No Appetite

Here’s an odd detail that probably means nothing, but it stuck with me. We had a patient today who simply wouldn’t eat. He wasn’t nauseous, he wasn’t confused, and he didn’t have any physical blockage. He was just… uninterested. When the tray was put in front of him, he stared at the food like it was a suggestion he didn’t quite understand. There was no hunger in him, but no disgust either. Just a total lack of drive. We logged it as ‘poor appetite’ and moved on to the next bed, because that’s what you do when you’re understaffed and over-scheduled. But the way he looked at that piece of toast—like it was an artifact from a culture he didn’t belong to—haunts me a bit. We are machines driven by needs, and he seemed to have none.