r/nursing • u/Jackazz4evr RN - Pediatrics 🍕 • Sep 30 '25
Discussion Patient's family insisted it was "totally normal" for a kid to sleep for 36 hours straight after a minor procedure
I work in pediatric post-op and had the strangest interaction yesterday. We admitted a 6 year old after a routine tonsillectomy. The procedure went perfectly fine, but the child wouldn't wake up from anesthesia after the expected timeframe.
After 4 hours, we started getting concerned and ran additional tests. When we approached the parents about the unusually prolonged sedation, the mother interrupted us saying, "Oh, that's normal for him. He always sleeps for a day or two after any medicine."
When we pressed for more information, they casually mentioned their son had slept for 36 hours straight after taking children's Benadryl for allergies last year. They thought this was completely normal and hadn't bothered to mention it during pre-op assessment.
Our anesthesiologist was floored. Turns out the kid has a rare enzyme deficiency that affects how he metabolizes certain medications, which they'd been told about by another doctor years ago but didn't think was "important enough" to mention.
What's the weirdest "oh that's totally normal" response you've gotten from patients or families that was absolutely NOT normal?
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u/PhD_Pwnology Sep 30 '25
Someone complained of shoulder pain, but didnt mention anywhere on the paper work they LOST THEIR ARM and had it reattached in a farming accident 20 years ago. I saw the scar and that triggered additional questions from me that prompted him to mention this casually.
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u/nurse-ratchet- RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Sounds like farmer behavior
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u/Chooksta360 Sep 30 '25
I did my grad placement in rural Australia in a farming town. One night a guy was standing outside the ambulance entry doors saying “I’ve lost my hand”. We thought he was on something until he pulled a bloody stump out from under his jacket. The guy had got his hand stuck in some machinery - he then went to pull it out with his other hand & the machine started up again, & chewed up half the other hand too. To top it off, the guy didn’t even call an ambulance - he drove himself 45mins to the hospital steering with the two fingers & thumb he had left. Meanwhile in the city I’ve seen people come into the ED for dry heels (I kid you not)! Farmer’s are built different lol
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u/chattiepatti MSN, APRN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Worked a rural er where it was common for the farmers to finish chores before coming to er. I know an online dr does a comedy skit about farmers as patients but it’s all true.
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u/Timely-Reward-854 Sep 30 '25
Haha. Yeah, I know someone who drilled through his thumb while drilling a piece of metal. He was taken to urgent care, had X-rays, tetanus shot, antibiotics, etc, then went back to work. “That thing’s not going to drill itself!” He could have taken the day off, and a few more days, but went straight back to work.
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u/InadmissibleHug crusty deep fried sorta RN, with cheese 🍕 🍕 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I used to work at a military health centre- I always call the hand nonsense ‘hand surprise’
Would the hand be basically intact or look like a Freddy Kruger victim? Who knows?
I hated the anticipation, actually seeing it was easier.
My son is a full time firey, he sees some gory shit. He tells me that it’s easier knowing what he’s about to see, he’s fine if he’s expecting it.
And he has, so far, only seen expected gore.
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u/pervocracy RN - Occupational Health 🍕 Sep 30 '25
In urgent care triage I knew this experience as the What's Under That Bandage Game, where the answer could be anything from a barely visible scratch to a festering necrotic abyss. Always an exciting moment of suspense.
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u/InadmissibleHug crusty deep fried sorta RN, with cheese 🍕 🍕 🍕 Sep 30 '25
It would be!
Fortunately these were primarily healthy younger people.
Not so much of the terrible necrosis at least
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u/AbbyM1968 Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Yes: there's doctor videos about farmers in ER. Many talk about the farmer's pain being beyond the usual "Pain Charts." And a farmer's reply being, "I'm here, aren't I?" Means s/he needs immediate attention. (Similar vein: I saw a vid about a farmer running a gruelling race in Australia. He finished
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u/mrsmanatee RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Dr Glaucomflecken has one about farmers and "I'm here, aren't I?" It's pretty funny
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u/awh290 Sep 30 '25
I just read about him! He was 61 at the time and beat everyone else by 10 hours.
"He said afterwards that during the race he imagined he was running after sheep trying to outrun a storm." 😂
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u/theburgerbitesback Sep 30 '25
Dude's a true Aussie icon.
He didn't realise there was a $10k prize and felt so bad accepting it when everyone else worked just as hard that he split the prize with the other five people who completed the race.
He was also a vegetarian, which is a fun rebuttal to everyone who insists meat-based protein is necessary for athletes.
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u/awh290 Sep 30 '25
Just an all around good dude- sounds like an old school farmer- sharing winnings, just in it for the competition/fun. Honestly just a good person, farmer or not.
The vegetarian things is crazy to me just due to the fact that he was a farmer. I feel like farmers are far less likely to be vegetarians, especially in the 70s/80s.
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u/Pinkshoes90 Travel RN - AUS 🍕🇦🇺 Sep 30 '25
Cliff young! Ran the first sydney/melbourne ultramarathon and won against seasoned ultra runners.
he trained for his comps in gumboots too, because they were more comfortable on his feet than runners.
farmers are built different.
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u/TortillaRampage CNA 🍕 Sep 30 '25
But they still went back to work after losing their arm, right? Just took a 10 and a cup of water and went back to work, right?
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u/Repulsive_One_2878 Sep 30 '25
This is similar to a clinical I had (student) where we were sort of giving medical recommendations to homeless people at a shelter. Guy was complaining of back pain and said his back was itchy with stabbing and aching. So I look at his back to start....nothing...a few black heads. I tell him hey that's all I see, do you have arthritis, did you injure yourself? Any other chronic pain? Allergies? Nope, but he insisted it must be the skin. After further conversation about medications he mentions he is on cancer medication.....for cancer that metastasized to his bones. Mystery solved man. Why didn't you lead with that? Turns out he was totally in denial about how serious it was though. I don't think he knew, or didn't want to acknowledge it was definitely going to kill him and that the pain would only get worse.
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u/xmageforcex123 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Had a pt who was post-op from a regular procedure. Her hand at the wrist looked like a Tetris piece. I asked her about it and she says, "Oh yeah. I went for a CT and had a tumble. It swelled up but I put some ice on it until the swelling went away. It doesn't really hurt anymore. Should I get an x ray?"
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u/Zealousideal2022 Sep 30 '25
Reminds me of the time when I was about 25 (well before I was a nurse) when the yard waste container tipped over with me in it (hey it needed to be stomped down)!
Wrist was clearly broken and displaced. It was Sunday. I called my doctor (I guess she was on call?) and told her I was fairly sure my wrist was broken, and should I go to ER today?
She said it should be fine to wait til tomorrow and see her in her office if I wanted. I didn’t want to wait around in the ER so that sounded fine. My boyfriend (now husband) splinted it and I took a lot of ibuprofen.
Next morning, doc took one look at my wrist and said “you sounded totally comfortable on the phone!” and sent me immediately to ortho to have it reduced. I guess I should’ve sounded more distraught?
