Do you hate the term “drug seeking” when it’s used on people who are seeking legitimate medication?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In your experiences, when the er staff labels you a drug seeker, do they offer medical detox? Or at least discuss it with you? If someone is addicted, they need to be monitored during withdrawal.

My good friend has been using opioids and benzos off and on for years. She abuses them. She has been to rehab twice. One doctor refused to give her another prescription, then she went home and had a seizure. That was her story. Her husband told me the doctor refused to give her the scrip, but did advise her to go to the er for detox, and recommended a rehab facility. She refused.

Nope. There was a lot of contempt and smirking when I tried to explain my condition, which the nurse had never heard of. She smirked and said “If I put an IV line in you, I have to get security to babysit you all night because we have people come in to get one just so they can shoot drugs.” I told her to get security then. She told me that she decides when security is called. Luckily, my mom walked in right then and immediately asked why I wasn’t getting IV fluids and anti-nausea meds. The nurse didn’t dare repeat it to my mom. Neither did she get the IV or security though.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a former ER nurse, I've seen this label thrown around a lot.

We get frequent fliers who are there to abuse meds for sure. And not just controlled substances but we've had quite a few who like the attention of the ED.

I'd say the number one reason people get this label thrown at them is when they come to the ED and tell the staff what they need before all tests have been performed. I'm guessing that's what happened with the IV PP. Now there are some people with chronic issues who know what works for them. Im not denying that. But if a staff member doesn't know you and you come in and tell them that last time this happened the only thing that works is Dilaudid, Ativan, and Phenergan....a red flag is going to be raised.

The worst thing about the current opiod crisis is that it penalizes those with legitimate flare ups or need for pain management. I have seen some crazy drug seeking behavior from people who wanted medication, not needed it. After awhile you can't help but become jaded to it all.

I have never abused drugs but the one time I did need extreme pain relief I did not get it for three days because the doctor who was new to me told me I fit the drug seeker profile, female, white, 40's and ran test after test until she diagnosed me through elimination. She let me suffer through the worst pain of my life for 3 days and nights. I'm still angry. I wish I had gone to the ER instead. Worse than childbirth. I would never go back to that idiot again for anything.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:And I have literally the opposite experience. Doctors seem to throw narcotics at me. I cut my finger and needed a couple of stitches. Went to the ER. 15 days worth of narcotics. I broke my toe and saw my doctor to be sure it didn't need to be reset. Narcotics. Root canal. Narcotics. My 22 year old was prescribed Loritab for a bad sore throat last year. It's crazy.

Are you in West Virginia?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Hospitals will do that if you are a frequent flier. Read enough forums on websites for people with chronic conditions and you will hear horror stories. I don’t tolerate opioids well and never request them, but I was even refused an IV once until my doctor spoke with ER staff.

The ER is not the appropriate place to obtain medication to manage chronic pain or other other chronic health conditions. They don't know you and don't know your medical history and don't have the tools to evaluate you fully for chronic conditions. If your doctor had time to talk to the ER doctor, then your doctor should had time to call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Don't blame the ER staff for your doctor's laziness or your failure to follow up with the appropriate care provider.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Hospitals will do that if you are a frequent flier. Read enough forums on websites for people with chronic conditions and you will hear horror stories. I don’t tolerate opioids well and never request them, but I was even refused an IV once until my doctor spoke with ER staff.

The ER is not the appropriate place to obtain medication to manage chronic pain or other other chronic health conditions. They don't know you and don't know your medical history and don't have the tools to evaluate you fully for chronic conditions. If your doctor had time to talk to the ER doctor, then your doctor should had time to call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Don't blame the ER staff for your doctor's laziness or your failure to follow up with the appropriate care provider.

You can't call in certain opioids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Sometimes, chronic conditions get dramatically worse in the evening or on weekends, holidays, etc. which makes it hard to see your doctor. The ER isn’t supposed to be just for accidents or gunshots. [/quote

Your doctor should have an exchange number and you should call your doctor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:
The ER is not the appropriate place to obtain medication to manage chronic pain or other other chronic health conditions. They don't know you and don't know your medical history and don't have the tools to evaluate you fully for chronic conditions. If your doctor had time to talk to the ER doctor, then your doctor should had time to call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Don't blame the ER staff for your doctor's laziness or your failure to follow up with the appropriate care provider.

