Jekyll and Hyde

For the last 3 weeks, I have had this same middle aged woman as part of my team. She's really a sweet woman...or so I thought. The other day I came in and people were talking about how she went off the day before. I thought she was just upset, but apparently, when she gets upset, she gets really upset FAST. Apparently, she was throwing things, cussing out the staff, etc. But then an hour later, she was fine and back to her sweet self. That wasn't the only episode. It seems to happen whenever things didn't go her way.

I had her yesterday and all went well. I didn't see this side of her yet despite having her for 3 weeks...until this morning. I came in this morning and was doing my assessment on her when she started getting mad at me for making her wait for her breakfast. "Okay, I should be more respectful of her and having to spend 24/7 in the hospital for a month." That's what I thought and I let it slide. Then 30 minutes later, a transporter arrived to take her to get her panorex (an x-ray of your jaw) done for her transplant work-up. I went into her room to let her know that transporters were there to take her down but we could schedule it later if she'd like. She turned a complete 180! She started yelling at me, "Why should I be doing this?", "I hate it here.", etc. She started throwing things from her bedside tray like her breakfast tray onto the floor. I reminded her that we could get the test done later. But she refused to have it done later. As I reached down to unplug her IV pump from the electrical outlet, she took her IV pole and shoved it towards me with such force. Had I not been watching what she was doing and getting out of the way in time, my head would have stitches right now. Needless to say, I did NOT like having my safety compromised because of her attitude. Amazingly, I kept calm and unplugged her pump, but I had to walk out of the room without helping her to the wheelchair to keep my cool. I promise that she was strong enough to step in the wheelchair by herself otherwise, I would have probably stayed in there to make sure she got in okay. Once she came back, se acted like she was having the best morning ever. I don't think we even need a psychiatrist to say she's bipolar...

Speaking of psychiatrists, we put in a consult for her this morning and he came by tonight. He was asking me what was going on with her. I told him what happened that morning with the test and he goes, "It sounds like she's frustrated." Bullcrap. Frustrated?!?! Yeah, our patients who are normally frustrated talk about instead of getting violent and putting our own safety at risk! I lost repect for that psychiatrist after he said that.

I was giving report to a nurse tonight who was picking her up. I described what happened this morning and the first thing she asked was, "Is she a Gemini?" I was like "What???" What does being a Gemini has to do with it? The nurses explained that Geminis' represent these twin Greek Gods that had opposite personalities, thus, it is found that Geminis may have split personalities. Of course, I started laughing. i don't believe in astrology usually, but this had my patient down to a "T." Amazing...