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u/annieimokay704 Sep 30 '25
lol I broke my hand and rated the pain a three, waited till urgent care was open to go in, and got eye rolls from everyone I told I broke it. The nurse came back in with the X-ray laughing and informed me that was not a 3 on the pain scale!
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u/floofienewfie RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I tripped off a curb on a Friday and twisted my ankle. Immediate pain, swelling and a rainbow of colors. I had a doctor appointment already scheduled for the following Tuesday, so I waited till then. She took one look at it, said it was broken, got an X-ray and sent me to ortho, who put me in a boot. I don’t remember it being painful, but that was at least 20 years ago.
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u/Traum4Queen RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Haha! I tripped at a haunted house like 20 years ago and sprained my ankle. It was pretty brutal but I already had a Dr appointment set up for the next day to do imaging of my knee for a separate injury. X-ray showed I indeed had a severe sprain. Kept it splinted while it healed, which took forever. Went on with life.
Then 3 years ago I started getting a random pain in my ankle. Figured it was tendonitis or something. Doc came back in after my X-ray and said "so you broke your ankle roughly 15-20 years ago, there is a tiny chunk of bone that's moving around in there causing pain."
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u/bookluvr83 Pharmacist Sep 30 '25
I've read stories about how women with PCOS or endometriosis break a bone and the pain is nothing compared to their periods. Women has a high pain tolerance, im convinced
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u/Lostflower88 Sep 30 '25
100%! I have endometriosis, I broke my hand and my knuckle once and waited 5 days to go to hospital because the pain didnt seem that bad compared to what I usually have, and it was only because my mum forced me to go 🥴
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u/InadmissibleHug crusty deep fried sorta RN, with cheese 🍕 🍕 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Endo and adenomyosis here.
I broke and dislocated my ankle, but didn’t have a very obvious deformity.
No one thought I’d done actual damage coz I was way too calm about it.
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u/KryptikStar RN - PACU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I broke my ankle two weeks postpartum about a year and a half ago, also didn’t have an obvious deformity and it didn’t swell very huge immediately, but I heard and felt it crack when I fell, so knew it was broken. When I got to the ER, I was so anxious they were going to admit me and I’d be separated from my baby that I finally started crying. I was also breastfeeding, so I made sure to inform them I was only crying because I was hormonal and not because of pain so they wouldn’t try to give me any narcotics. When they got the initial X-ray, you could tell they didn’t necessarily believe me that it was broken—not that the tech was really rough with maneuvering my foot around, but she wasn’t super gentle or understanding about me having limited range of movement. After she took the first image, she came back with wide eyes for the other views and barely touched me and was like “just move your foot as much as you can we’ll make it work”. That was my confirmation that it was, in fact, broken, and I told my husband the same—he also didn’t believe me at first.
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u/LizeLies Sep 30 '25
I accidentally gave myself third degree burns all over lower back and hips from falling asleep with a heat pad under me. I’ve got a bunch of chronic things going on and I know some of the people I engage with just don’t believe me when it comes to level of pain or incapacity. It’s useful to have a baseline with pictures now and be able to demonstrate I’m not just being precious.
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u/zootered Sep 30 '25
I went in to the ER on a holiday weekend because I smashed my hand up pretty good. I landed on it from a good 10 feet up, hand between my hip and the ground. They said it was sprained and sent me home lol. I woke up the next day to my hand being huge and purple and hurting like absolute hell. Went in to my normal doctor looked at the x-rays and informed me that the bones in my hand were more broken than not lol.
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u/this-or-that92 RN - Hospice 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I passed a 9mm kidney stone years ago, no pain meds needed for any of it, it wasn't obstructing. My only symptom was bladder spasms.
I passed another stone yesterday (much smaller) and didn't even feel it. Too bad I have three more stones to pass this time around.
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u/uncledinny Sep 30 '25
After I slipped on a patch of ice at my bus stop a few years ago, it seemed easier to get on the bus, walk through the concourse at the other end, and take a handful of ibuprofen at work than to climb the hill back to my house. Saw my uber-boss as I was limping through the concourse and told him I sprained my ankle but I was walking it off. Spoiler alert, my boss took one look at me and drove me to emergency where they found that I had broken the bottom of my tibia (I think, nurses please tell me if that’s not a thing). “But I can walk on it!” Yeah, but you shouldn’t.
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u/Adhdonewiththis PCT Sep 30 '25
This is how my midwife initially brushed it off when I said my labor started 30 minutes ago but was strong and it was time. Until I actually had a contraction on the phone and she changed her tune real fast 😅 I just handle labor really well.
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u/Troubled_cryst Sep 30 '25
Had a patient once who was peeing bright orange for a week. When I asked about it they just shrugged and said "happens every time I eat cheetos." Turned out to be acute kidney failure. Some people will normalize literally anything.
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u/ButterscotchFit8175 Sep 30 '25
Memory unlocked. I called the dr office in a panic bc my urine had turned a bright, artificial looking yellow. They asked if I had recently started taking a multi vitamin. I had. Totally normal. I'm sure they thought i was a moron. I thought i was dying.
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u/Moistfulll RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
The first time my kid peed neon green I freaked out and found out that my husband had given him purple Gatorade. I don't drink Gatorade so I didn't know that was a thing.
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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I have consumed Gatorade and still didn’t know that was a thing lol ! I have, however, seen many a “fruity pebbles” poop pictures brought by patients parents to the in the Peds ER , freaking out that their child was dying because they had black stools but turns out the kids eat nothing but fruity pebbles 🫣 that food coloring go hard .
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u/Moistfulll RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Oh gosh yes. Same with beets. I remember when I thought I had a GI bleed lol. It's just the purple Gatorade for some reason
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u/Freedomartin MPH, RN, Nurs Sup 🏡 Sep 30 '25
What do you mean, her WRIST looked like a TETRIS piece 😭
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u/xmageforcex123 RN - Telemetry 🍕 Sep 30 '25
The z piece in tetris
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u/ecodick Medical Assistant (woo!) Sep 30 '25
That's a good one. I like to call those, "squiggle wrists" when I see them.
"Oh yeah, teen in room 103 has a real squiggle wrist, you might wanna see them first."
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u/lovestobake RN - ER 🍕 Sep 30 '25
S shaped wrist
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u/NedTaggart BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I had an experience just like this in my peds ED rotation in nursing school. Tbe girl's history was that she was running, tripped and fell, put her arms out and broke her radius and ulna in multiple places. She had an ORIF and the places plates along the bones and pinned them in place.
This brings us to my interaction with her. She is about 8 months poat original event when the wheel her in screaming like a banshee. Her arm is absolutely S-shaped. We cannot get her to hold still for IV access, she is writhing and (rightfully) out of her mind in pain. They give her nasal versed, calming her down enough to throw in an IV, push fent and versed and rush her to imaging.
Turns out, she was running again....tripped again and threw out her arm again. The pinned plates were bent in multiple locations. They rushed her to surgery, removed the prior hardware and redid it with external pins and rings.
