What's the funniest thing your patient has been scared of before?

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One of my patients had been through a big MVA. Came out of it with two badly broken legs and multiple scratches, bruises, and abrasions all around his body. He had surgery to get his legs repaired and came out of it with a foley. In the morning, doctors gave an order to get the foley removed. However the patient became more afraid of the foley removal than his hurt legs. You really should have seen his reaction. It was like someone wanted to insert an 18 gauge IV in him :lol2: . It was just so funny. Big guy like him...been through a big accident and cut up in ways that make me cringe, yet he became wimpy over the thought of a simple foley removal. Both his mother and I kept telling him the foley removal was easy. I even told him if he's really bothered by it, he could squeeze his mother's hand. When I got ready to remove the foley, he squeezed his eye shut and kind of clenched his teeth in anticipation only to find out it was over in a second :lol2: . Just had to share it with you.

So, have any of you had stories of wierd things your patients have been afraid of?

Specializes in PCU/Telemetry.

When I was in my nursing school practicum, I walked into Pt X's room to hang a new bag of normal saline as his old bag was almost empty. This patient had been alert and oriented the day before when I had taken care of him. I explained what I was doing, proceeded to put the pump on hold, unhook the detach the old bag and spike the new bag. I look back at the patient as he's sating at this bag with a look of sheer terror... Well he believed that I hung a bag of goldfish on the pole and hooked it to his IV... I tried to comfort him and assure him it was just saline, but he cut me off "I'm no dummy, I know the fish wont fit through that tube, but what if they take a ****?"

Later on when his family visited, we quickly found out the source of this new confusion... For about the last 30 years he had been a daily drinker, for the past 5-10 years drinking about a liter of vodka every day. When he was originally admitted, he told the nurse that he drank 1-2 beers/week...

The doc put the client on "Vodka 30 cc BID" and the confusion (and the goldfish) suddenly disappeared.

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Specializes in Med/Surg, ICU, educator.

I had a confused lol that claimed that there were tap-dancing cockroaches on the footboard end of her bed. I wanted to asked what were they dancing to, but my coworkers told me not to encourage her :lol2:

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I just had a guy in the ICU on precautions for a bedbug infestation, had come in with withdrawal seizures.... all of a sudden screams of terror are coming from his room...I go in to find him essentially levitating on the bed screaming about the snakes crawling up his leg, AKA his foley. He wanted me to give him a knife to take care of them....slightly crazy/funny nite...the start of the acute DT's. And thats not even mentioning the black foxes running across the room!:wink2:

Missy

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We had a patient's wife ask the unit secretary to go down in the elevator with her because she was claustraphobic....

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Specializes in ICU, CVICU, E.R..

There's a really nosy, frequent flyer patient that keeps watching what everybody does. He'd wander throughout the hall watching what eveyone was doing and sometimes follow you around while you were busy. It was difficult to communicate with him since he was a deaf-mute. So you really could not tell him that it's uncomfortable to have him around.

One day while I was checking the defibrillator, he stood about a couple feet away from me.

He was smiling at me and I smiled back, then all of a sudden I pretended that I was being electricuted, holding on to the paddles and shaking like I was having a seizure.

He screamed out loud and ran to his room. Realizing he was scared like hell, I followed him into his room and gave him a big smile and showed him I was ok. He laughed his butt off!! And gave me a look which appeared to say "You had me on that one!!"

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Specializes in OB, M/S, HH, Medical Imaging RN.

I took care of a new mom who was very comfortable with everything but one....her MIL. Seems dear MIL decided that her grandchild should use her dear son's glass baby bottles and cloth diapers that she had saved for all those years (32) so her grandchild could use the same bottles/diapers that it's Daddy had. She sobbed "I just don't know how to get out of this". I gave her my advice. Just say NO! My child, My decision... and hubby needs to be the one to set dear mother straight and besides glass bottles are dangerous and she wouldn't want to chance the baby's health for sentimental reason's.

