Best Drug Seeker Stories??

[PicklesRN, RN]

Anyone have some good ones? We all have them.

I find myself becoming more and more angry with these people. I'm referring to the drug abusers, not those who truly need narcotics to improve the quality of their lives. If I don't start laughing about it I'm going to go nuts on the next one. They take up ED time, they are expensive, they are out of hand.

So here is one of mine:

Security was helping a woman into the ED, one person was on either side of her. She was zonked, you could tell she was going to slur before she even opened her mouth. Her first words to me were, "Are you a sweet and caring person?" I knew right away what she wanted so in a pleasant voice I said, "No, not really. Can I help you?" She smiled, still unable to stand on her own. She explained that she was in her bathroom taking her pills and by mistake she dumped them down the toilet. She was standing over the toilet while she was pouring and all her Oxy's fell in.

About that time security mentioned that they had to rescue her from her car. She drove over the 4' block wall surrounding the parking lot, matter of fact, the front two tires were on one side of the 4' wall and the other two were on the other side. She was so messed up from drugs we ended up treating her as an OD vs. someone needing another Rx.

To top it off, her profession was a drug/alcohol rehab counselor.

A nurse friend of mine tells me she went to a SNF to start a PICC line and this guy was one huge abscess. His arms were lumpy and full of scars from needles, current, and previous infections. He claimed he doesn't do drugs, someone put drugs in his beer and when he passed out they stuck him repeatedly for days giving him more drugs ... thus, the multiple abscess wounds.

[babynurselsa, RN]

Had a dude call back to the ER on night. He explained that he had been a pt earlier in the day and that he had accidently washed his Lortab prescription. I told him to bring it in and show me and we would see what we would do for him.

He shows up a little later wtih a lortab prescription bottle empty of course label intact with a couple of drops of water inside, no residue.

All along I thought he was gonna bring me a washed out piece of paper. :chuckle :rotfl: :rotfl:

[medsurgnurse, RN]

I had one guy call back about two hours after discharge with a story. It seems he was arrested shortly after getting hisprescription filled and the police had confiscated his Lortab. Could we write another prescription? He said he was still at the police station but would be relased shortly. He was unrelenting. The DOCTOR got on the phone and said 'we have called ID and you are not calling from the police station. I don't believe you and no, you're not getting another prescription.' The backstory being this guy was new in town a few visits in the month. And ALWAYS some cock and bull story to tell about about why he's hurting.

[LeahJet, ASN, RN]

Several years ago when I was working in a small town ER, there was this guy that was the county drunk and made his bi-weekly visits to the ER. He knew that if he flopped around in the waiting room, he would have to come back immediately. So anyway, he would come in with his "seizures" and his IV Valium. (he knew what doc's vehicle was parked outside the ER and presented accordingly) One day, he was putting on his little show, and I said "Turtle, if you don't stop shaking your arm, I can't give you your Valium." So he held his left arm out stiff and continued shaking his right arm up and down over his stomach. I said, "hey, look, he's playing air guitar!" and everyone laughed. It's amazing what anger will do to stop a seizure. :)

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I'm an ER case manager and one of my jobs is to follow up with these type of people. Believe me, after almost 9 years in this ER, the "usuals" know me. I deal with them by developing a plan of care that includes only their PCP providing them with pain med scripts. We do occasionally provide narcs in the ER but we use short-acting ones or more probably, we use Toradol. This has cut our number of habitual patients by 61%.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

Addiction is no laughing matter.

I don't have good vibes about this thread. For every drug seeker we laugh at there's a chronic pain patient being labeled and not being treated.

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

After Admin/Mod discussion, post is closed. Reflection on Tweety's statement and pain forum responses, undertreatment of pain is a HUGE issue and not to be joked about.