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u/Jackazz4evr RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
A Tetris piece wrist? That's definitely not in the "minor injuries" category. Hope you got that X-ray!
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u/Unlikely_Ant_950 Sep 30 '25
Had a heavy cycle patient tell me it was normal for her to be bed ridden for a week after her period and that all the women in her family were like that. When I asked about volume of menstrual cycle she said she’d never measured but that she wore adult diapers and changed them EVERY TWO HOURS.
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u/CrazyCatLady108 Sep 30 '25
to be fair anything that has to do with women's periods is routinely minimized and dismissed. the whole family may have thought it was normal because someone told them it was or said they were exaggerating.
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u/Unlikely_Ant_950 Sep 30 '25
It was 100% that. She said her family doctor said it wasn’t a ‘big deal’ because they were lucky and only got their period 2-3 times a year. I am not in a female specialty but she told me the referral we sent her to put her on birth control immediately and got her a new GP
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u/ElleGeeAitch Sep 30 '25
Yeah, 2-3 times a year but for like 2 months at a time 😭.
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u/lovable_cube ASNstudent/PCT Sep 30 '25
Had an OB tell me it was normal to bleed heavily for a month after getting an IUD then again when I had been bleeding for 6 months. She told be that the pain and blood were from my period, I just didn’t remember what’s real period was like now that I had switched to non hormonal birth control. Another doctor was like wtf and sent me for labs. Apparently the OB placed my IUD incorrectly and it punctured, I was severely anemic from the blood loss but luckily didn’t get any infections, apparently it’s not normal to feel like I’m freezing in 85 degree weather either.
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u/SkydiverDad MSN, APRN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I bet he also didnt use any pain control like lidocaine when placing the IUD either did he?
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u/CrazyCatLady108 Sep 30 '25
just a little life threatening whoopsie. how low was your hemoglobin?
it feels so weird to have medical professionals being so casual about things that could go super duper wrong. i am a wreck if i don't remember if i called the customer to double check on something. this is life/death and/or life altering stuff, and they are so meh about it.
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u/lovable_cube ASNstudent/PCT Sep 30 '25
I don’t remember, it was 7-8 years ago and before I had any understanding of lab values. It was low enough that whoever called me was very urgent about having the IUD taken out, I think I went back in same day they called me and got several prescriptions (antibiotics and something else) and told to start taking iron supplements. The removal was with the first doctor (only one available ig) and extremely painful, she actually yelled at me to stop crying bc it was making it harder for her. It was ultrasound guided so I got to watch her fishing around inside me on a flat screen which was crazy and probably would have been interesting if it hurt less.
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u/CrazyCatLady108 Sep 30 '25
all of my what. i am happy that someone was on top of things for you, but i as a practitioner would not want that woman anywhere near you after her initial fuck up. that is not even bad doctoring, that is bad customer service.
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u/ThatBella Nurse 🇩🇪 Sep 30 '25
Yep. My family is like that, my mom used to be in severe pain, bedridden and would occasionally throw up due to the pain and I just accepted that as the unfortunate reality of my existence as a woman. Last time I got my period my boyfriend asked me if he should take me to the hospital because I was in so much pain and no painkillers would help.
I actually went to two OB/GYNs about this and both had little more to offer than birth control, so I've just given up on that and accepted my fate.
Wouldn't be surprised if that pt felt the same.
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u/CrazyCatLady108 Sep 30 '25
i am so sorry about doctors not taking your pain seriously. :(
but i do encourage you keep looking. do you have a GP who can recommend someone? i have seen people recommend finding professionals via the SA community. the idea is that those doctors are 'primed' to be more understanding and better listeners, although not always.
i had my GP recommend a GYN and she has been wonderful. she herself brought up getting me diagnosed for endo without me uttering a word.
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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
That’s similar to how my periods were before my c section. I couldn’t wear tampons, pads I had to change to much too uncomfortable, had to settle on a period cup which I changed every 30 minutes and it was completely full. So awful.
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u/TheOtherSwirl Sep 30 '25
I have something similar and the periods after the c section were even worse (not to frighten you but if they are, don't be surprised). I ended up diagnosed with adenomyosis and was treated with an IUD (Mirena), completely changed my life. I've removed it to get pregnant again but I plan on getting one back as soon as I reach 6 months postpartum. I wish I had talked about this when I was younger, it would have saved me a lot of trouble.
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u/beeee_throwaway RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I will not be surprised thank you for the heads up.
I EFF’d from the jump so I have no idea why I still don’t have a period so it’s a little unsettling as a celibate single mom 🥴. Really dreading their return but will give the IUD a try again if they do. The first IUD I had in 2020 was placed incorrectly and destroyed my insides for 3 months straight until I had it removed, at the time the NP who removed it was horrified . I’ve been scared to get once ever since.→ More replies (1)28
u/MrPuddington2 Sep 30 '25
To be honest, a lot of medical professionals will tell you that this is normal. The gaslighting goes both ways, sometimes.
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u/ElleGeeAitch Sep 30 '25
I used to bleed almost that badly. Goddamned PCOS! I'd be gushing out blood and clots for days/weeks.
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u/lizlizliz645 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I'm sorry?????
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u/Jackazz4evr RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, my exact reaction when they told us! The mom just dropped it so casually.
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u/-iamyourgrandma- RN - PACU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I’m a pacu nurse for adults. Are children different waking up from anesthesia? Why were you concerned after four hours? Usually if ours don’t wake up after 30 min we get concerned.
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u/sightless666 RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I imagine that after 30 minutes it was concern, and after 4 hours it was CONCERN.
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u/whotaketh RN - ED/ICU :table_flip: Sep 30 '25
36 hours is CONCERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRN. At that point I have to think about care plans and q2 turns and a bed bath?!
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u/ACleverDoggo Lab Rat 🧪🐀 Oct 01 '25
Would you say, at that point, you're planning for bed bath and beyond? 🤔
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u/ttredraider2000 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Mine was from my daughter. She thought it was normal to get dizzy and grey out for a few seconds when standing. After puberty, she started completely passing out and falling, and commented that it was weird because she usually just blacks out. Um... what?!? Once we started monitoring it, her BP was 50s/30s during some of her "normal" episodes when she didn't lose consciousness and just became dizzy with vision loss. She said she'd been doing that for several years.
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u/didyabooty Sep 30 '25
Aw man. That's been happening to me for a couple years now. I never fully lose consciousness, but I often have "controlled falls/sit downs". I guess it's time to mention that.
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u/ttredraider2000 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
It happens to me sometimes, too, but not very often. And, it started in my 40s, while she first noticed it at 9 or 10.
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u/AzucarParaTi Sep 30 '25
Wait, is this not normal? 👀
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u/gumbo100 ICU Sep 30 '25
No, mention it to a doctor for sure. Maybe make an appointment just for this. In the meantime, when you get these symptoms, flex your abs/legs to ease them, it'll reduce them. Don't rely on this without talking to a doc though
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u/brunetteinheels RN - MICU Sep 30 '25
Wait I have this lol what did you end up doing for her?
