Medical Personnel treat us like trash. In my case possibly endangering my life/health

[Tryptamine*Dreamer]

I'm not sure where this belongs, healthy living or drug culture. Mods feel free to move if you think there is a better place.


Here is a place to vent if you've had this misfortune. I am especially interested in hearing from anyone who was treated in such a way that it put them in possible danger. Either through treatment used, or the way they treated you as a person.

Here is my story. It happened 4 or 5 years ago.

I have experience with how the medical profession treats druggies.
Some of the things done to make me suffer or feel like trash were dangerous.
My blood pressure was severely elevated and their actions made it worse by scaring me and upsetting me.In my altered state, their scowls, aggressive movements, and acting angry was scary. Scaring and upsetting people will raise blood pressure. They should have provided a calm and accepting atmosphere and been gentle and friendly. That would have been calming and helped my blood pressure.

The experience is below:

When I OD'd on DXM and ephedra, they treated me like trash. Giving mean looks, being rude, lecturing me on how I was taking up space in the ICU that someone else could have needed. I had them treating me badly even as my blood pressure was reading 23X/15X(don't remember exact) and as this was going on it went up more to like 245/160. They were making me feel some anger but mostly sadness. That goes against their hippocratic oath to do no harm. They should have known that being hostile in words and behavior would increase my dangerously high blood pressure. Sometimes their scowls and the way they acted scared me. I was in an extremely altered state of consciousness so I often became frightened by them. I had another nurse step on my catheter tube, causing pain. Maybe it was an accident, but she didn't take her foot off when I pointed and groaned. Their was one good nurse who told me she believed I was a good person and that the things the others were saying were wrong. Apparently everyone was talking bad about me and making fun of my condition behind my back. I thank this one nurse for her kindness. She made me feel a lot better. If I knew her name I'd write her a letter to tell her how much it meant that there was someone in that place who thought I was not only human, but a good one. It meant a lot when she said it but I didn't respond. I regret that, but talking was still difficult due to the drugs. My mind still was not functioning properly. I wish I could thank her for that. Everyone else tried to make the experience as traumatic and miserable as possible.

They acted in ways which raised my blood pressure by causing fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger. Possible result could have been stroke or heart attack.

I could see the changes in my blood pressure when they mistreated me as the monitor updates every few minutes. They made it go up.

 

[specialrelativity]

All med pros are different. Some are unprofessional, that is true, but not all.

 

[Lysis]

Are you sure in your drug induced state that you weren't imagining dirty looks? You say that they gave you scowls that made you feel bad, but maybe they weren't?

 

[Tryptamine*Dreamer]

Are you sure in your drug induced state that you weren't imagining dirty looks? You say that they gave you scowls that made you feel bad, but maybe they weren't?

I'm pretty sure it was real because it continued as I sobered up. As I sobered up more, I also got several short lectures from docs and nurses. I got one long one about how I took up space in the ICU that someone else might need. They treated me bad when I was out of my mind, and continued to do so when I was sober(and points in between). It was no longer dangerous as my blood pressures were lower, but it still wasn't right to treat a patient as trash. When I sobered up I was griped at several times for wasting their time. Their mean look still there. Continued until I was released to a regular room.

I was treated nicely when I left the Intensive Care Unit. But everyone in ICU was ice cold and mean.

I am sure they were trying to show displeasure/dislike of me or what I'd done while I was in the ICU.

I think the way they acted as they did tests and just monitored me was intentionally cold and mean. Initially they caused fear and anxiety by their actions while I was really high. Then it was just more of a guilt trip type of thing.

They seemed to treat me coldly the whole way while I was in the ICU. I was pretty much sober the last 2/3 of the time in ICU and they always showed scowls, frowns, and looks of disgust. (I find it hard to tell the difference.)But they always showed negative facial expression when looking at me. I stayed in ICU for one day and then half a day in the normal hospital room. The people were nicer after I got out of ICU.


I think I can respect the one who had the courage to tell me how they felt and how I should change than the majority who just behaved meanly or as if I were subhuman.

Maybe it is the hospital's policy to treat druggies bad in an attempt tp make them quit or something. Or to not seek treatment

In any case, the appropriate treatment for someone with severe hypertension would be meds and to provide a low stress and calm environment.' They not only failed to provide a suitable environment, they made it worse by letting their attitude toward drug users influence their
psychological treatment of the patient, showing anger or disgust and making sure the patient knows and feels it.

They scowled and and showed their displeasure even seeing my blood pressure at dangerously high levels.
A patient has a blood pressure around 230/110(estimate, I know it was 230someting but don't remember diastolic so just guessed.It is irresponsible to scare or induce strong emotion in someone with a blood pressure that high, or at least that would seem so to me. This is what was done to me.

With my BP so high, they should have been nice and reassuring. Instead, they gave mean,disgusting looks and made apparent in tone of voice when talking that I was bad. When I was really high, it scared me some. That was when my BP was extreme. Their negativity toward me caused fear and probably increased blood preddure,

I was witness to my blood pressure rise from extreme to even worse when they checked stuff on my arm(not sure what they were doing and they gave their scowls and looks of disgust(not sure what they were doing). They seemed to be physically rougher on me than necessary in any interactions.

