Have You Had A Strange Reaction To A Drug Administered In The Hospital

[FranEMTnurse, CNA, LPN, EMT-I]

I will start. In 2002, I crashed in the ER. My vital signs were bottoming out. I had CHF with septicemia and pneumonia. I was rushed into the trauma room, intubated, and a central line was placed in my jugular vein. Since I'm unable to be treated with Solu-Medrol, I was given Decadron. Little did I know the embarassing stories that I was to hear when I began to recover.

My daughter: Whatever they are treating you with here, it sure is giving you some strange messages to tell. You left a message telling me to keep my tootsies on the couch because there is a green monster here and is ready to grab them. Then you asked how you knew, and then you answered; "Because my legs are sticking out!"

SIL the next morning: Laurel, I think they are giving her legalized marijhuana at that hospital. She just sang Polly Wolly Doodle to me and then hung up.

My friend whom I phoned said I called her and kept repeating, "Deep, deep, deep!"

Then I would call people on the phone and not talk on it, but didn't hang it up either.

I also told my old doc off which I didn't mind doing at all on the day I was discharged. He asked me what I wanted to go home on.

[Ivanna_Nurse, BSN, RN]

I was in preterm labor with baby number two.I got a dose of ambien in the hospital the evening before my c sec.

I apparently missed the ambien boat, and rather than sleeping, I opted for stripping naked, vomiting everywhere, removing all the monitoring equipment and taking a stroll to look for a mop. oye. ~Ivanna:imbar

[iteachob, MSN, RN]

I was in preterm labor with baby number two.I got a dose of ambien in the hospital the evening before my c sec.

I apparently missed the ambien boat, and rather than sleeping, I opted for stripping naked, vomiting everywhere, removing all the monitoring equipment and taking a stroll to look for a mop. oye. ~Ivanna:imbar

Sounds like quite an evening! People have been known to do strange things on Ambien, though....especially if they've never had it before. Things like making and eating food, trying to drive, and having sex even! They usually have no recall of it after the fact.

[learninmama]

The only odd thing I've had happen was when I went to get all my immunizations a few months ago. I always hang out in the lobby for about 30 minutes & read a book to make sure everything takes ok before getting in my car as I have been known to have some rather odd reactions to various medications. After 30 minutes I was stumbling around like I was drunk. I had the spins so bad. I ended up calling my husband to come get me & wasn't able to quit spinning for almost 48 hours after that. Oddest experience I have ever had. Needless to say I got a medical excuse to skip my next batch of immunizations.

Of course a week later I got a copy of my immunizations that I had been requesting for over 8 months prior lol. Go figure!

[itsmejuli]

After my hysterectomy I was on morphine PCA for a day or so. When they took me off it they gave me some kind of narcotic pain reliever.

I was woozy and totally out of it, in a dream like state...it was horrible. My mom and son came in to visit and I was barely coherent and really had no clue what was going on.

I told the nurse not to give me anymore of whatever that was and asked for non-narcotic and non-codeine pain reliever when doc came to discharge me.

He gave me naproxen...I'd rather have pain than that horrible out of it feeling.

[proudnurseRN]

Not really a strange reaction, but I have every side effect that comes with morphine. Unable to urinate, itching, respiratory depression...to name a few. During my gallbladder episode I was a mess because of the morphine. Everytime I woke up to the annoying alarm of the pulse ox I seen my nurse peering over me. I kept hoping to squint open an eye and pretend to go back to sleep, but it was a no go. She got me Benadryl, straight cathed me, and got my pain meds switched, all at 2am. Bless her heart, because my response to it was "Just turn the thing off!" (in regards to the pulse ox), give me some lotion, and that my bladder wouldn't bust. I was also quite irritable.... :imbar

[PostOpPrincess, BSN, RN]

When I was giving birth to my first baby, I was given Stadol.

Wondered why my husband cloned a twin and why there were furry bunnies all over the room.....

[NewNurseyGirl2009]

I had Reglan one day for a migrane in the ER. I never get migranes but they gave me a choice of ativan/reglan and something else cocktail or dilaudid. I didn't want to appear a drugy so I opted for the cocktail. (I had just been in the ER days before and got dilaudid for kidney stones) I freaked. I wanted to rip out my IV and run. The reglan made me anxious and I made an ass out of myself in the hospital where I work. They tried to give me more ativan but I was freaking out too much to take it. So yes and it was horrible

[imenid37]

I gave apatient IV Benedryl and she had a HR of almost 200 and became "wild." She was an RN, of course, and screamed that I had drugged her with the wrong med. I showed her the vial because I had really just given her the Benedryl. Worst of all, I saw her a year later when I was working prn at another hospital. I said hi, but switched assignmenets.

[Ruby Vee, BSN]

dh was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis -- result of a faceful of c.diff stool when he was cleaning up a patient, but that's another story for a different thread. the doctors put him on prednisone 60 mg. every 6 hours. dh is chatty most of the time, but on prednisone you could not shut him up. when his doctor came to see him the next morning, dh literally backed him out of the hospital room and down the hall, chatting away a mile a minute about some totally inappropriate and off the wall topics. he was carrying his iv pole, alaris pump and all, horizontally across his body and literally prancing after the doctor. the doctor responded by writing a script for ativan to "slow him down a bit." which worked, after a fashion.

fast forward to when we got home. i woke up in the middle of the night to find dh, who had faithfully taken his ativan, urinating into the laundry basket! woke him up, brought him back to bed, stayed up the rest of the night washing clothes, and then took him to his doctor's appointment in the afternoon. dh insisted upon driving because he was nervous about the appointment. silly me -- i let him. in the middle of downtown seattle traffic, dh is making big, swooping turns back and forth across multiple lanes of traffic, snarling it for miles as everyone strove to keep away from the crazy person. i remember the screaming fight we had in the parking garage as he insisted upon going the wrong way up the ramp, then backing back down, turning around, and backing up the down ramp because "at least he was pointed in the right direction." it wasn't until a week later he admitted that he'd taken another ativan about half an hour before getting behind the wheel. that was after his second follow up appointment when he told the doctor he was "a damned liar because i know i've never been to your office before!"

[Lacie, BSN, RN]

IVP dye!! Told the nurse in the radiology dept I didnt feel quite so well. Her response was it will subside in just a moment and walked away. Needless to say I got the major "hotflash" of my life, vomited a huge amount of bile only, then out I went. Woke up intubated, on the vent, ng tube, f/c the works.

Second instance was with knee surgery in which recieved Morphine post op - my arm was itching slightly but they went ahead and gave me a second dose. Well you can get the story from there on lol, I'm allergic to morphine!