Drug Seeker Stories

Well I had one of those lovely drug seekers the other night. Patient said she had a kidney and was peeing prue blood. Well, I had her get a CC urine. When I went back to get her urine, I noticed her finger was bleeding and some blood spots on the sheet. And her urine was a weird pink color. So I told the doc and he had me cath her....her urine was completely clear. Of course, she tried to make up a story about how sometimes she pees blood but sometimes pees clear too. Whatever...sent her out the door...

Also had someone come in 3 times in one week who used a new name everytime. Turns out he was going to ER after ER in my city using differents names for drugs...sent him out the door and to jail.

[cardiacfreak, ADN]

I recently had a patient come in faking of all things a stroke, MRI and CT of head are both negative. I get her up to the floor, and start admitting her, she has right arm and left leg weakness, I continue with my assessment and when I attempt the bedside swallow test (TORBSST) she fails because she has let the water dribble out of the side of her mouth. After getting her history and finishing my assessment she asks for something to eat. "I'm sorry", I say, "You failed your swallowing evaluation so you can not have anything to eat or drink until morning when speech therapy gets here to re-assess you."

About an hour later she calls me to the room stating she needs to go to the bathroom, I say to her, "I will get you the bedpan because it is doctors order that you remain on bed rest for the first 24 hours." Then she decides she is having excruciating pain in her right arm and is demanding something for pain. "The doctor has ordered for you Tylenol suppository, pain medications can mask neurological symptoms." Of course she doesn't want the Tylenol. After that she is nauseated, "Can I at least get some frenegan?" I happily agree saying, "Sure I have that as suppository also."

Her symptoms resolved quite quickly and she went AMA. :)

[NO50FRANNY]

We have a young guy who will let his calcium levels drop so low that he gets obvious carpal / generalised tetany. We suspect he just doesn't take his medication then comes in when he's in trouble. He has a port and will generally refuse a cannula. He has been visiting a little too often, and the concern is that he will die by misadventure if this continues. One of my most senior physicians was working in resus the other night when I triaged him and interestingly has not met him before. This is how she handled the situation.

PT-"I'm not having an IV put in, I have a port."

DOC-"I'm not waiting for someone to access that, I'm putting one in now sweetheart because I don't want your heart to stop, please give me your arm".

PT- "I'm in so much pain, can you please give me some fentanyl? I don't want to wait for the blood tests it could take forever"

DOC- "I'm going to run a blood gas, which takes 90 seconds, then give you some calcium, your pain should ease almost instantly, I will not be giving you fentanyl".

She later went in, called him on his behaviour, and offered him some help. She showed the utmost compassion, and explained that her biggest concern was that one day he would die trying / that we wouldn't be able to correct it in time before he arrested. Haven't seen him since.

[EDNurse74]

Had a guy come in several times ℅ pain and saying that he has taken so much Tylenol and it is not relieving his pain. So when we check his acetaminophen level they are thru the roof. Doc wants to give him Mucoyst to save the ole liver. The patient refuses the mucomyst until he gets a 2mg dose of Dilaudid for his pain. I mean its like the guy is holding his liver hostage for pain meds. Saw him a month later and same deal, with how much a tool he was with yelling and cussing us out I say let the Tylenol work and put him on a liver transplant list so he finally has some legit problems...i know its mean but he was exhausting

[1fastRN]

Do you guys have any drug seeking "couples"? We have a few that frequently come in. One instance is a female "fake" sickle-cell patient and her husband who comes in with untraceable abdominal pain often. They always come in together and they are exhausting. The wife will be crying and the husband will come up to the nurses station asking for her to be medicated frequently. Usually only one of them is a patient at a time, but sometimes they will both come in as patients and leave their bed to go visit the other.

Oh yeah, and the husband has a nasty habit of inserting objects in his rectum until it bleeds. Very interesting couple indeed...

[JustaGypsy]

How do vicodin addicts poop? They SELL the meds!

[DayDreamin ER CRNP]

"I had a car wreck and my prescriptions that y'all wrote me 2 days ago for Norco were in the car and now they are gone."

Oh really? Because we have a print out of your most recently filled meds that print out once you are registered and it shows you had 15 Norco filled yesterday. Your chart from 2 days ago show that you had, oh lookie here: FIFTEEN written! What a coincidence?

::eyeroll::

[Guest838984]

I have a good one

This guy comes in with abscesses all over his arms and one foot because he used a dirty needle and says "I'm the worlds worst drug user" which I couldn't help but laugh when he said that "So I have to put an IV in this man somehow and get a 24 in the one other foot he didn't try and stick himself in. and of course he needs Vanc so that 24 wasn't gonna last him so the doc put a central line in him. I get report from the day nurse the next shift and she told me that he walks out AMA with his central line in LOL we both couldn't help but laugh about how ridiculous that was and how meditated this whole thing probably was so he could get venous access somewhere. lol lord people crack me up.

[jamielynn5]

Kid we call "pebbles" brings his kidney stones into the ED in a bag. This all did start with real kidney stonse. He now pricks his finger to put blood in his urine sample. Always c/o nausea flank pain secondary to kidney stones, in every night around midnight demanding phenergan and dilaudid. after we cut him off from iv dilaudid, he started pocketing his oral dilaudid. Goes to bathroom every 15-30 minutes. Walked into his room and his iv extension had pink liquid in it. Pt said it was plasma. disconnected iv extension, tested positive for opiods! kid crushed his oral med and pushed it though his IV himself!

He has also bragged about selling kidney stones on ebay to other drug seekers so they can "prove" they have stones and can get drugs!

[buckeyeRNED]

I love when I'm in triage and see people through the window walk up perfectly fine... but as soon as they get inside they're limping and need a wheelchair.

Same goes for when I have an assignment and someone is in too much pain to even undress themselves to get a gown on... but as soon as you tell them the doctor ordered them toradol d/t the fact they've been here 6 times this month for the same symptoms, they walk out AMA completely stable.

[Momma1RN, MSN, RN, APRN]

We consciously sedate the same woman constantly to reduce the hip she has dislocated purposefully over 20 times. She starts asking for IV Dilaudid and then asks when we are going to give her the "white stuff to put me out" (propofol) and fentanyl and pop my hop back in?". Can't make this stuff up.

[anh06005, MSN, APRN, NP]

I'm primary care but still wanted to chime in...

Had a patient come in complaining of a horrible incident (won't get into specifics) and anxiety since it occurred. Checked on the drug monitoring site and had 7 pages of oxy, hydro, Ativan, Xanax, etc. - the most recent being 60 Ativan 8 days before this visit. Told patient about this issue and I could not do any benzos. Patient said it must be their sibling who has their information getting those meds.

After more digging found ER records of same complaint that reportedly occurred when patient was in drug rehab.

Also called pharmacy to see if patient picked up SSRI I did prescribe and, you guess it, it's still at pharmacy.

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

Do we work in the same place?