Junkies & their 2am fix...

Yet another night, I find myself awake at 2 am, unable to sleep. The reason? As I do 3-4 other nights a week, I just returned from a 911 call for help. Was it a motor vehicle accident? No. How about a serious illness? Nope! Instead, it was the frequent flier with chronic ankle pain.

Without divulging too much information, my patient was 19 years old, in apparently good health, suffering from ankle pain that she rated a 10,000 on our 1-10 scale. Additionally, she stated she was allergic to every non-narcotic analgesic in existance. From acetaminophen and ibuprofen to prescriptions NSAIDS like ketorolac-she was "severely allergic." Although it is worthy to note that her drug of choice (as she stated) is percocet.....which contains acetaminophen.....anyhow, to top it off she tells me that "the other times" we gave her something that started with a "d"....."Not Demerol, uhhh..Dilantin...oh, wait, Dilaudid! Yeah that's it...2mg."

Anyhow, she ended up getting nothing from me but a cold compress and free-ride to the hospital.

Sorry, but if you're text messaging your boyfriend then somehow I doubt your 10,000 out of 10 pain is really that bad. And speaking of which, according to her rating, I could hack it off with an axe and itd still be the same amount of pain...

Phew. Maybe I can sleep now. Thanks for the chance to vent.

reply to post by JBurns


Much respect from me to you
Glad you didn't give her anything.
Chronic ankle pain you would come up say? If I needed a 'fix' I would come up with something better.
I got a knee problem(i feel old ), it locks up and then I need to 'snap' it. thats takes me out for an hour, but I rarely take painkillers.
[Rambo]Makes me feel alive[/Rambo]

Your nicer than I would have been.

I would have been load testing the ambo's suspension on every speed hump I could find

I live in a country where police and ambulances don't respond to phone calls unless you offer them money.

You should be proud that you are serving a system which potentially saves lives every single day...... but like any system, the potential for abuse is high.


Sometimes the Darwin in me pipes up and thinks that people who get injured stupidly should die stupidly, so then those genes should be eliminated from the gene pool.


Cheers for your rant and I look forward to hearing about some spectacular rescue effort in the future hehe

Too bad you can't mess with her head, like tell her that said foot will most likely have to be amputated or maybe it most likely will spread up into her leg and they will have to take said leg off at the hip! As far as the pain all you have on hand to give is a newly developed pain med called Anbesol to rub on it.

Kudos to you! I had an incident about 2 months ago when I had to take my baby granddaughter to the emergency room with over 104 fever. The place was full of junkies with "unbearable back pain". We (my daughter and I) listened to a lot of their conversations as we waited for them to get my granddaughter seen by a doctor. Most of them were just there to get a "fix". I finally had enough of it and proceeded to raise a stink at the emergency reception desk and they immediately took us to an examining room. By the time they got us in there and took her temperature it had risen to over 105. If we had sat waiting behind those junkies for much longer it could have been terrible, but thank goodness she is okay. Those people were tying up services for their own selfish needs when there were others REALLY in need of medical help. It makes me sick!

im a legit chronic pain patient and hate these people ..i am a addict too but dont use er to get dope.....a classic drug seeker there..wow....real pain patients are afraid to even mention a drug name or ask for an increase for fear of being labeled a drug seeker. we do need pain meds and do not need to be denied because of what the rest do...it is sick that we have a hard time getting good pain control and see dealers selling meds they are rx'd for no real reason and liberally. if i were to mention i like the side effects of my pills i would be droped as an addict...i cant help that the side effects are pleasant..but i would gladly trade my pain and addiction for a pain free life

I've witnessed a person who takes Oxycontin and Morphine for their 'unbearable pain' forget why it's prescribed. The first story about what the meds were for was pretty shocking. I believed it. Then, after seeing the addiction patterns and behaviors for a few years, I asked what it was that hurts when he doesn't take them and got a completely different answer. He's just a junkie. Since he's a Vet, he has the world's support for his 'pain'. His pain has nothing to do with his 18 month service stint. He was a mean psychopathic, alcoholic gamble/loser who leeched off friends and family for 30 years before his stroke. Now, he's a saint (because he served) to everyone except those who know him well. We've all been screwed by him too often to forget what a jerk he is. He'd be calling you at 2 a.m., Doc.

Without the pain medicines, he can function at a much higher level and do some things for himself. On the meds, he can barely stand up or stay seated in his chair. I offered to take him to a hypnotist for the pain, but there is absolutely NO interest. He refuses to do any of his exercises to retain some function. Why should he? He has always enjoyed being waited on and catered to. He even pretends he can't do certain things, like feed himself in order to get new people in his life to come over and spoon feed him while cooing over what a miracle he is. He hasn't needed any help eating for at least 4 years now.

He's playing people. He has little interest in getting better or recovery. A few of his friends have taken time off work to take care of him and rehab him. (He has no money.) We all walked away after months or years..... agreeing that he has no desire to get better on any level. I think he might be more motivated if it weren't for the pills. The introduction of narcotics seems to have had a negative impact. It's people like him that ruin it for those who are in actual need.

P.S. The best painkiller I have ever found (for acute injuries) is homeopathic arnica gel and ice. Miraculous. It works better than Vicodin and reduces the recovery time and severity of injury if applied right away. My family depends on that! It works.