etoh... cause and effect

they show the teenagers the shock value of drinking and driving.. what can happen in those horrible wrecks to shock them out of the idea of drinking and driving. in my experience as a nurse, even though it may be limited compared to others out there.. what these kids need to see is what happens when you drink.. and keep drinking.. and keep drinking. sure, it won't make a dent, because teens believe that they are untouchable. we need a way to reach these people when they are bit more mature and able to comprehend that life doesn't go on forever.

a case in point would be the pt that i cared for last week. a male, just 7 or 8 years my senior. came in with pneumonia, but through his history, found out that he was a drinker. and he drank a lot. so 48 hours later, when the behavior changed and the tremors came, so did also a myriad of problems. i spent 3 days of hell with this man. he was acutely confused, had difficulty swallowing anything at all.. so that his liquids had to be thickened so that he wouldn't aspirate them. how do you continually reorient someone who cannot comprehend at the time what is going on? and then when his abdomen became distended after a few hours of vomiting feces, and having to put in the ng tube that was replaced time upon time again, because as i said, how do you reorient someone who cannot comprehend what the hell is happening here? he would go through spells in which the librium would work for him, but other times, it wouldn't touch him. as a person, i felt for the man because he was truly ill and he may not even make it out of this hospital stay alive because he was just that sick. was it all to drinking? i believe so. i can understand that from the problems in which i encountered with him that his pneumonia was most likely due to aspiration. i cannot confirm it, it is just the gut feeling that i have. he was eventually transferred to icu because his condition deteriorated over the weekend and he was a full code. they would be able to give him more attention in that unit than those on floor were able to do. personally, i think it was a wise decision to transfer him. part of me wishes the md would have done it sooner but it is not a decision that we take lightly either. i was able to care for him when we was in my charge. that is not saying that he did not frustrate me, because he wore out just about every bit of patience that i had as a person, but he got very good care with me. i do also believe that if people were to see this aspect of alcohol that they might be more inclined to just leave it alone or touch it in moderation before it becomes a problem. then again, i could very well be wrong, too. unfortunately people never believe it will happen to them.