Juiced Up On Idiocy
Hospital, New Jersey, USA | Healthy | November 6, 2017
(I’m a nurse working on a medical-surgical floor. One night, I am assigned to a certain patient who is known to be extremely difficult, and honestly, a bit of an idiot. He is very uncooperative, and won’t even let us put an IV in him. He has a mess of medical problems, particularly uncontrolled diabetes. We check all diabetics’ blood sugar levels throughout the day in order to control their levels with insulin shots.)
Me: “Good morning. I have to check your blood sugar.”
Patient: “Whatever.”
(I check the level and it’s shockingly low. A normal blood sugar level is 60 – 120. His is 40.)
Me: “Sir, your sugar is very low. Let me get you some juice to boost it up.”
Patient: “I can’t drink juice. I’m diabetic.”
Me: “Yes, but in this case, juice will help boost your sugar quickly. We don’t want it to drop any lower. Lemme get you orange juice, okay?”
Patient: “Fine.”
Me: *comes back later with a cup of OJ* “Here.”
Patient: “I don’t want that.”
Me: “Sir, I just told you that you need to take some juice for your sugar.”
Patient: “I don’t like OJ.”
Me: *a little annoyed that he didn’t tell me so in the first place* “All right. What will you take?”
Patient: *after a few minutes thinking* “I want apple juice.”
Me: “Fine.” *leaves and comes back with apple juice* “Here. Drink this.”
Patient: “I don’t want that.”
Me: *at this point, I’m in complete disbelief* “Sir, you just told me you would drink if I got you apple juice instead of OJ!”
Patient: “I’m diabetic. I can’t drink juice.”
Me: “But your sugar is low and we really need to boost it up. It’s dangerous to have low blood sugar.”
Patient: *getting angry* “You can’t force me to do what I don’t wanna do! Don’t try to trick me into taking that juice! I don’t even like apple juice!”
(At this point, I’m about ready to throw the juice in his face. I leave the room just as the doctor passes by with some surgical students, asking what’s up. I explain the situation to the doctor.)
Doctor: “Let us talk to him.” *takes the juice from me and walks in with the students*
(I leave to take care of another patient. Five minutes later, I return to see the students coming out of the room one by one, all of them shaking their heads and chuckling. Finally the doctor comes out and I ask him if he took the juice.)
Doctor: *shakes his head* “That man is an absolute idiot. Just make sure he gets breakfast. If he passes out, let us know.”
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