+1.

My hospital now tracks what narcotics we give in the ER and how many narcotic prescriptions we prescribe upon discharge. The info is put up on the screen during department meetings. I’m going to stop giving narcotic prescriptions unless I absolutely have to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The ER is not the appropriate place to obtain medication to manage chronic pain or other other chronic health conditions. They don't know you and don't know your medical history and don't have the tools to evaluate you fully for chronic conditions. If your doctor had time to talk to the ER doctor, then your doctor should had time to call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Don't blame the ER staff for your doctor's laziness or your failure to follow up with the appropriate care provider.

+1.

My hospital now tracks what narcotics we give in the ER and how many narcotic prescriptions we prescribe upon discharge. The info is put up on the screen during department meetings. I’m going to stop giving narcotic prescriptions unless I absolutely have to.

Are there other pain meds besides narcotics that can be given? Or is it just prescription strength NSAIDs?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh, boy. I had an emergency c-section at a hospital an hour and a half away from my home (long story). My OB made a mistake on my prescription for Percocet when I was discharged, so the pharmacy wouldn't fill it and Advil wasn't cutting it. She told me the best thing to do was go to the local ER. (We all thought it would be faster than my husband driving 3 hours round-trip to her office - you can't call in Percocet)

So I did, and was treated so horribly that I walked out in tears. My milk had just come in, I was in pain with a fresh incision and newborn, and the ER doc told me he "thought I was just looking for oxy." I've never been so ashamed and horrified in my life.

That's horrible; I'm so sorry it happened to you.

Seriously. That is lawsuit worthy in my opinion. Something not quite as horrible, but still awful happened to my 14 year old. He was injured at school. I rushed him to the ER. They did xrays. The ER doctor missed a serious fracture. They have him very little pain medication. I took him to an orthopedic surgeon the next day after a horrible night of severe pain. He had a torn ACL and a broken leg. The orthopedists called the ER doctor "incompetent" and suggested the radiologist who read the xray was probably reading it from his bed at home while watching Netflix.

This was just one medical nightmare too much. I have ZERO trust in doctors now. I'll see a PA or a nurse practitioner. But I avoid doctors like the plague when I can. I'm convinced ER docs must be the bottom of the barrel.

I think it's worse for a kid. Sorry that happened.

For me, I've forgotten the physical pain (except my milk coming in - I think I'm traumatized from that). But the accusations and shame stuck with me for a long time, and contributed to some pretty awful PPD. And like you, I don't trust doctors anymore. Love PA's and NP's.

And lest people like the PP think it's a socioeconomic thing, it's not. We were white, married UMC, and in our mid-30's. DH was an Navy O-5 at the time - which they knew since it was on my ID (used for insurance). Some doctors are just on a power trip and see drug abusers everywhere.

NP and I think people that work in the ER either hate people to start with or come to hate people through their jobs.

I've been in an ER three times in my life and each one was traumatic, largely due to absolutely horrible doctors. One screamed at me for bleeding on his shoes and stormed out of the room leaving me alone for another 4 hours before anyone would examine me, another started stitching up my arm and wouldn't believe me when I told him he hadn't numbed the area yet until I was sobbing and begging him to stop at which point he saw the full syringe he hadn't used on me yet sitting right there, and the last told the nurse he was working with that I was probably just a "knocked up sl*t" right outside my open door when I presented with sharp stomach pains I couldn't breathe through at 14 years old. It was appendicitis.

The stitches and the appendicitis were when I was in middle school, imagine treating a child like that? And the bleeding was when I was a freshman in college and all alone in the ER at 2 AM on a Tuesday night with my family 10 hours away and scared as hell. Don't tell me that "oh the job leaves you jaded" as if that excuses this kind of behavior. GTFO and get a new job, then.