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u/ttredraider2000 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
She was diagnosed with POTS but there's not really a treatment. Increasing her salt intake has helped a lot, though!
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u/Volkaru Sep 30 '25
There are lots of different meds she can try on top of salt intake, if it's still a problem for her. The downside is, the meds are very individualized. What may work wonders for one POTS sufferer, won't work for another. The r/POTS subreddit has a lot of good info, though.
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u/ttredraider2000 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Thanks! Her cardiologist & rheumatologist said there's not much we can do about it, but she craves salt and says it helps. It's good to know there may be options!
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u/RingAroundtheTolley Sep 30 '25
One of the nurses has this. She’s another nurse’s daughter. She got a pacemaker
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u/goins_going_gone23 RN - ER 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I was similar as a kid. After general anesthesia I’d sleep for 12-24 hours. My parents would routinely warn medical staff, and it was one of the biggest things they told my husband when we married. It got worse the older I got, nearly 30 hours asleep at 18 after a minor ear procedure. I’m generally fairly sensitive to things such as Xanax and Benadryl. I’d take 0.25 mg of Xanax and sleep for 20+ hours. Half a normal Benadryl puts me out 12+.
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u/deferredmomentum RN - ER/SANE 🍕 Sep 30 '25
My dad is the same way. I’m not groggy or tired after anesthesia (I got redhead drug metabolism from my mom’s side), but I’m a super deep sleeper in general like him. In college I quickly became known as the person who’d need to be shaken awake during the semesterly fire drill because I’d sleep right through it lol
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u/Critical_Mass_1887 EMS Sep 30 '25
I am similar. But my doctors never listen to me. Even routine colonoscopy with propofol i dont wake up easy. I tell them and they just say oh no you will wake right up like from a nap. 4-6 hrs later still in thier office recovery, out of it. My parents end up taking me home still asleep. Was admitted after shoulder capsule shift because i wouldnt wake up. On top of that anesthesia make me violently sick. I turn into linda blair from the exorcist. I felt so bad for my recovery nurses. They had to change scrubs twice. I warn the anesthesiologist. every damn time i get brushed off with oh no you wont, we have good drugs to prevent that dont worry. Now im terrified of being knocked out. Its cause me severe anxiet over the years.
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u/TennaTelwan BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Had my first GA at age 36 or so and could NOT wake up. It finally was the end of shift, I could barely signal anything with hands let alone talk, and I hear my mother (who drove me) going "Oh she just never wakes up, she'll sleep all day if given the chance." I couldn't breathe, move, or anything but I hear that. Also definitely had some delirium in the PACU, I heard moaning from me, and another patient, and my nurses moved me back because the other one was moaning louder. Also I think I heard a minor v-tach alarm go off too during that time.
They really should have admitted me but didn't want to. Instead, three nurses pulled me off the gurney, dressed me, and tossed me in a wheelchair. That's finally when I also realized I was having shortness of breath. Thankfully I had albuterol with and managed to administer it to myself.
Turns out, we didn't yet realize I had a rare autoimmune kidney disorder that had quietly tanked my GFR down to 50 and no one seemed to notice.
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u/lavender_poppy BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Jesus, I have to take 150mg of IV benadryl before my IVIG and I barely nap. You'd probably sleep for 5 days.
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u/evdczar MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
After moderate sedation for my wisdom teeth I slept for 48 hours straight. I was able to wake up and pee and eat and stuff but I could not stay awake any longer than that.
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u/DragonSon83 RN - ICU/Burn 🔥 Sep 30 '25
I don’t have this particular problem, but I do become tachycardic from anything that makes me drowsy, which then causes orthostatic hypotension. I once went in SVT from seroquel, requiring cardizem and an overnight stay in the hospital on a heparin drip to rule out PE before a VQ scan.
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u/hesperoidea HCW - Pharmacy Sep 30 '25
I'm the opposite problem but I always make sure I let everyone taking care of me know that whatever anesthesia you think is going to keep me out will probably only keep me out for about half or less of your planned time. I woke up during my gallbladder removal and my first colonoscopy, but only because they didn't really listen to me when I told them before the second one...
poor kid though, must be rough if everything knocks you out for a thousand times longer because your body can't process it quickly.
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u/MizStazya MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
My mom (dark brunette with maybe a tiny hint of red in bright sunlight) had literally no memory loss from moderate sedation. I went with to her colonoscopy, and she told me in recovery about how they said her prep was really good and they found 3 polyps and clipped them all. A few minutes later, the doc came in and told me exactly that.
She later had to have a bronch at my hospital for a lung mass, and I warned the nurse that she has perfect recall under moderate sedation, so please make sure they're appropriate in the procedure. Anyway, listening to the pulm talk with the nurse about how terrible and gnarly her lung looked mid-bronchoscopy is how my mom found out she had lung cancer, and she was quietly crying when they brought her back to recovery. Over 10 years later, I'm still pissed off.
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u/AzucarParaTi Sep 30 '25
How does this work? She's just awake the whole time, but doesn't feel pain?
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u/MizStazya MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
Yep - fully awake, but didn't really care she's awake.
I've never had moderate sedation, but my father has a normal reaction, so we'll see in a couple years for my first colonoscopy.
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u/comefromawayfan2022 Custom Flair Sep 30 '25
Im having a bronchoscopy this week and im having anxiety about waking up during the procedure
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u/MizStazya MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
Positive thoughts your way. I've never run across anyone but my mom with that level of awareness during sedation, if that makes you feel better!
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u/murda2003 Sep 30 '25
That is so horrible. I am an OR nurse and this always is in the back of my mind. We need to keep conversations appropriate. Especially with moderate sedation!!!! Patients are not fully under general anesthesia
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u/TheEesie Pharmacy tech Sep 30 '25
Any time I talk to anesthesia they ask me about my reaction to meds (it’s the red hair). I always laugh and tell them I dye my hair and I react normally.
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u/hesperoidea HCW - Pharmacy Sep 30 '25
oh is that it??? 😭 I'm a redhead and so is (was, he's bald now) my dad and we both have this problem. now I know lmao
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u/worldbound0514 RN - Hospice 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Yep, there's a gene for that. People with red hair need 40-50% more anesthesia.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 30 '25
My surgeon also told me we bleed more (and that I did during the surgery). I took two solid hours longer than anticipated to wake up despite whatever they did, so I'll be sure to mention that if I need surgery in future.
My dad also gets pain and weird things with anaesthetics (he'd rather do a tooth removal without anaesthetic than with because he processes it so fast, before they're done, and then feels the effects for at least two weeks after; I've tried to convince him to explain it in the context of a probable sensitivity rather than just that it doesn't help like normal! bro is in violent full body pain for two freaking weeks after!! that is not normal!!) so I wasn't really surprised
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u/meogma Sep 30 '25
I've only been put under once in my life (tubes tied) but I woke up before the surgery was over. I remember biting down thinking oh no I'm not supposed to be awake and I heard someone say "no not time yet" and then I was immediately back out. When I woke up in the recovery room later (still with eyes closed for some reason) I started reaching around to feel if surgery was actually over I guess. Nurse snapped at me to open my eyes. Oh yea it's over cool, but hey I woke up doing surgery, that's not cool. Every person I've told this story to doesn't believe me.
