Advice from an ER doctor to drug seekers
December 14, 2011 3:45 PM Subscribe
This post was deleted for the following reason: craiglist rant is rarely good post material -- cortex
The last acceptable bigotry.
Not really, the doc seemed to accept that addicts did, in fact, need pain meds, but would prefer that they screwed up the working of the ED as little as possible in the process of getting them.
posted by mercredi at 3:55 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
Not really, the doc seemed to accept that addicts did, in fact, need pain meds, but would prefer that they screwed up the working of the ED as little as possible in the process of getting them.
posted by mercredi at 3:55 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
Advice to an ER Doctor about Craigslist: Stick with being a doctor, not a snarky forum poster. We will all appreciate it more.
posted by lampshade at 3:57 PM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]
posted by lampshade at 3:57 PM on December 14, 2011 [6 favorites]
I'll send this along to my dad, who's an ER doctor, just to see what he says. He's a terrific doctor, but he'll tell you at length, he can't stand "seekers." It's for a good reason, too -- he wants to stay clear of the law -- but I hate to think of the decisions he must have to make sometimes.
posted by Countess Elena at 3:57 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Countess Elena at 3:57 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
Good advice nonetheless. I mean, it is indeed wrong to mess up the triage system, and I would also be extremely pissed with anyone that did that.
I also have to say that I'm not sure that 'I know it's a polite fiction, you know it's a polite fiction, but let's keep this a polite thing rather than messing up the functioning of the ER' is actually bigoted.
posted by jaduncan at 3:58 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
I also have to say that I'm not sure that 'I know it's a polite fiction, you know it's a polite fiction, but let's keep this a polite thing rather than messing up the functioning of the ER' is actually bigoted.
posted by jaduncan at 3:58 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
Kidney stone is a 7 out of 10? I do not want to know about 8.
posted by benito.strauss at 3:59 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
posted by benito.strauss at 3:59 PM on December 14, 2011 [2 favorites]
My little bit of advice would be, when you and the doc are getting around to picking the particular kind of pain medicine you want, play a bit hard to get by acting concerned about how addictive you have heard that particular med is.
posted by biffa at 4:00 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
posted by biffa at 4:00 PM on December 14, 2011 [3 favorites]
I had a broken collarbone once and the (really cute) ER nurse and I were talking about it and I asked something like, "will there be a permanent disfigurement?" and she responded (I shit you not) "why? are you a model?" Later she asked if I wanted a shot of Morphine (I accepted Demerol), and after that that, palmed me 4 Percocets to "get me through till I could get my Vicodin prescription filled, but don't tell anyone." So my advice to drug seekers is, find a cute ER nurse and charm the shit out of her. And for the love of god be smarter than me and ask her for her number after. Cause a girl like that is one in a fucking million.
posted by nathancaswell at 4:02 PM on December 14, 2011 [10 favorites]
posted by nathancaswell at 4:02 PM on December 14, 2011 [10 favorites]
XKCD shoud show you how imagination can bend the pain scale, benito.strauss.
posted by jaduncan at 4:03 PM on December 14, 2011
posted by jaduncan at 4:03 PM on December 14, 2011
Hah! I have been passing this craigslist post around to my RN friends since it first was posted!
posted by small_ruminant at 4:05 PM on December 14, 2011
posted by small_ruminant at 4:05 PM on December 14, 2011
I just wish drug seekers would stick to everything but painkillers, so the actual people in pain are taken seriously.
posted by luckynerd at 4:06 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by luckynerd at 4:06 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
i've been treated like a drug seeker when it absolutely wasn't what was going on. genetically bad teeth and adult acne mixed with social anxiety apparently gets me to ping on a lot of people's radar. it's interesting at least because i get to see how addicts are treated and it's pretty shitty.
posted by nadawi at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by nadawi at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011 [1 favorite]
The thing about migraines, fibromyalgia, and lumbar disk pain makes me wonder: do they try to adjust for drug seekers when they compile medical statistics on those kinds of diseases?
posted by theodolite at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011
posted by theodolite at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011
Cause a girl like that is one in a fucking million.
♬ All dressed in white, she's got everything I need
pharmacy keys
she's falling hard for me ♬
posted by floam at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011
♬ All dressed in white, she's got everything I need
pharmacy keys
she's falling hard for me ♬
posted by floam at 4:07 PM on December 14, 2011
docgonzo: “The last acceptable bigotry.”
Drug addiction is destructive. There are doctors who are bigoted against the drug-addicted – but there are also doctors who dislike drug addiction because they want to help their patients.
This is easy advice for an ER doc to give. I'd like to see her/him work in a psych ER for a few months, though.
Also, since this person is a doctor, the odds are better that they are a drug addict. So there's always that.
posted by koeselitz at 4:09 PM on December 14, 2011
Drug addiction is destructive. There are doctors who are bigoted against the drug-addicted – but there are also doctors who dislike drug addiction because they want to help their patients.
This is easy advice for an ER doc to give. I'd like to see her/him work in a psych ER for a few months, though.
Also, since this person is a doctor, the odds are better that they are a drug addict. So there's always that.
posted by koeselitz at 4:09 PM on December 14, 2011
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posted by docgonzo at 3:52 PM on December 14, 2011