Recently underwent some minor surgery. Didn’t tolerate the meds well, vomitting ensued, landed back in the hospital for an evening while things got sorted out.
I was very thirsty, and not a little dehydrated. Dehydrated from the yakking and thirsty from breathing through my mouth (sinus surgery).
The first thing they did to me was start an IV and begin pumping liquids. Next they took blood, and would not act again until the blood work came back. That left me waiting over an hour with nothing to do but listen to the IV pump and wish I could drink something without yakking.
Which got me to wondering if they just kept pumping fluids (which they did until they released me this morning) would my thirst eventually have abated?
As it worked out I didn’t have to wait and see, as they included gravol with the first batch of liquids, I was able to stomach liquids and so began to drink and quenched my thirst. But it made me wonder.
So how about it, if I hadn’t begun to drink to quench my thirst would the IV liquids have eventually produced the same effect?
On occasions when I have experienced dehydration from food poisoning and couldn’t keep food or liquids down, I have been rehydrated with an I.V.
I am going to have my tonsils out and my surgeon told me that if after the surgery I should come in for an I.V. if I find it too painful to swallow and thus become dehydrated.
Several years ago, I was on central (intravenous) hyperalimentation for more than a month. I was not permitted anything by mouth, not even ice chips. Much to my surprise, I didn’t get thirsty or hungry in a physiological sense. However, there is a psychological component to thirst and hunger which is not slaked by intravenous hydration and nutrition. Television commercials for cold drinks and tasty foods just drove me nuts. I began to fantasize about pizza and root beer the way normal people fantasize about sex.
Though you don’t get thirsty, you can get an unpleasantly dry mouth from my experience, also acid reflux can be bad with the lack of use of your stomach for digesting things.
Cyn, RN
If IV feeding for any length of time, we put a nasal-gastric tube through the nose and pump out stomach secretions.
Most people complain of thirst initially when not allowed anything by mouth (NPO), but good oral care allieviates a lot of misery. Oral swabbing and brushing teeth make people feel so much less thirsty. In cases of hyperemesis (runaway ralphing), it is important to rinse the mouth to get the stomach acids off the teeth.
Exactly what Acsenray said. I also had food poisoning, couldn’t keep anything in or down, including plain water. Roomies eventually wised up and dragged my dehydrated ass to the ER.
IV fluids were incredible, after a day of violently losing liquid from both ends I was suddenly able to get rehydrated and have it stay in my body. You cannot imagine how good that felt.