Jun 18, 2021
4:09:09pm
4:09:09pm
Opiates are the bane of my existence. I kid you not that at any given time half the patients I see in the hospital
are there at least in part due to complications of opiate use.
This could range from bowel obstructions (they slow bowel motility) to overdoses to respiratory issues from suppression or aspiration.
The worst is that we CONSTANTLY see patients who had something that caused them pain. They get started on chronic opiate therapy. They get “narcotic bowel” where their bowels stop working and they can’t eat or drink anything so they end up on IV fluids and nutrition with a port or picc line. Then that port or picc line gets infected. So they end up in the hospital and you can’t put a new line in and you’re treating them for infection and trying to get them off of opiates (almost never successfully) so that their bowels will work again. It’s awful
Man I hate these meds. You get a bad fracture or have surgery and go ahead and take them for like 3 days if you absolutely need to but any more than that…. They will mess you up
Oh but then patients feel like they have some sort of right to these medications and get so mad when you don’t give them what they want while in the hospital or when you discharge them with only like 12 pills. You just can’t win
This could range from bowel obstructions (they slow bowel motility) to overdoses to respiratory issues from suppression or aspiration.
The worst is that we CONSTANTLY see patients who had something that caused them pain. They get started on chronic opiate therapy. They get “narcotic bowel” where their bowels stop working and they can’t eat or drink anything so they end up on IV fluids and nutrition with a port or picc line. Then that port or picc line gets infected. So they end up in the hospital and you can’t put a new line in and you’re treating them for infection and trying to get them off of opiates (almost never successfully) so that their bowels will work again. It’s awful
Man I hate these meds. You get a bad fracture or have surgery and go ahead and take them for like 3 days if you absolutely need to but any more than that…. They will mess you up
Oh but then patients feel like they have some sort of right to these medications and get so mad when you don’t give them what they want while in the hospital or when you discharge them with only like 12 pills. You just can’t win
Originally posted on Jun 18, 2021 at 4:09:09pm
Message modified by Slim on Jun 18, 2021 at 4:10:23pm
Message modified by Slim on Jun 18, 2021 at 4:11:02pm
Message modified by Slim on Jun 18, 2021 at 4:13:59pm
Message modified by Slim on Jun 18, 2021 at 4:21:30pm
- Bio page
- Slim
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- Sep 1, 2006
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- Nov 4, 2022
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Opiates are the bane of my existence. I kid you not that at any given time half the patients I see in the hospital
6/18/21 4:09pm
Those things scare me. I had a series of surgeries after an accident and was on opiates for a few weeks. I remember a
6/18/21 4:28pm
6/18/21 5:13pm
6/18/21 4:40pm
6/18/21 4:47pm
6/18/21 7:06pm
6/18/21 8:16pm
6/18/21 5:25pm
Took some after I broke my collarbone 4 years ago. I was in Hawaii. I basically sat there in the hotel room feeling
6/18/21 6:43pm
6/19/21 11:38pm
6/19/21 11:37pm