I was really high, but I know how they treated and reacted to me


They would talk about me to each other in my presence later on to make me feel bad/worse..


I would consider the possibility that I imagined the scowls and mean behavior if it hadn't continued as I sobered up. The only person who showed any decency toward me was the nurse I mentioned in the post. Everyone else showed at best complete indifference, but in most cases chose to give me dirty looks or even preach to me about the error of my ways and what a drag it is on society.


I failed to mention in first post, but I tested positive for opiates and amphetamines.


I kept telling them all I took was DXM and ephedra. They were all convinced I'd been using heroin and MDMA, and that is what I was accused of. I told them and they wouldn't believe. I said DXM overdose can cause positive for opiates, they refused to accept or believe. I told them ephedra could test positive for amphetamines, and they didn't believe that. What morons. Ephedrine is closely related to amphetamine and is itself a stimulant.


The doctors need to know more about drug testing. That both false positives happen should be well known by doctors. Ephedra is common, as is recreational DXM use. I think they may have just been trying to give me a hard time, but they really need to update their knowledge if they don't know ephedra(ephedrine being so closely related)can cause false positives for amphetamines. They should have probably figured our that DXM overdose causes false positives for opiates and pcp(fortunately the latter didn't happen to me. They wanted to believe I was on MDMA and heroin and I tried to tell them it was DXM and Ephedra. The part I describe came after the portion of the trip where I was in many other imagined places and didn't know I was in the hospital. It was an amazing trip.

 

[Lysis]

Well, drug users are probably considered the scourge in the medical community. I had someone very close to me who was a drug user, so I changed my way of thinking a while ago. Remember, people are afraid of things they don't understand.

Conversely, many doctors are sick of the drug users who continue to scam them for prescriptions, so it isn't hard to understand their distaste for drug users. They can lose their license for poor choices and openly giving medication to people who are doctor shopping. Drug users who try to scam them out of prescriptions threaten their livelihood, so it's understandable why they are rude to them.

Also, nurses are some very caring souls. They have their bad seeds too, but a lot of them are overworked and underpaid. Still, there are some caring, loving, awesome nurses.

 

[Tryptamine*Dreamer]

Also, nurses are some very caring souls. They have their bad seeds too, but a lot of them are overworked and underpaid. Still, there are some caring, loving, awesome nurses.

The nurses in the ICU were cold as ice and treated me bad.

They did things that likely increased my blood pressure by scaring and upsetting me.

I saw my extremely high BP go up even more several times as it was being recorded in response to people who gave mean/angry(scary)looks(while really I was high). Some of whom did more than others.
Their actions were not appropriate. Whether they caused fear

I have no doubt they made by BP problems worse by acting mean and cold. They may not have realized the fear I felt(from any sign of anger before I came to a more normal way of being. They scared me often before I came down a bit. Even when I was down a bit, they still caused

They may not have knew it caused any fear when I was extremely high to see them seem angry or upset with me, but it was scary. Even to the point that I was thinking of defending myself from physical attack.

There was only that one nurse who told me she thought I was a good person and disagreed with what everyone else had been saying about me.


I am certain they acted inappropriately and they failed to provide the care needed for the situation




I think the actions of the nurses was disgraceful, except the one I mentioned

 

[New]

I tested positive for a shitload more than you when I OD'ed on DXM, but I had a completely different experience. I had helpful doctors, a nice nurse who I informed that I probably wasn't going to get much sleep, and a doctor interview me in front of 7 or 8 residents the next day as they all took notes based on what the two of us were saying.

 

[moonyham]

It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to obtain any sort of pain meds other than ibuprofen and paracetemol because i asked a gp to refer me to a psychiatric doc because i strongly felt i had some form of ADD at the time and the doctor i asked to refer me asked 'so do you take any drugs recreationally?' and i said no which at the time was true besides the(literally) odd joint(i was about 15/16 yo when all this happened) and he basically laughed in my face and blatently said he doughts that and im just trying to score some speed and ever since then every doctor has treated me like shit and wont give me anything in the slightest the could be used recreationally, no matter how seriously ill or in pain i am which fortunately for me almost never happens.

 

[Tryptamine*Dreamer]

It's IMPOSSIBLE for me to obtain any sort of pain meds other than ibuprofen and paracetemol because i asked a gp to refer me to a psychiatric doc because i strongly felt i had some form of ADD at the time and the doctor i asked to refer me asked 'so do you take any drugs recreationally?' and i said no which at the time was true besides the(literally) odd joint(i was about 15/16 yo when all this happened) and he basically laughed in my face and blatently said he doughts that and im just trying to score some speed and ever since then every doctor has treated me like shit and wont give me anything in the slightest the could be used recreationally, no matter how seriously ill or in pain i am which fortunately for me almost never happens.

That's really fucked up. You were trying to get help for a real problem, now every doctor around assumes you are a druggie and wont give you shit.


