Altered

Every now and then we get kids on the floor that are so sick that their mental status becomes altered. Such is the case of one of my patients tonight. He's a 17 year old that had the flu, strep and pneumonia that took a medication for it that they think caused hallucinations and eventually he got renal failure. They aren't exactly sure the chain of events and what has caused what part, but the kid is SICK. And he definitely isn't there most of the time. At the beginning of my shift the respiratory therapist was trying to get him to take his breathing treatment, so his mom was trying to wake him up since he tends to go ballistic if you try and put a mask on him. So she woke him up and told him he was going to need to open his mouth to put his mouth piece in, to which he replied, "Not right now mom im in the shower." Trying to keep a straight face I continue to listen as his mom tells him, no you aren't in the shower right now honey, so I need you to open your mouth. Again he replies, "I said I was coming!" His poor mother told him that she knew he was coming but that he really wasn't in the shower so he just needed to wake up and open his mouth. Then the immediate need struck that had to go the bathroom and he had to go NOW. His mother took to action trying to unhook all of his monitors and get him to the bathroom, but he hadn't even made it a foot before he said he couldn't wait he couldn't wait and began peeing everywhere. This was just the start of my shift. This poor kid has been like this for days. The night before he was up for 4 hours because he was hallucinating that there were rats in his room. Sometimes hes at the library. But hes never in the hospital, that part we know for sure.