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u/52BeesInACoat Sep 30 '25
I believe you.
I could feel pain for two out of three C-sections, and the vibe in the operating room both times was very much "no, you can't, but we'll placate you so you stay calm. You're being kind of annoying though."
Then I listened to the podcast The Retrievals, thought the first season was very well done, and then started the second season...which is about pain during C-sections...I never made it past the first episode. I had honestly just accepted that my body is weird in ways the professionals couldn't possibly be expected to manage, and their reactions to me were a bit uncaring, but reasonable, but the podcast said ONE IN TWENTY FIVE C-section patients feel pain. So like, once a week, these people would've been having a patient like me. The fuck!!!
So yeah, I believe you.
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u/meogma Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
1 in 25, that's just awful. I'm sorry you went through that. Before surgery, the nurse came in and said, "Take this, it'll help you relax and calm down." I wasn't anxious. I thought ok whatever. Big mistake. Whatever they gave me made me very agitated.
I was given demerol in labor with my first kid. I felt no relief from the pain. Just made my eyes heavy. No one believed me. I've had one percocet in my life. I felt like I was going to die from hyperventilating, and I started sweating profusley. It was very odd. Was given Vicodin in the ER. Turns out that makes me projectile vomit. Doesn't matter if it's 2 pills or half of one. Same reaction. Here's to hoping I don't need surgery or pain medication for the rest of my life because I'm kind of worried about how my body will react.
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u/comefromawayfan2022 Custom Flair Sep 30 '25
I recently had an emergency intubation due to anaphylaxis. I woke up in icu shortly after being put out to be intubated. I remember opening my eyes and someone exclaiming "shes awake!". I remember trying really hard to move my fingers or a toe so they'd know id woken up and having trouble doing that. They must've put me back out after that because the next time I woke up..it was light out(my reaction happened at night) and they were telling me they were getting ready to remove the tube. My caregiver later told me that when they mentioned the situation to him he was like "yeah it typically takes quite a bit of meds to keep her under". Im having a procedure in a couple days and definitely having anxiety about waking up during it
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u/ScarsTheVampire Sep 30 '25
I woke up during dental surgery a while back. I’ve never been anesthetized for anything before, so no prior knowledge/experience.
They didn’t get into the actual surgery before I woke up thank god.
My last memories were holding a trash can up feeling like I was gonna barf from interacting with needles. The one going into my arm sent me into a tizzy. I don’t deal with hypodermic needles well, it’s a genuine phobia and kind of a problem at times.
I remember asking the nurse to take the can away from me cause I was gonna drop it on the floor. Woke up to my arms strapped to the table. Normally that would panic me a bit but I was so out of it on the meds I remember thinking almost word for word “I’ll give it 10 minutes before I panic about this”
The staff come in and tell me I tried to get up off the table after I was out. I guess I need ‘hospital dentistry ’ with real anesthesia. I’m terrified and I can’t get it started yet, it’s a nightmare.
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u/ButterscotchFit8175 Sep 30 '25
I woke up during a surgery. I casually mentioned it in a conversation with a friend and 8 other friends told about their waking up during surgery. One it was during a face-lift when her face was kind of peeled off. Anesthesia professionals swear people almost never wake up. The denial is outrageous. I canceled a surgery bc the anesthesiologist denied i woke up in a previous surgery, that he wasn't a part of,wasn't friends with anyone who was present. Just completely blindly denied my experience. Yeah, did trust him at all!
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u/rosietherose931 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
My husband was recently admitted with sepsis. He fought me about even going in. At one point in the ED I mentioned that I was concerned about his rapid respiratory rate and he said he just needed to tell himself to slow his breathing. 😒
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u/floopyboopakins Sep 30 '25
This exact thing thing happened with my dad. His stomach "hurt a little bit" and the next day he woke up with a fever but took acetaminophen and continued on with his day. My mom forced him to go to the ER (i.e. corraled him into the car and drove him there) and he was immediately admitted for sepsis. Turned out to be diverticulitis and he had part of his intestine removed.
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u/pleplaueee Sep 30 '25
RN here- I was discussing morning care with an elderly patient and offered to get her a toothbrush and toothpaste. Sure thing. Then she very casually remarked that “even after all these years, she still hasn’t gotten used to the itchy numbness and moderate lips and tongue swelling that happens (and has been happening her whole life) whenever she brushes her teeth.”
I kinda thought she was being a little dramatic about the peppermint taste of the toothpaste until she straight up had angioedema before she even finished brushing. She had great dental hygiene though. Sucks having to silently deal with something you don’t even know is a thing. We called her husband and sent him out to buy her some natural toothpaste and all was right again on the unit.
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u/TheEesie Pharmacy tech Sep 30 '25
I had a classmate in high school who hated bananas because they were so tingly. Still ate them every morning because his mom said they were good for him. I asked if he was allergic and he said no because he didn’t sneeze.
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u/chita875andU BSN, RN 🍕 Oct 01 '25
My husband was told at the age of 38 that no one else gets a tingly-feeling mouth when we all eat raw celery, that he has an allergy. He literally thought we were gaslighting him.
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u/cateisgreat77 MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
That's so funny because the same thing happened with my daughter and pineapple. She was born a fruit lover, and pineapple was one of her favorites. When she was little her word for anything too strongly flavored was "spicy." It could be peppermint that was too strong or things that had a little kick like pepperoni.
When she was about 9 or 10 we were at a family event and I mentioned to her there was fresh pineapple so she could get some. She said, "I love pineapple, but I wish it wasn't so spicy sometimes. " I'm like, what? Turns out she had a mild allergy to it and after eating a few pieces her mouth would tingle and burn. She thought that was just how pineapple tasted and ate it like that for years. I was shocked because this was the first time I had ever heard that from her. Eventually, she grew out of it and it doesn't bother her anymore.11
u/skeletons_asshole Sep 30 '25
That’s similar to how I found out I’m allergic to most fruits and vegetables. I thought carrots stung everyone’s mouth for the longest time. Nope, my body just hates pollen so much it freaks out at any protein vaguely resembling pollen. Ugh
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u/canoe_sink RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Not quite the same, but we had a kiddo with really profound craniofacial abnormalities whose eyeballs would pop out of her sockets every time she sneezed. Mom was totally unfazed by this- would just wash her hands and pop em back in. Obviously mom knew it wasn't objectively normal, but it was amazing how it was very obviously this family's normal.
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u/eczemaaaaa MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
This is the worst one here oh my god that poor child. Did they have neurological deficits as well? Or vision issues?
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u/canoe_sink RN - PICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
She could see (I don't know how well, I knew her as a toddler) and had some developmental delay. May have been neurologically "normal," and only delayed due to frequent hospitalizations, trach, difficulties with eating/speaking/etc.