Poppies are good for pain and easy to grow or obtain. Might look into that if you need something for pain. Or fun. Or both. Fuck doctors they think they know it all and are always right. I say they are way too strict about providing pain relief. After major surgery my mom was given 7.5mg hydrocodone for the pain. That for breast removal and many lymph nodes. I'd say she should've been given generous amounts of oxycodone for at least the first two(or maybe four) weeks. 7.5mg Hydrocodone seems way inadequate to relieve the immediate pain from such a serious, traumatic operation. They should be more concerned about providing adequate pain relief than the possibility of addiction. If the addiction is of a physical nature, it isn't too hard to fix. Just very gradually reduce the dosage until the patient is off the med.

I would want more than 7.5mg hydrocodone if about 1/4(or more, I don't know) of the flesh on my chest was cut off and a dozen or more other tiny parts were removed from arms/sides/etc.. That calls for heavy duty pain control. This is exactly what stronger meds were meant for. I'd demand something better, but doubt I'd get it. She got morphine in hospital, but release after 3 days and only 7.5/500 hydrocodone/paracetamol afterwards. She needed something a lot stronger for at least a couple of weeks. What do you think? Is 7.5mg hydrocodone adequate pain relief for someone who has had a breast and over a dozen lymph nodes removed?(and has other painful conditions on top of that)
I'd say that would call for generous oxycodone use or maybe even something stronger(fentanyl patch maybe? or oxymorphone or something strong like that for first week or two?). People shouldn't suffer over this unreasonable fear of opiates. Opiates are way underprescribed out of fear of recreational use by patients, and now that the government will go after them if they are too liberal in their use of pain meds for patients who probably need them.

 

[moonyham]

Yeah i have done poppy pod tea before and thats gonna be my pain meds if i do get in an accident along with some weed to go with it cause the synergy of those 2 drugs is awesome stoning/numbing wise. It IS fucked up i know, i feel like breaking that doctors fucking legs for doing that shit. Doctors around here are fucking cunts when it comes to pain meds.. they act like everyone is a druggie trying to score some dope to the point where they are more often than not denying people pain meds when they actually need them

 

[Mr Blonde]

To be fair to the doctors, their fear of prescribing opioid medication is largely due to the threat of authorities coming down on them if they are seen to be too open with their script book.

Tryptamine*Dreamer: It sounds like you were treated pretty badly. I've had to go to hospital once before for a drug related problem, and I was treated fairly well fortunately with snarky comments at a minimum and no pamphlets shoved at me. Does the hospital have a board you can complain to about the treatment you received and the concern it caused you, especially given the BP situation at the time?

 

[Perpetual Indulgence]

They acted in ways which raised my blood pressure by causing fear, anxiety, sadness, and anger. Possible result could have been stroke or heart attack.

Interesting that you complain/worry about medical personnel affecting your blood pressure. You choose to engage in behaviours that negatively affect your health.
You received proper medical aid after you OD'd, didn't you? You are alive.

As a clinican, I admit that I have a personal bias against patients who create their own health problems. It saddens me when a person continues to harm themselves and returns to the clinic for related problems.

Am I going to be extra sweet to an addict or a fat ass sitting in my office? Unlikely. Will I give them the best medical care? Absolutely.

 

[kultron]

You deserved it. Grow up and stop being so selfish. Health care is a privilege, not a right. You are lucky to even live in a country that has basic healthcare. In case you didn't know, Nurses and orderlies don't take the hippocratic oath. Imagine being in a warzone, now see how stupid you look? It's irresponsible citizens like yourself that drain the health system of its resources and degrade society in general. You seem to be forgetting that you went to the hospital of your own accord. No one had a gun to your head telling you to take those drugs. How could Americans be so deluded? Evidently you didn't learn your lesson, as it seems that your drug knowledge is up to date and current. Life isn't a game kiddo. Like why did you even make this thread? Obv. for attention. I don't know about you, but my parents taught me to be grateful for healthcare and taught me that it was something that was fought for by our forefathers.

 

[GlassAss420]

^^^ yeah ur an ass..

when someone goes to the emergency room they deserve to be treated like anyone else with the same level of respect..

weird when i od'ed the guys in the ambulance were totally nice and emphathetic.. maybe its cause your from texas? I live by chicago, I've seen other people be treated for od's and the medical personal are usually nice.. cops on the other hand..

 

[steelcandyfloss]

its also important to remember that the staff of the ICU are dealing with people near death CONSTANTLY. its really fucking hard for them, too.. maybe their way of dealing with it is to not form an emotional attachment to their patient. Like Perpetual Indulgence said, they did do their job. They gave you the best medical care they could.

Maybe the frowns at your heart rate were from frustration at it not being lower, rather than a hatred of you as a person?
If they had never experienced that particular high you were experiencing, how could they know that them not being smiley and sympathetic would make you panic further?
Doctors in hospital rarely have a large amount of psychology knowledge, particularly for abnormal psychology. Their job really is just to heal you physically and refer you to psychological treatment, if it's required.

I'm not discounting your suffering, maybe just a suggestion that there may be reasons for their actions.