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  • BDD Moderators: Keif’ Richards

Should I tell ER about Bupe?

A

allecw

Bluelighter
Joined
Jun 14, 2010
Messages
121
I am probably gonna go to the ER tomorrow with some pretty bad pains in my abdomen that keep getting worse. I'm am going to the ER on my sub docs advice. He is the only doc I can afford to see right now. I have no inscurance and no money and he told me this was my best chance of finding out what was wrong with me.

I just don't know how to go about bringing up the me taking Subutex thing to the ER.

I figured I just wouldn't tell them I'm taking anything but what if they try to give me pain meds in the ER? I guess I would refuse them? Last time i was at this same ER they shot me up with demerol. I'm thinking no matter what they could shoot me up with if I had just taken my Subutex a few hours before I would no pain relief anyways right?

Also while I don't want there to be anything wrong with me what if I get admitted and did not tell them about my sub usage? Then I just bring it up all the sudden?

I also think they would look at me a little differently once they found out I was on bupe maitanece. I dont want to be looked at as a drug seeker. Everyone else who has seen i am on subs has looked at me differently afterwards. I also fear if they do something to me that will require pain meds they might not give them to me thinking I'm an addict or if they did they wouldn't give enough to make the pain go away.

On the off chance they find something wrong with me and I need surgery(unlikely I hope) how does that work when you for one are on bupe and two have a huge opiate tolerance?

I have had friends with huge opiate tolerances go through surgeries and get perc or hydro tens afterwards. I would prefer taking my bupe then that. I can't imagine them giving me like 60-80mg of oxy at a time, which is what I would require for pain relief.

I also take klonopin and don't want to tell them about this too out of fear they will blow me off as someone with anxiety.

Any opinions on this? This is my first time going to the ER when I truly think that something is wrong with me and don't know what to do. From my experience with er's in the past I probably won't get taken seriously anyways considering I have no inscurance. This is the same hospital that gave my mother Ativan after she had a stroke and told her it was anxiety.

On the off chance that I could get admitted should I bring my meds with me?
 
i would tell them that you are bupe. if you are not looking to get high from the scripts afterwards and are not even interested in the drugs they are giving you, then you wont look like a drug addict.
 
laCster said:
i would tell them that you are bupe. if you are not looking to get high from the scripts afterwards and are not even interested in the drugs they are giving you, then you wont look like a drug addict.
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They'll know exactly what's going on when he tells them he's on bupe, it's used to treat opiate addiction. They'll probably assume he's a drug addict. On the other hand, if your on in pain and you take your sub, they need to know how to dose you to relieve your pain. I guess it's a lose-lose. Personally I would tell them so they can treat your pain better.
 
Vikingdon said:
They'll know exactly what's going on when he tells them he's on bupe, it's used to treat opiate addiction. They'll probably assume he's a drug addict. On the other hand, if your on in pain and you take your sub, they need to know how to dose you to relieve your pain. I guess it's a lose-lose. Personally I would tell them so they can treat your pain better.
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lmfao tuche...its not what i meant but it was hard to articulate what i meant after rippin some bongs
 
The dr will know by looking at your dea records so you might as well be honest. Also involve your Bupe dr in your treatment so you will get the help you need. Explain your tolerance only if you require opiate maintenance after. Because you're on sub the dr will understand. Honesty is the best policy. Good luck!
 
When you are in an ER you are there in part because the situation could become severe. If they intervene with you possible unconscious the doctors knowing what meds are in your system could be life saving.

If a situation comes up that causes you to have to reveal stuff later on your likely going to be untrusted and have a weaker alliance with your health care staff about getting you better. I'm not saying they'll blow you off but I do think they will be less engaged and more cautious about treating you.
 
Violenza666 said:
The dr will know by looking at your dea records so you might as well be honest. Also involve your Bupe dr in your treatment so you will get the help you need. Explain your tolerance only if you require opiate maintenance after. Because you're on sub the dr will understand. Honesty is the best policy. Good luck!
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This is good advice. Tell them the truth. Include that your bube doc told you to go to ER. Tell them that you need to know what's wrong, but that if whatever it is requires pain drugs you will get them from your bupe doc if you can.

Every time I ever see a specialist who wants to give me a drug, I tell them I would rather my family doctor handle my prescriptions. That way I have one doctor taking care of all my drugs and people are less likely to see my as a drug seeker.
 
Definitely tell them everything, they are there to treat you, or make a diagnosis and they need all the information that they can get. Something that might not seem important to the patient could actually be critical to treating or diagnosing. They are the professionals and I think they deserve to know so they can give you the best treatment possible.

Also not all doctors look down on people with a history of addiction, the good ones don't anyway in my experience.
 
If anything, I feel they should applaud you for being on buprenorphine maintenance rather than in full blown addiction. From your post I can see you are serious with your maintenance and aren't that interested in getting pain medication unless the doctors truly think you need it. Like everyone has said, honesty is the only way to go, and things should turn out just fine. But perhaps I'm just an optimist. I'm sure a moderate amount of doctors might treat you differently for being on bupe, but you'd think if they are medical professionals, they would treat you as a human being with a problem, rather than some "junky" that doesn't deserve proper treatment.
 
Well I went and I did tell them about my bupe treatment.

The first person I told looked at me like i was crazy but from then on everyone was fine.

I found it kind of hard to believe but the nurse had never even heard of bupe before. She thought I was talking about methadone.

I don't even know if they told the doctors because the doctors seemed to have no idea.

In the end i think it might of helped a bit because they knew I could not be a drug seeker. I told the nurse I could not take any opiates even if they wanted to give them to me. This is a hospital that is frequented by drug seekers.

The doctor said I needed to be put on some serious pain meds but the nurses who knew i couldnt take opiates tried to give me toradol. I told them I was fine.

In the end I got a script for tramadol because she said it was a non narcotic. She said if I wasnt on bupe I more than likely would of been shot up with all kinds of pain meds and sent home with a pretty powerful prescription.

I'm glad I told them though. Like I said in the end I think I might of gotten better treatment by telling them I was on bupe and could not take an opiate.

In the end I have to say this was probably the nicest I have been treated by any hospital. I was expecting the complete opposite.
 
allecw said:
I found it kind of hard to believe but the nurse had never even heard of bupe before. She thought I was talking about methadone.
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Believe it or not this is very common. A LOT of nurses seem to have failed pharmacology 101. I was dating a nurse who had absolutley no idea that Heroin was basically just morphine. She also gave me a deer in the headlights look when I asked her what the most common benzo she uses was. Was completely oblivious that Ativan is in a class of drugs called benzodiazepines.

Ahhh, good days, good days.
 
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