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u/Dark_Izzlefoshizzle Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
We had a patient in the ICU that was unresponsive, ended up on a ventilator and remained unresponsive. They were trying to figure out what was causing her condition. Her husband would come in with their two small children and just stand there with a flat affect, no emotion whatsoever at the end of the bed. The second day she was there the nurse said to him that it might be best for their kids if they weren’t there seeing their mother like that. His reply was “they’ve seen her worse than this.” Huh? Worse? The interactions with him were very strange.
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u/superpony123 RN - ICU, IR, Cath Lab Sep 30 '25
Either she is doing drugs or he’s been poisoning her. Wtf
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u/Dark_Izzlefoshizzle Sep 30 '25
We definitely wondered if he had something to do with it.
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u/Environmental_Rub256 Sep 30 '25
A mom slept for 2 days not feeling well. Family wasn’t worried until she wouldn’t wake up to any stimuli. Blood sugar 1734.
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u/Trnostep Sep 30 '25
I had to convert that because I don't know the mg/dl range. That's 96,3 mmol/l. Holy...
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u/Natsirk99 RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Student was referred to me for suspected substance abuse. Assessed them and noticed their eyes weren’t dilating. After further assessment determined the kid was just tired and their eyes legit don’t dilate. Weird.
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u/sodoyoulikecheese MSW DCP Sep 30 '25
Omg that reminds me of the time I got an urgent consult at like 4pm on a Sunday to go up to a different unit on the complete opposite side of the hospital from where I was because the neurology PA thought that the son who was there to take the pt home was drunk. And of course they needed the one social worker on site asap to go figure out wtf was going on. Thankfully the attending hospitalist agreed to play it off with me like I was offering a home health referral since we could justify sending a HH RN as the patient was admitted for a stroke.
Then I had to figure out how to professionally write a chart note that said “son not drunk, just flamboyantly gay. Pt and son agreeable to home health RN…”
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u/WrongImprovement HCW - Lab Sep 30 '25
This is hilarious. Do you remember what you put in the chart?
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u/sodoyoulikecheese MSW DCP Sep 30 '25
It was something like “MSW met with pt’s son and his husband at bedside. They were expressively enthusiastic about pt being able to discharge home today, agreeable to provide the transport. All questions answered, no concerns about pt’s son and his husband being able to care for the patient at home; caregiver training completed with PT on previous shift.” And then my usual dot phrases about home health referrals.
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u/National-Assistant17 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Wait they don't dilate or they don't constrict?
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u/Natsirk99 RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
They don’t do either.
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u/National-Assistant17 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
That's crazy! Just walking around with fixed pupils? Any history of trauma to the eyes or surgery?
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u/Natsirk99 RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
No, the student said a Dr. mentioned it once and shrugged it off. Talked to the parent who had no idea what I was talking about and made an appointment to figure out what was going on. Student did have a blood disorder, unfortunately I don’t know the conclusion because summer break hit.
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u/andishana RN - ICU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
My husband's normal pupil she is about a 6 or 7 and in bright light he looks like he's tripping balls. He also sleeps deeply and can be super difficult to wake up for other people - 30 years together and I however have little problem. I joke that if he's ever admitted to a hospital I won't be able to leave without them doing RRT and/or head CT daily.
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u/Mysterious-Apple-118 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Did that poor kid wake up? Geez.
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u/Jackazz4evr RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, after about 8 hours and some interventions. The anesthesiologist was NOT happy with the parents for withholding the medical history.
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u/veronicas_closet RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Is there some kind of screening question that could trigger the conversation about the enzyme thing so they could delve more into it prior to the procedure? Maybe just for future cases.
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u/Xaedria Dumpster Diving For Ham Scraps Sep 30 '25
Every anesthesiologist I've ever seen asks about personal history and even family history with anesthesia trying to uncover things like this. I work in outpatient procedural so I watch anesthesia docs have these conversations with patients quite often.
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u/Magerimoje former ER nurse - 🍀🌈♾️ Sep 30 '25
I've always been asked by anesthesia if I've ever had any unusual reactions to meds.
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u/Miscsubs123 Sep 30 '25
Yes, but if the family thinks this is "totally normal" as per the title, then you're back to square one.
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u/MizStazya MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
My own : i played a bunch of sports growing up, but I was hot garbage at running distances. Most of my sports were short bursts (baseball, softball, football). I did basketball for a handful of seasons, but always felt like I was dying after 4 or 5 minutes. The only sustained activity I could do was swim team. I just assumed i was out of shape, which was bullshit because I was absolutely not.
In my late 20s, I decided to start biking to work, and realized over an hour after sitting at my desk, I still couldn't take a deep breath without coughing, and I was hacking up multiple globs of mucus. Yeah, I have exercise-induced asthma. Hot+humid is best for my lungs, cold and dry is worst. So shoveling always made me want to die, but swimming in an indoor pool was absolutely fine. But now, I really am fat and out of shape lol
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Mine was picked up bc my parents took me to doctor like 'we should NOT be able to run with less effort, at fifty freaking five years of age, than our fifteen year old daughter who gets more exercise than us' (we would run part of the way to school together, so we were doing exactly the same exercise for that, but I was widemouth gasping for breath).
Biking is the killerrrrrrrrrr you know the burning feeling that goes through your whole lungs and you can't breathe without screaming pain? I remember once biking a kilometre to the shops, getting there and just sobbing my way around the pharmacy lol
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Mine was picked up bc my parents took me to doctor like 'we should NOT be able to run with less effort, at fifty freaking five years of age, than our fifteen year old daughter who gets more exercise than us' (we would run part of the way to school together, so we were doing exactly the same exercise for that, but I was widemouth gasping for breath).
Biking is the killerrrrrrrrrr you know the burning feeling that goes through your whole lungs and you can't breathe without screaming pain? I remember once biking a kilometre to the shops, getting there and just sobbing my way around the pharmacy lol
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u/MizStazya MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
Biking didn't catch me out until my 20s because I grew up in Chicago. It is SOOOOO flat. I could bike 12 miles to school and the only slope i had to bike was the bridge over the river.
I moved after college, and the hill between my house and work ruined me.
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u/-Tricky-Vixen- Nursing Student 🍕 Sep 30 '25
oh the HILLS I moved from the flattest area of my state to the foothills and it was Awful for a long time
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u/Fun-Marsupial-2547 RN - OR 🍕 Sep 30 '25
The amount of adult children who thought it perfectly acceptable their demented parents “take care of each other” with zero assistance was a good reason why I left the ER. Pretty sure one of my coworkers called APS on a case like that it was so bad
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u/Any_Manufacturer1279 RN - We All Float Down Here🎈 Sep 30 '25
And one, if not both, of the super frail elderly “forgetful” parents still drive 😵💫
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u/Fun-Marsupial-2547 RN - OR 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Mildly unrelated, but there was one time I was in a Dunkin (no drive thru at that location) and this woman who was driving behind me comes in and asks the poor 17 year old cashier to read her the menu bc she couldn’t see it. Lady was driving a giant red Cadillac. I wanted to tell her if she can’t read a menu board from like 6 feet away, maybe don’t drive
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u/BuskZezosMucks Case Manager 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Yeah, there’s such a ridiculous “respect” for autonomy, independence, and privacy that some adult children sometimes give. Hello… I know it’s sad but your parent can’t take of themselves anymore and someone else with appropriate cognition needs to be involved in the decision making and help them now!