And then there was the patient and her dh that both had a death grip on the IV tubing just below a tiny air bubble, it took me 20 minutes of talking and the doctor coming in the room to get them to release the tubing. They had caused the IV to dislodge, when it ran again it infiltrated and had to be restarted and...she was scared to death of needles too!

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One of my patients had been through a big MVA. Came out of it with two badly broken legs and multiple scratches, bruises, and abrasions all around his body. He had surgery to get his legs repaired and came out of it with a foley. In the morning, doctors gave an order to get the foley removed. However the patient became more afraid of the foley removal than his hurt legs. You really should have seen his reaction. It was like someone wanted to insert an 18 gauge IV in him :lol2: . It was just so funny. Big guy like him...been through a big accident and cut up in ways that make me cringe, yet he became wimpy over the thought of a simple foley removal. Both his mother and I kept telling him the foley removal was easy. I even told him if he's really bothered by it, he could squeeze his mother's hand. When I got ready to remove the foley, he squeezed his eye shut and kind of clenched his teeth in anticipation only to find out it was over in a second :lol2: .
If you understand men and their "gear," you would understand the absolute terror. Plus, certainly he experienced pain with those extreme injuries, and the experience of pain makes people more fearful of it.

I guess I don't find this funny, I see it as an opportunity to empathize honestly, to work with the patient with explanation and education, and by telling him exactly how long it would take and a little about what it would feel like, to ease his fears.

I don't mean to be a wet blanket, I just think if we think patient's terror or fear is funny, we need to rethink a few things.

Just my two cents.

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One of my patients had been through a big MVA. Came out of it with two badly broken legs and multiple scratches, bruises, and abrasions all around his body. He had surgery to get his legs repaired and came out of it with a foley. In the morning, doctors gave an order to get the foley removed. However the patient became more afraid of the foley removal than his hurt legs. You really should have seen his reaction. It was like someone wanted to insert an 18 gauge IV in him :lol2: . It was just so funny. Big guy like him...been through a big accident and cut up in ways that make me cringe, yet he became wimpy over the thought of a simple foley removal. Both his mother and I kept telling him the foley removal was easy. I even told him if he's really bothered by it, he could squeeze his mother's hand. When I got ready to remove the foley, he squeezed his eye shut and kind of clenched his teeth in anticipation only to find out it was over in a second :lol2: . Just had to share it with you.

So, have any of you had stories of wierd things your patients have been afraid of?

This is actually a pretty common fear. I generally remove a cath while engaging the patient in conversation. I avoid exposing them and only expose the part of the cathater where you attach the syringe. I remove it in one swift motion and it is out before the patient realizes I did anything.

I will explain further. I do not expose more of the cathater or patient than nexessary because this can cause increased anxiety related to anticipation. By not exposing much of anything it down plays the procedure. Patients dont have to even be in bed or in a particular position. I tell them of course what I am going to do and then if they express concern I immediately reasure them as I am doing it.

I have even been called back and asked when am I going to remove the foley well after I did it.

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How 'bout all the new moms who are terrified that their child will be switched at birth?

My son had minor day surgery at 4 months and he'd always been a quiet, "perfect" baby. During the surgery I said to my husband, "What if he comes out of the surgery a screaming-meemie?" I was just joking, but not much later a post-op nurse came to get us and as soon as we entered the room another nurse put a screaming child in my arms with a look of relief on her face. I was staring at the baby, thinking, "This can't be my son!" But because he was screaming so loudly and his face was all wrinkled up and bright red, I wasn't very sure--plus, he had a hat on down low over his forehead. My son had literally never had a fit like that before (turns out he has an oral-motor issue, he didn't make much noise at all until after he was 3).

I looked up at the nurses surrounding us and said, "Are you SURE this is my baby??" And it WASN'T!!!!! They gave me the wrong baby!

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Specializes in cardiology-now CTICU.

i imagine the same rules apply here as in the vent threads... if you don't find it funny, abstain. i am sure the OP is compassionate with their patients and educates as necessary.

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When I worked in the prison it always amused me that the big mean brutes with the multiple tattoos were the ones that fainted when a blood test was done

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