Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Public Service Announcement

If you (hypothetically, of course) get a can of Diet Coke that has lost some taste due to sitting in a garage for too long, DO NOT pour a packet of sweetener into it.

The resulting reaction will cause the soda to foam up wildly, going all over your desk, keyboard, pens, MRI reports, notes, and anything else.

The tissue box on your desk will likely not have enough in it to stop it from pouring on the floor.

The patient across from you will be of no help whatsoever, and may post about it tonight on grumpypatientblog.com.

Again, this is a purely hypothetical situation.

Thank you.

36 comments:

Helen said...

Did your patient hypothetically laugh at you? I would have.

But seriously. Sweetener in Diet Coke? That makes my teeth hurt.

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Hypothetically I'd never add sweetener to DC, but this can must have been in my garage for too long, and was bitter. Since I keep sweetener in my desk for tea, it would have seemed like a good idea at the time, if I'd really had to do such a thing.

Matt M said...

OK. Say you brew beer in the kitchen. You have a 5 gallon jar of CO2 saturated beer, and you want to add some yeast nutrients (which should have gone in when you first brewed it, but you forgot).

A smart person would dissolve said powered nutrients in water, and pour that in. A person in a hurry would dump in the power, and watch in horror as each speck drew to it a collection of tiny bubbles. These bubbles would then rush out of the top of the bottle, bringing 2 (two!) gallons of beer with them.

Thus ends the lesson of the CO2 saturated solution.

kristen77 said...

You are such a man. HAHAHA !
Hypothetical...wink wink...right.
I bet Mary is still laughing!

Alpine, R.N. said...

I actually knew that! It tastes funny that way too...

modesty press said...

Seemed like a good idea at the time.

How many headstones do those words adorn?

Unknown said...

lol. Oh to have been a fly on the wall with a Nikon.

Serious Replies Only said...

Hypothetically, you kept drinking it even though it was bitter? Yikes! (Hypothetically, of course).

Chris said...

Boy, and I thought my hypothetical addiction to Diet Coke was bad...

Anonymous said...

Yeah the same thing happens with salt...

Jo ~ said...

Ha! Thanks for passing that tip on!

Casey said...

Hypothetically try a mentos. Mentos will make it taste better. =)
Do you not watch MythBusters? Because you seem like someone who would watch MythBusters.
(If you still don't know what I an talking about google mentos and diet coke.)

diggher said...

Also, while one may think to look for the nearest liquid when a candle accidentally catches something else on fire. Hypothetically, while Coke is a liquid and one might think it'll do in a pinch to suffocate the flame it may in fact result in a fire flash bright enough to be seen in the next room......hypothetically.

(As the hypothetical person in the other room who went for water)

Grumpy, M.D. said...

Casey, I knew about that, I've actually made the Diet Coke Rockets (actually I use cheap generic store soda) with my kids.

I just didn't think it would happen with a packet of sweetener.

Doctor D said...

I put "grumpypatientblog.com" in the address bar of my browser just to see if it worked. Nope!

That would be a fun blog. I bet your patients enjoy you (except for a few that had it coming for driving you nuts.)

The Good Cook said...

I so wish I was grumpypatientblog.com I could really do this hypothetical story justice!

Um, grumpy patient didn't have a stroke when that happened did they?

quixote said...

For years, decades, I've been saying our pre-med Chemistry requirement is useless.

Thank you for proving me so right.

MCT said...

as I was reading it I was thinking.. hypothetically.. Right...
Hypothetically the patient would be laughing at you for once. :)

Anonymous said...

I spilled a can of Diet Coke once over my neurologists desk & floor.Needless to say,he was not pleased ( his exact words were "that's the last time I let a patient with a drink into my office." He probably went home and blogged about me.

Amanda said...

Suddenly not feeling so bad about my Diet Coke explosion any more. Even though this situation is, clearly, just hypothetical.

TranscriptionistTia said...

Has anyone out there had PepsiMax? It is Diet Pepsi, but with more artificial sweetener, ginseng, and extra bubbles (I am just kicking a pretty bad habit)... It *will* wake you up!

That stuff will bubble up and out of the can without the help of any additive! Like a volcano, if you crack it and don't take a drink large enough to give it space in the can!

Anonymous said...

Another good hypothetical would not to be eating certain candies and take a large swig of diet cherry coke. Very close effects to your hypothetical but in mine it involves a double spectrometer and Raman optical setup. Hypothetically your lab assistant would laugh his tushy off as foamy goodness shoots out of ones nose. thank goodness I didn't hit the laser.

The Bus Driver said...

so, i was sitting at my neurologists office one day.... when.....


haha sorry, couldnt resist. Who'da thunk it, dc and sweetener.

MTSuz said...

You get the same reaction when you dump a roll of Mentos into a 2 L bottle of DC. For a science experiment. For the kids. :)

WWWebb said...

I was going to warn you about not trying sugar instead, but I see from your post that that particular ship has already sailed...

ladyk73 said...

I have a diet pepsi addiction myself...am I the only one who has noticed that it smells like pledge (the duster)? I swear it works just as good to clean my desk (I spill diet cola all the time).

anywas...did the hypothetic patient laugh at you?

Cal said...

That's why you don't drink in the lab!

River said...

The correct way is to pour the sweetener into a large glass, then slowly add the coke, this way the fizz level can be monitored so that no overflow (wastage) occurs.

Anonymous said...

So if I (hypothetically) dumped the Diet Coke out of a can and filled it with some non-sweet liquid (like brake fluid) you would dump in Sweet & Low and try to drink it anyway?
Is there something illogical about doctoring (no pun...) something that you don't recognize the taste of, can't see, didn't even sniff, in a can...???

Chris said...

I'm bothered more by the fact that you left Diet Coke in your garage so long that it went "bad" (if that's even possible), and then you tried to fix it up with artifical sweetener and drink it anyway.......eek.......

And my verification word was "hogra" - now I'm thinking of a giant, flying, mutant pig that battled Godzilla.....like Mothra, only pink.........

Anonymous said...

My husband came to me waving an article from ?? Years ago accusing me of trying to kill him! He is an avid diet coke drinker and for some reasons likes it out of cans as opposed to 2 liter (less expensive!) Bottles. I buy the 12 pks when on sale in large quantities and would store them in the garage. We live in a VERY warm desert climate and I'm sure the garage gets up to 115 or more. The article stated that high temps convert chemicals in the diet coke to some sort of toxic chemicals. Maybe that's why it tastes so bitter! I now run a 2nd fridge in the garage, obviously offsetting any savings on sale prices but at least paranoid hubby doesn't think I'm trying to kill him anymore! Maybe Mrs Grumpy really is grumpy...

Unknown said...

I'm glad I'm not the only one who pulls stunts like this (hypothetically.)

Doris said...

Hypothetically, you also don't want to ever superheat a liquid (like coffee or tea) in a microwave and then add sweetener. Very very bad juju.

WWWebb said...

@anonymous: The article stated that high temps convert chemicals in the diet coke to some sort of toxic chemicals.

Do post a link, please.

Tachyon said...

LOLZ @ DocGrumpy

Unknown said...

I am a new reader and have been binge reading so this reply is 5 years late and probably wont be seen, BUT I am a nurse and one time I tried to add thickener to Diet Coke for patient on a dysphagia diet and it was like a volcano at a science fair! I screamed so loud every nurse on the unit came running

 
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