[Anonymous]

ER doctor lose their humanity. It's so unfortunate because many patients in the ER are in one of the worst days of their lives, only to be treated inhumanely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

NP and I think people that work in the ER either hate people to start with or come to hate people through their jobs.

I've been in an ER three times in my life and each one was traumatic, largely due to absolutely horrible doctors. One screamed at me for bleeding on his shoes and stormed out of the room leaving me alone for another 4 hours before anyone would examine me, another started stitching up my arm and wouldn't believe me when I told him he hadn't numbed the area yet until I was sobbing and begging him to stop at which point he saw the full syringe he hadn't used on me yet sitting right there, and the last told the nurse he was working with that I was probably just a "knocked up sl*t" right outside my open door when I presented with sharp stomach pains I couldn't breathe through at 14 years old. It was appendicitis.

The stitches and the appendicitis were when I was in middle school, imagine treating a child like that? And the bleeding was when I was a freshman in college and all alone in the ER at 2 AM on a Tuesday night with my family 10 hours away and scared as hell. Don't tell me that "oh the job leaves you jaded" as if that excuses this kind of behavior. GTFO and get a new job, then.

My brother and SIL are doctors and yes, they have been trained, in med school and afterwards, to hate people. I think it's inadvertent, but the training is definitely there.

[Anonymous]

ERs are just a crapshoot. I was having an asthma attack and went to be treated. The dr told me that I was fine and he didn't hear any wheezing when he listened to my lungs. Yup, you don't hear wheezing when your lungs are too constricted to move air. They told me it was a panic attack. Any panic was caused by the fear of dying because they wouldn't treat my asthma.

[Anonymous]

You don't need opiates for most pain.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180417181101.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107113211.htm

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151020120847.htm

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:
The ER is not the appropriate place to obtain medication to manage chronic pain or other other chronic health conditions. They don't know you and don't know your medical history and don't have the tools to evaluate you fully for chronic conditions. If your doctor had time to talk to the ER doctor, then your doctor should had time to call in a prescription to the pharmacy for you. Don't blame the ER staff for your doctor's laziness or your failure to follow up with the appropriate care provider.

+1.

My hospital now tracks what narcotics we give in the ER and how many narcotic prescriptions we prescribe upon discharge. The info is put up on the screen during department meetings. I’m going to stop giving narcotic prescriptions unless I absolutely have to.

And this is part of the problem. The pendulum swings to far to the other side and patients aren't getting their pain managed or treated with dignity. I'm an RN and my husband just had colon surgery and the doctor told him this is a very painful recovery but that he prescribed tramadol and that while it won't take away the pain it will take the edge off. Tramadol didn't do anything to help his pain at all!! My husband was in tears for multiple days during the recovery.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

NP and I think people that work in the ER either hate people to start with or come to hate people through their jobs.

I've been in an ER three times in my life and each one was traumatic, largely due to absolutely horrible doctors. One screamed at me for bleeding on his shoes and stormed out of the room leaving me alone for another 4 hours before anyone would examine me, another started stitching up my arm and wouldn't believe me when I told him he hadn't numbed the area yet until I was sobbing and begging him to stop at which point he saw the full syringe he hadn't used on me yet sitting right there, and the last told the nurse he was working with that I was probably just a "knocked up sl*t" right outside my open door when I presented with sharp stomach pains I couldn't breathe through at 14 years old. It was appendicitis.

The stitches and the appendicitis were when I was in middle school, imagine treating a child like that? And the bleeding was when I was a freshman in college and all alone in the ER at 2 AM on a Tuesday night with my family 10 hours away and scared as hell. Don't tell me that "oh the job leaves you jaded" as if that excuses this kind of behavior. GTFO and get a new job, then.

My brother and SIL are doctors and yes, they have been trained, in med school and afterwards, to hate people. I think it's inadvertent, but the training is definitely there.

The training comes from patients who are overly demanding, rude, and ridiculous. The ER is not a pain management clinic. Don’t use it like one. A pain management clinic is what you need for these problems