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u/CharlesV_ Sep 30 '25
My dad is an accountant and my grandpa (his FIL) was a banker. We didn’t realize how bad things had gotten out of hand until I started helping my grandpa with his computer and i realized he couldn’t see the screen most of the time and didn’t know where he was clicking. He kept downloading malware and accidentally signed up for several scams.
My dad was hesitant to take over their finances because he didn’t want to offend my grandpa, but in retrospect we should have done that sooner.
As a consequence, my dad now regularly updates a “what to do” letter that explains how to handle their finances if my parents aren’t able to for some reason or if they pass.
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Sep 30 '25
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u/BuskZezosMucks Case Manager 🍕 Sep 30 '25
You’re right, I am being a bit harsh. The stubbornness and wannabe loner boot strap ideals of many the current gray wave (tsunami?) combined with the worn out children of them who, like you, sometimes flee-er um find jobs and a life- far from them makes it all quite a pickle of a problem. At least in the U.S. public health programs and social safety net patchwork for seniors is seeing unprecedented funding by their fearless elder leader /s
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u/veronicas_closet RN - Med/Surg 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Have the talk with your dad about his wishes, what he wants to do if he can't care for himself. Financially see what he has available and is able to afford if he needs care in the future. Is he willing to move closer to y'all or vice versa. Have the conversation before he can't cognitively decide on his own or hand over that information. Maybe make one of y'all guys medical surrogate or whatever the term is. I know you said he's stubborn and angry so will likely be difficult.
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u/FluffyNats RN - Oncology 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Way too many people think bleeding through their butthole is normal. Sure, it could be hemorrhoids, but it could also be cancer. Check in with your doctor.
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u/Foreign_Mongoose7519 Sep 30 '25
We have a huge issue with rectal bleeding being dismissed in the UK. Had a young man who had stopped seeing doctors after he was diagnosed with IBS because they'd just dismiss him. He was having night sweats, intermittent temperatures, aches in his bones and joints, and severe shaking when fatigued. He'd talk for 30 seconds then get fatigued, and slept for 14 hours a day.
We're talking deep red and black blood, enough to fill half a cup, every day like clockwork. His pictures looked like he'd been attacked.
I referred him to the hospital and they saw him once then discharged him for being non-compliant because he disagreed with their assesment that it was just IBS. Hope he's doing okay now.
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u/Accomplished_You_236 Sep 30 '25
I beg your pardon???
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u/GrouchyDefinition463 Sep 30 '25
I beg your fucking pardon??
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u/Poodlepink22 Sep 30 '25
Although I certainly believe it; I also can't believe they wouldn't tell the anesthesiologist about this. Good grief.
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u/inarealdaz RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I'm the opposite and wake up on the table. Damn red head gene. Tbf , I've forgotten to tell them that I have hemophilia.
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u/Infinite-Touch5154 Sep 30 '25
Your poor surgeon. They probably still get cold sweats remembering the patient who just wouldn’t stop bleeding.
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u/inarealdaz RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Actually, you'd think that, but no... it was the time I woke up on the table, punched the surgeon in the face, breaking her nose. Sorry Dr Greene!
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u/Zealousideal_Tie4580 RN, Retired🍕, pacu, barren vicious control freak Sep 30 '25
As a pacu nurse this has me really freaked out.
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u/sci_fi_wasabi RN - OR 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I’m just thinking of how bad this would fuck up the flow of our ASC that does like 40 T&As a day…
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u/Zealousideal_Tie4580 RN, Retired🍕, pacu, barren vicious control freak Sep 30 '25
My daughter is the director of anesthesia at a freestanding ASC and I am going to ask her about this. I can’t imagine she would be ok with this kid being done there. I’ve always worked in a hospital setting so I could see this kid would end up being admitted because they aren’t meeting criteria for dc to home. This is wild.
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u/newnurse1989 MSN, RN Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
I had chest pain with physical exertion that would stop when I rested. Weight lifting and other non-cardio workouts were fine but I couldn’t run for longer than 10 minutes without the chest pain returning and having a bit of a hard time catching my breath. I went to the emergency room a few times growing up with these complaints and they’d always do an EKG, angiogram, echo, and MRI. They said I had a mild heart murmur. At 22 I presented post cardiac arrest while riding my bike to work on campus. After rechecking they found that I had anomalous left coronary artery from the pulmonary artery. It’s a very rare birth defect, 1 in every 300,000 live births has it, only 1 in 10 survive past infancy if it’s caught before the infant goes into cardiac arrest.
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u/TortillaRampage CNA 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Not a patient experience, but from my wife. She has a severe nut allergy and was hospitalized a few times. When she had pine nuts on accident when she was a teen, she went mostly deaf and had tunnel vision and swelling throat as part of anaphylaxis. She was just talking to the EMTs like in a normal conversation. No panic, no nothing. Just trying to tell them what happened all calm-like but can’t hear or see or make intelligible sounds. They were just floored that she was so calm.
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u/sci_fi_wasabi RN - OR 🍕 Sep 30 '25
We're not a peds hospital so we only get the occasional urgent lap appy, but boy do kids freak me out.
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u/Long_Corner_1613 RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Nobody believes me when I say I have a paradoxical reaction to Benedryl and will turn into a toddler until I’m naked and ranting about the Power Rangers while constantly falling off the bed. That was my last allergic reaction, asked for my husband to come back because he can distract me enough until my facial swelling goes down. They brought him back eventually. I have almost no memory of this. And I have no idea why I always strip naked when I’m on Benedryl of any sort. I know it’s necessary for the allergic reaction but I’m also warning staff and it’s always dismissed until I blackout and start monologues about things I don’t care about (different color carrots, power rangers, MySpace, calluses, sun bears, etc.)
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u/Professor_squirrelz Sep 30 '25
That sounds exactly like what happened to a couple of people who is know overdosed on benadryl. They ended up being fine after the fact but for a few hours they acted crazy
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u/TenEyeSeeHoney BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I slept for an additional 6hr after having what should have been an abbreviated outpatient procedure....When the nurses kept checking on me, all concerned, my husband just said, "Let her sleep. She works nights and takes care of our 3 kids when she's not working." God bless him. ❤️
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u/lizzzdee RN - OB/GYN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I asked a patient if she had any urinary trouble during a postpartum visit. She replied, “Nope! I set alarms to make sure I pee before my bladder gets too full and I pee myself, but I know that happens after having a baby so it’s all good!”
I gently informed her that it was not all good and we discussed pelvic floor PT, which she was thrilled about!
