Today in the ED I spent four hours with a 90 year old woman with dementia. She was giving the nurses a hard time, so I went and sat with her and got her calmed down. My task was to try and get her to drink the barocat, but she kept on refusing because it was "too sweet and she was trying to cut down on sweets." I'd convince her to take a sip, and then wait five or ten minutes until she forgot she'd already had some, and give her some more. Unfortunately, we only got through half the bottle. They were still able to get a CT scan. I went with her, because I was able to be a calming and stable presence for her. She gave the poor CT techs a hard time. We went back, and then as soon as her results were in, she was shipped to interventional radiology because she had a massive buildup of fluid in her. When we were in the room, I noticed her belly was pretty distended and she was complaining of back pain, and after seeing how much fluid they pulled out of her, I can see why! Getting the fluid out was interesting because she was pretty anti-anything that made her uncomfortable, but the tech was GREAT with her and managed to keep her calm. The doc did a pericentesis and pulled out 2.5 liters of olive colored fluid (I guess the condition is called ascites?), and he didn't take all of it out. I was really happy that they let me stay in the room with them. The doc explained that it's a result of liver failure usually. They had to send it to the lab for further results.

When we got back, I was able to get her to fall asleep and be relaxed. It was 6 before I got out though, usually I only stay until 4. It worked out well as I have the weekend off and didn't have to be anywhere.