27 year old healthy woman: “Well, I had a really bad dream last night where I was watching my friend get killed and I woke up an hour ago all sweaty and my heart was beating hard so I came in just to make sure I wasn’t having a heart attack”.
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*Today’s modern ER’s will have some of the most advanced medical equipment available
People will try almost anything to get sleep. ETOH, Rx Meds, Marijuana, counting sheep, you name it. The other day a guy figured out a guaranteed way to get some zzz’s.
He was morbidly obese and had Pickwickian Syndrome. He lived in a nursing home/rehab place since he was pretty debilitated and was not really able to care for himself well. Anyway, he would refuse to wear his BiPAP machine and let his Co2 levels rise and rise – til the point that he was obtunded with Co2 narcosis!
Yeah, it works. The guy was almost impossible to rouse. It worked a little too well though – his CO2 levels crept over 80 and he pretty much stopped breathing. Now he is tubed on a vent- I wonder if that helped him pay off some of his Sleep Debt….
This a post I did when I first started the blog. No time for a fresh post today (father in law is in town) , but I guess many of you may not have read it.
About a year ago a middle aged woman came in by ambulance at about 3am. The triage note said she had syncopised (medical term for passing out). When I asked her what exactly happened she said, ” Well, I was sleeping when suddenly I realised that I had passed out!”. I asked if perchance she could have been dreaming to which she relied, “no I was unconscious!”. Then I looked at her list of medications and saw that they included about 5 psychiatric meds. Still, I was obliged to do some screening blood tests and an EKG all of which were normal. She was discharged with a diagnosis of “Night Terrors” (a real diagnosis usually in children) since that was the closest thing we had to “Vivid Dreams”……..
Thank god EMS was called for this one.