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Nurses Recovery

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Specializes in ER.

i am not new here but have been a lurker..sorry. but i am reading almost daily and i love how helpful and inviting everyone seems to be and i realized i can benefit from actually posting and maybe i can help someone too :D

i would tell my story but it would be too long so i will just say that i have been suspended from work and am under the hprp contract for 3 years. i just completed month one so i have a long road ahead of me. i will return to work but not in the er and i dont want to go back there anyways, eventhough i loved it. i was suspended for diverting morphine and dilaudid. i started back in oct of last year, only used at home then escalated to using at work and more and more needed. i was totatlly functional. i lied to my hubby about the marks on my arms. i was good at keeping my secret. anyways, now i am in recovery, just over 90 days and doing what i need to do to be healthy. i have told my pmd of course but my question is if i need to tell my dentist. i have been going to the same guy for all my life and never had to have any work done where a pain rx is involved. i thought i might just not say anything and if the day comes, i will tell him. he will ask about my work cuz he knows i am a nurse but i would just tell him i am switching areas due to stress or whatever but do i really need to tell him i am now in recovery?

i am greatful for a community such at this :heartbeat

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Specializes in ER, LTC, MDS, Hospice.

If it was me, I wouldn't tell him. If it comes to a point where he wants to describe a narcotic, then I would tell him not to give a narc. If he asks why, I would tell him because I don't like what it does to me (which would be the truth). Sure this is an honest program, but that doesn't mean you need to air your dirty laundry to everyone. This is your decision, but that is what I would do. Good Luck!

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Sassy I agree with wubbzy, Im not going to every one of my docs and telling them unless it absolutely had to be discussed. I been abusing percocet-vicodin for about a year. I also discovered the great med after surgery. I used at work, lied to hubby. About the same story as everyone. I dont think I lost my job. They said to report to them when rehab done and released back. Who knows though. If I do go back I know I will feel humiliated. I finally told one co-worker the other day. Only my husband, HR and boss knows. I felt I had to tell her. She interned me and took me under her wing. She was really worried and kept calling me. I finally told her. I dont know if I can transfer before comming back but really considering. I made friends with alot of people over the years and they would never look at me the same. With the wonderful narc restriction everyone knows. I agree with everything the board sticks you with but that narc restriction. That label never goes away, not in 100 years. I think you have to be careful who knows.

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Specializes in Med Surg, Nursing Administration for SNF.

sorry guys, but gotta disagree on this one. BECAUSE . . . . this is such an INSIDIOUS disease, it is so easy to get caught off guard. Many people I know wd describe not telling the doc "setting yourself up" Example, when I was out there looking for any narc I cd find, I NEVER wd get any rx's offered. Since I have been sober, I must have been offered narcs from my dentist at least a dozen times! Percocet, Vicodin, you name it. And get this, when I say "no", they try to talk me into it "just in case"! Its positively comical. I even took the rx once, but when I got home, called my sponsor and promptly tore it up. This disease is TOO patient. Its just not worth the risk, for me anyways. I wd also run it past your sponsor. But good luck to you and glad youre no longer a lurker! :)

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Specializes in Rehab, Infection, LTC.
sorry guys, but gotta disagree on this one. BECAUSE . . . . this is such an INSIDIOUS disease, it is so easy to get caught off guard. Many people I know wd describe not telling the doc "setting yourself up" Example, when I was out there looking for any narc I cd find, I NEVER wd get any rx's offered. Since I have been sober, I must have been offered narcs from my dentist at least a dozen times! Percocet, Vicodin, you name it. And get this, when I say "no", they try to talk me into it "just in case"! Its positively comical. I even took the rx once, but when I got home, called my sponsor and promptly tore it up. This disease is TOO patient. Its just not worth the risk, for me anyways. I wd also run it past your sponsor. But good luck to you and glad youre no longer a lurker! :)

woohoo i agree! I have told anyone and everyone that has anything to do with my medical care. i can see me now, sometime in the future, begging for narcs if i didnt tell them. i have to tell everyone to keep me honest.

in fact, everyone in my life, including my work peers, know about my addiction. i still work in the same place i did when i got my intervention. i worked there during rehab and after. when i was in rehab i talked to each nurse seperately because i felt i owed them that. i'm their supervisor. but i wanted all of them to know so that if i ever relapsed and started using and diverting that i would be stopped quickly. It would probably be the end of my career but i am not letting myself get there again if i can help it.

i said all that to say this. i'm longwinded,sorry. IMO, i think we should tell every single health care provider.

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