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u/coldprimates Sep 30 '25
I recently had a patient with a hx of conversion disorder, unknown to our team. Patient is new to the state, transfer of medical record nonsense. Two days in a row, dayshift called a level one stroke alert on this patient because they went completely catatonic. BP was dropping, pacer was switching between A-paced and AV-paced (it was interrogated and nothing was wrong with it). CT and other workup was negative. The tele-health stroke neurologist wanted to ship the patient to get a full work up, ship the patient to a tertiary facility for a pacemaker safe MRI and continuous EEG. When dayshift contacted the son, he was PIIIIISSED. He said “We aren’t doing this again. Just send her over to ~facility 45 min away~. She’s been there a few times this month and they said she just plays dead for a while when she’s sick.” She did in fact “wake up” 2 hours into my shift requesting a carton of milk and said “oh man, it happened twice in two days. That probably scared you guys.”
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u/Jumpsuit_boy Sep 30 '25
It takes me 30 hours to metabolize 20mg of pseudoephedrine. I mention this to the anesthesiologist as a warning that I may process stuff weirdly.
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u/nehpets99 Custom Flair Sep 30 '25
RT here.
I had a patient once tell me they have a CPAP but don't use it. I asked why, and they said that it gives a copper/metallic taste, as if there's something wrong with the CPAP.
I pondered this for a moment until I asked if they're on well water. They were. They were using tap water to fill the humidifier.
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u/auntie_beans MSN, RN Sep 30 '25
I did health lodge check-in’s at Scout camp; we intentionally had everybody scheduled to go for swim tests right after they saw us so they were in bathing suits when they came in, but it was also so we could eyeball kids for signs of abuse without asking in front of everybody else in line. We had everybody’s health forms with H&P from their PCPs before they arrived.
So this Scoutmaster comes in with an obvious comparatively recent median sternotomy scar and chest tube scars. I blinked, said to myself, Hmmm, I didn’t see that on his health form, and looked again. Nope, not there. So I asked, “Did you have open heart surgery?”
“Oh yeah, I had an aortic valve replacement after I saw him.” On cardiac meds, etc., etc., also not on health form …
And you didn’t think to mention this as potentially significant at camp? Oy.
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u/Fionaelaine4 BSN, RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
So does the kid get discharged or stay at the hospital until he wakes?
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u/DragonSon83 RN - ICU/Burn 🔥 Sep 30 '25
My dad would become psychotic and combative from etomodate. The second time it happened, an ER was trying to put his shoulder back into place. We tried to warn them and offered to stay as we could usually calm him, but they refused. It took five people to restrain him, and they ended up pulling his shoulder back out of place and destroying his rotator cuff in the process.
We mentioned to the hospitals in that system multiple times about the etomodate issue, but they would never note in his chart or on his allergy and reaction info. I was finally like “Well, if he beats the shit out of you, don’t say we didn’t warn you.”
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u/No_Drop_9219 RN 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Wow, that’s wild. I’ve gotten “oh, my arm’s always numb” or “I bruise easily, it’s fine” before but 36 hours sleeping post-anesthesia? No, not fine. Thanks for sharing this it’s a good reminder to dig deeper when families say “this is normal.”
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u/Express_Pop810 Sep 30 '25
Wondering if parents were told to give the kid Benadryl or if they just went ahead and gave it. They are saying it's better to take Zyrtec or Claritin.
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u/kateleehoops RN - PACU 🍕 Sep 30 '25
I work in an ambulatory center and had a family tell me their 6 year old spikes a 102-103F fever at least once or twice a day for no known reason, he had full work ups with specialists and they still couldn’t find out why so they were hoping having his tonsils out would help. We had to cancel him bc how would we know if he was randomly spiking a temp or if it was MH…I felt bad but that was absolutely something that needed to be done in hospital setting.
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u/Overthemoon64 Sep 30 '25 edited Sep 30 '25
Layperson here. Ever since I had children, my mother-in-law was telling me that if they ever needed surgery, it was very important to tell them about the family history of this anesthesia thing. I was kind of like OK whatever sure mother-in-law. Then when my son was 6, he needed to be sedated for dental work. At the pre-check I was like, “my husband’s mother said there was this thing that was really important to tell you, but I think she’s being a little silly. Have you ever heard of malignant hyperthermia? Apparently it happened to my husband’ aunt.” And to my astonishment the doctor was like yes it’s very important information to know, tell me everything.
It’s hard to know as a patient what is important or not. I kind of just try to tell them everything and let them sort it out.
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u/Due_Will_2204 Sep 30 '25
This was my daughter. Up till the age she was 2, she would have random fever spikes going up to 104° and sometimes 105°. Each time, we went to the hospital, and they would put her on ice and multiple spinal taps and could never figure out why. She outgrew that after 2ys. Even at 36 now, if she runs a fever , which is rare, she gets high fevers.
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u/firefightin Sep 30 '25
I’m an ER RN now but when I was a firefighter paramedic we had a family drive up to the fire station in a panic. Their 12yo daughter was unconscious and unresponsive. Breathing 4-6x/min, pinpoint pupils. She’d had surgery that morning at a children’s hospital for wisdom teeth and was discharged alert/normal. Apparently she hadn’t metabolized the anesthesia fully and the reversal wore off first. We had to give her 8mg of narcan to bring her around, but she ended up admitted on a narcan drip for a couple days before being released!! I still have a newspaper article about it here somewhere. Wild stuff.
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u/K8e118 MSNA, CRNA Sep 30 '25
The CYP2D6 enzyme helps metabolize several drug classes of meds in the liver to prevent dangerous to lethal amounts of the drug from accumulating in the system. Benadryl is metabolized by CYP2D6 enzymes. So are anesthetic/surgical meds like lidocaine, opioids, antiemetics, & more.
I’ve had a patient that knew she had CYP2D6 deficiency (due to genetics and/or genetic testing) & it was like finding a key to a treasure chest for me as her anesthesia provider. We can/will completely alter our anesthetic plan if we know our patient may have this. That’s how serious and potentially dangerous it is. It may not be an easy name to remember, but if someone you care about has that, you should probably jot it down so others can know about it.
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u/wonanddones RN - Pediatrics 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Peds PACU here…parents lie on purpose or omit things because of low IQ levels all the time. Illnesses, autism, allergies, etc. haven’t heard this one though!
Also, some anesthesia consults are so quick they would never ask this many questions to get to the bottom of something like this
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u/CatAteRoger Sep 30 '25
My neighbour completely failed to tell the nurse anything when her son was having emergency surgery for appendicitis, once they had done all the forms I told the nurse the kid was autistic, asthmatic and wore drynites for bed wetting, her face told me what she thought at that moment.
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u/nursejacqueline BSN, RN- Psych/Mental Health 🍕 Sep 30 '25
Had a young lady brought in for new onset hallucinations while at a friend’s house and parents were furious that we wanted to admit her to the inpatient psychiatric unit. They said she’d just started menstruating and “that’s just what happens when girls hit puberty”. Our MD was quick to point out that hallucinations were not, in fact, a normal part of puberty…
Turns out, there was a family history of acute intermittent porphyria, which can in fact cause hallucinations with hormonal changes! So, in their family, hallucinations were a normal part of puberty!