall (I worked for a large international organisation) and flew in with my emergency rucksack on my back to be directed to a guy who needed some indigestion medicine coz he'd binged the night before. A lot of those guys thought they too important to either leave their meeting or wait until the end. Some people have a weird idea about what constitutes an "emergency"

In my training hospital we had a teenage girl who was constantly re-admitted with constipation. No medical reason - she simply survived on a junk diet totally devoid of any fibre whatsoever. God knows how much she cost the British health service just because she couldn't eat an apple occasionally. And yes, what were the parents doing?