SWIMs awsome Hydromorphone experience(dilaudid)

[BakaBilly]

So ive posted before about how SWIM gets really bad flare ups of what could be IBS/IBD or chrons or all of the above.

The pain SWIM gets in reaches the 10s on the 1 - 10 scale and lasts for many hours. If SWIM tries to wait out a flare up like this its usually about 12 hours before SWIM is too exhausted (from hot showers and pot smoking) to feel the pain anymore.

However SWIM has just been fed up with "coping" with the pain or "toughing it out" if you will.

This year SWIM has been to the ER 7 times, twice in one day.

SWIM wanted to recount a visit that was especially pleasant to him.

When SWIM gets to the ER they ask what usually works. SWIM tells them Dilaudid (hydromorphone) and Phenegran. The ER usually starts with 1mg of Dilaudid and works from there. It takes 3mgs every ER visit however to be done of the pain.

1mg, no feeling at all
2mg, some pain is gone but it still basically hurts like death
3mg ahh the magic number, all pain is gone and SWIM is usually feeling pretty good

However this visit was really nice, because they didnt stop at 3mgs even though SWIM told them he felt no pain and didnt need anymore. They gave him more dilly!

4mg SWIM is actually pretty freaking high....

One of the beautiful and so helpful nurses ask him if he would like one more "for the road"...SWIM cant beleive the nurse actually used this terminology! SWIM actually refuses more Hydromorphone but the nurse comes back and says "well we dont want you to go home and have to come back here again so we are going to give you another mg anyways.."

Apparently most Hydromorphone pre packaged injections come in 2mg form. So she asks SWIM " do you want the full 2 or should we go with 1?" not wanting to sound like a drug addict SWIM says just one should do...

5mg SWIM can actually feel the high getting better as the fifth mg is injected....

SWIM tells the nurse "well no sense in wasting that last mg, might as well give me both" the nurse nods and completes the 6th mg...

6mg SWIM could feel the high getting better by the 5th, but the 6th mg was out of this world. SWIM basically feels like all the people hes ever seen in the movies injecting H....one particular movie stands out above the rest...RUSH..."it feels like youre floating on a cloud of titties..."

Indeed the 6th mg made SWIM feel like he was in fact floating on a cloud of titties.

They let SWIM walk out..why I dont know because it seems like SWIM needed alot of help getting to the car (good thing he wasnt driving) and the rest of the day SWIM spent playing video games feeling better than he has ever felt in his entire life.

Its noteworthy that SWIM tells ya that not every visit has been like this. The very last visit they didnt want to give SWIM anything and told him they thought he was having H withdrawls. Even though on the 6mg day the ER doctor told SWIM "dont wait to come here, if you get a flare this bad come to the ER immediatley and we will help you."....the last ER doctor told SWIM "I cant beleive one of my coleagues would tell you that.."

Some doctors just dont get it I guess... :S If only every doctor was like the one that day.

[csharpprogrammer]

SWIM knows some close relatives who had flare up pain, post-surgury. She went to the ER for some relief, and certain doctors would NOT give opiates(hydromorphone), when she was clearly in Post-Op pain!

[BakaBilly]

SWIM went to the ER a few weeks after the above experience and SWIMS ER doc then told him he thought SWIM was having withdrawls and did not want to give him opiates.

When SWIM told him that the doctor from the above experience told SWIM not to try and tough it out to just come to the ER, he replied "I cant beleive one of my colegues would say that." basically calling SWIM a liar.

When 2mg of Dilaudid(hydromorphone) wasnt working the ER doctor told SWIM "we are going to release you." SWIM asked "well im still in pain what should I do?" the ER doctor told him to take more of his oxycontnin, even though SWIMs pain contract clearly states not to....

SWIM had more of a flare up later that night, but called the ER first to make sure the asshole ER doc from earlier wasnt working. He wasnt and SWIM went back to the ER and again was treated properly.

It already sucks to be in so much pain you want to die, but then to have to deal with doctors like that just makes the experience sooo much worse. SWIM was already feeling like this was a bad dream and this doctors attitude torwards SWIM made it a waking nightmare.

[Swing]

Yeah it seems like more and more ER's are switching to hydromorph as their choice of IV or IM for immediate pain relief. They do come in 2 mg increments from swims own experience in the ER and the fact that he has his own 2 mg hydromorphone vials that MUST have been diverted from the hospital cuz they come packaged in all this cool unnecessary shit the patient doesn't see. No wonder trips to the ER are so fucking expensive.