American Red Cross Text-Book on Home Hygiene and Care of the Sick by Isabel McIsaac (best affordable ebook reader txt) 📕

patient if she wants anything more; if not, say good-night, go out and stay out, at least until she has had a chance to go to sleep. She is thus helped to realize that nothing further is likely to happen, and that it is time to go to sleep.

Toward morning the patient grows weaker. More bed covers will probably be needed, and they may often be added without waking her. Night at the best is a dreary time for the sick. Pain and weariness and discouragement are less bearable in the darkness; nervous fears and morbid fancies defy control. Never is kindness more needed or more appreciated than it is by those who lie awake and watch for the morning.

EXERCISES Name all the causes, direct and indirect, of pressure sores. Why are pressure sores generally more serious than injuries of equal extent to the skin of a well person? Where are pressure sores most likely to occur and what are their symptoms? What measures should be employed to prevent pressure sores? Describe ways to support a person lying down in bed. Describe ways to support a person sitting up in bed. How may the weight of the bedclothes be removed from any particular part of the body? How should a bedpan be cared for? Describe in detail a day's routine either of yourself the last time you were ill in bed, or of another patient personally known to you. Could the plan of the day have been improved, and if so, in what ways?

CHAPTER IX

FEEDING THE SICK

Substances used for food are generally grouped into three classes, called the three nutrients. The nutrients are: first, the proteids or nitrogenous substances, which are found in meat, fish, eggs, milk, cheese, peas, beans, etc.; second, the carbohydrates, which include sugars and starch; and third, the fats, which are found in butter, oil, the fat of meat, etc. In addition to the nutrients, water and certain mineral salts are essential to life, while some indigestible material like the fibre of vegetables is needed to give bulk and to stimulate the action of the intestines.

The nutrients furnish the body with materials for growth, and for repair of tissues worn out by use; they also furnish fuel substances from which the body obtains its heat and its energy. All three nutrients can serve as fuel, but the proteids alone can furnish materials for growth and repair of tissues. In order to be used by the body for any purpose, nutrients must first go through a series of complicated changes known as digestion, which renders them soluble so that they can soak through the walls of the intestine.

THE DIGESTIVE PROCESS

Digestion begins in the mouth. There the food is crushed and its fibres separated by the teeth, it is moistened by the saliva, and substances in the saliva begin a chemical action upon the starch. Chewing should be sufficient to reduce the food to a soft mass well moistened with saliva. Slow eating is desirable, but the emphasis should be placed on thorough chewing. For instance, long intervals between bites are of no special benefit if mouthfuls of food are washed down by swallows of water.

After it has been swallowed, the food passes into the stomach and remains there for a variable length of time, while it undergoes further preparation for absorption. It is moved about by the contraction of the muscular walls of the stomach, so that it becomes mixed with the stomach juices and more thoroughly softened. Some digestion of proteids goes on in the stomach, and a little absorption through the walls.

Little by little the food is discharged from the stomach into the small intestine, and the most important part of digestion then begins. It is acted upon chemically by a fluid flowing into the intestine from an organ called the pancreas; this pancreatic juice acts upon all three nutrients and is of great importance in the digestive process. The bile and other juices that flow into the intestine perform important functions also.

The food masses are moved along by rhythmic contractions of the intestine, and absorption goes on when the food has been so changed that it can soak through the intestinal walls into the blood and lymph vessels. The small intestine is about 20 feet long, and consequently affords a large surface for absorption, as does also the large intestine, into which the small intestine opens. The blood and lymph carry the digested food substances to all parts of the body, and thus the different tissues are provided with the materials they need for growth, repair, and energy. Excess of food substances may be stored as fat or expelled from the body.

As the blood and lymph go through the tissues they take from the tissues the refuse, or the part that remains after the fuel substances have been consumed. This refuse from the tissues may be likened to the ashes from a furnace; it is finally eliminated from the body through the kidneys and lungs, and to some extent through the skin and bowels. The part of the food that is not digested of course never soaks through the intestinal walls; it merely passes through the small and large intestines and is finally expelled as feces or bowel movements. The characteristic odor of fecal matter results from the action of bacteria upon it while in the large intestine.

It must be remembered that the body is not nourished merely by swallowing food: in order to nourish the body food must also be digested, absorbed, and made use of by the tissues. Many factors may operate both in health and in sickness to render food indigestible. It may be originally unsuited to the human digestive apparatus, or spoiled, or poor in quality, or badly cooked. But even when wholesome in itself it may be ill-adapted to a particular person at a particular time; thus it may be too great in amount, or eaten at improper hours. Moreover a person's own idiosyncrasy or manner of living or fatigue or illness may render it especially indigestible for him.

Experiments have shown that pain, fear, worry, and other unpleasant emotions actually stop the action of the digestive juices and check muscular contractions of the small intestine. Furthermore, even the absence of pleasant anticipation of food has been shown to delay digestion for hours. Thus scientific knowledge confirms our common experience that such mental states seriously interfere with digestion. The converse is also true. Agreeable taste and odor of food, or even pleasurable thought of it, start the secretion of digestive fluids. It is a common saying that the mouth waters at the prospect of inviting food, but it is less well known that appetizing food does actually start the stomach juices also. A person who understands the physiological effect that the emotions have upon digestion is in a far better frame of mind to cope successfully with the difficulties of feeding the sick than one who considers sick persons' likes and dislikes entirely irrational.

FEEDING THE SICK

Nourishing the sick is not always an easy problem, but its importance can hardly be overestimated. Indeed, proper feeding in many illnesses makes the difference between life and death. The actual amount of nourishment needed in sickness is often less than in health, but it may be just as great, or even greater if the illness causes increased tissue waste. Yet the digestive process of a sick person must be rendered as little laborious as possible, all foods ordinarily difficult to digest must be eliminated, certain others must be withheld or restricted according to the nature of the sickness, and in addition one may have to deal with an appetite that is capricious, diminished, or totally absent.

Diet for the sick is often a part of medical treatment; in such cases the doctor will prescribe special diets and his orders must be carefully carried out. Except for special diets, food for the sick is generally divided into four classes: first, liquid or fluid diet; second, semi-solid diet; third, light or convalescent diet; and lastly, full diet. These diets are not very sharply distinguished.