One of my classmates who is doing a rotation at an acute care hospital shared this story with me tonight…

She went to the psych ward of this hospital and was doing an evaluation on a man who was bipolar and had just had a hip replacement. Let's say his name is Lester.

Lester spoke in third person, lived in a group home due to the severity of his bipolar disorder, and always used my classmates (let's call her Amelia), name, in every sentence.

This was what he was telling her, more or less a paraphrase of what she told me on phone about the ice cubes and getting in her face about confirming she didn't think he was um, off.

Lester: LESTER DOES NOT WANT TO GET BETTER, Amelia. LESTER DOES NOT LIKE LIVING THERE, AMELIA. LESTER ONLY GETS THREE ICE CUBES IN HIS GLASS AND LESTER IS ANEMIC, AMELIA. LESTER NEEDS MORE ICE CUBES THAN THAT, AMELIA. Blah blah blah blah  LESTER DOES NOT HAVE PROBLEMS ::getting into Amelia's face:: DOES IT SEEM TO YOU THAT LESTER IS BIPOLAR, AMELIA?!!!!!!!!!

Amelia, straight-faced: No, not at all.