I just had my first experience with an elderly alcholic (of many, many years) detoxing after a surgery and in the rehab hospital. Not one I'll likely be forgetting...
In addition to attempting to get up even though he was unable to stand without assistance, I was cursed out for nearly nine hours straight: he threw everything in the book at me and then some! I tried using my "textbook" nursing skills for distraction; to get him to not attempt to get out of bed by politely offering to assist him use a urinal if he needed to go to the bathroom, get him some water if he needed, get him sat up in bed if need be, blah, blah, BLAH.
Turns out severely detoxing alcoholics experience hallucinations. He kept reaching for non-existant bugs, he kept rubbing the floor tiles insisting it was sand, and he kept trying to go into "his dining room" because he didn't even know he was in the hospital.
Being a generous CNA-by-job and nursing-student-by-night, I attempted to offer said patient some fluids. Bad move. Those water mugs are heavy and giving one to a halluncinogenic detoxing alcoholic, albeit a very old one, is a recipe for disaster as I soon learned since it's the equivalent of handing him a small club.
I got cracked twice in the left eye and nearly a whole liter of ice spilled on me before I managed to get it away from him without harming him in any way...
Stacks of incident report paperwork and a semi-shiner later, I've learned a valuable lesson.
Hold the damned cup!
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