PETH testing

Healer555 · Jan 30

Universe93B said:

My point is that we have people posting on here who have changed their entire lifestyle and diet due to monitoring. That is a ridiculous way of going about it. Just use some common sense. But it's not good to use blanket advice for all these poor people in monitoring who have enough to deal with, and then people say "Don't eat cupcakes, don't eat cake, don't go out to eat, don't use your favorite perfume, don't use your favorite lotion." Give it a break. Those things don't cause false positives and if you look, there are some studies (not a lot) that show this.

Let's take something that could cause a false positive very easily - alcoholic mouthwash that is 40% or more alcohol. That seems like a lot of alcohol that matches that of liquor. There is a study that tests if it can cause a false positive. But if you ready the study, the participants switched alcoholic mouthwash for 15 minutes, for three times in a row and then took a urine etg test shortly after. Now that does not match real-world applications. But it shows you that use alcoholic mouthwash the night before would not result in any positive test.

Stop scaring everyone here with blanket restrictions on food and lifestyle. We have enough to deal with already.

Someone in my monitoring program was forgiven for a positive Alcohol test due to mouthwash. So the powers that be think it's legitimate. Someone else had a false positive and doesn't know why.

I don't want one extra day of this misery. I avoid anything that I think could trigger a false positive. When my sentence is done I'll eat drink and be merry.

NurseJackie69 · Jan 30

Universe93B said:

My point is that we have people posting on here who have changed their entire lifestyle and diet due to monitoring. That is a ridiculous way of going about it. Just use some common sense. But it's not good to use blanket advice for all these poor people in monitoring who have enough to deal with, and then people say "Don't eat cupcakes, don't eat cake, don't go out to eat, don't use your favorite perfume, don't use your favorite lotion." Give it a break. Those things don't cause false positives and if you look, there are some studies (not a lot) that show this.

Let's take something that could cause a false positive very easily - alcoholic mouthwash that is 40% or more alcohol. That seems like a lot of alcohol that matches that of liquor. There is a study that tests if it can cause a false positive. But if you ready the study, the participants switched alcoholic mouthwash for 15 minutes, for three times in a row and then took a urine etg test shortly after. Now that does not match real-world applications. But it shows you that use alcoholic mouthwash the night before would not result in any positive test.

Stop scaring everyone here with blanket restrictions on food and lifestyle. We have enough to deal with already.

I agree with this with one exception. Who are the people "Scaring Everyone." I've literally just told you I eat cakes all of the time, but I do it on Friday's and some Saturdays, but early Saturday. And once again, it's amazing how nurses confuse vanilla extract-rum based with ALL THINGS SWEET. I eat the he** out of sugar and have donuts within an hour sometimes of when I test because Donuts, Candy, M and M's and Sugar and Simple Carbs have ZERO alcohol. Any kind of CAKE icing that is simply not coated with real vanilla rum based extract is also fine. I've said this on here for a while. The only thing SWEET a nurse has to be careful with is Cake Icing that is rum based vanilla extract. That's it. there are 1000 other sweet things that aren't that. I also wrote that me personally, I am careful with the cake icing. I still eat it and that's the ONLY change I've made in this program. I don't eat poppy seed muffins during the week except on occasions and I only eat 1 for the day, except on occasion and when I do, it's in the morning on a day I'm not selected and of course, Friday I load up. I use alcohol based mouthwash daily and have done so for years and have never changed. Why? I rinse with mouthwash for 10 seconds and it's gone. I spit it out and of course, I make sure I'm not tested that day. If I'm selected to test that day, I simply skip the mouthwash and brush my teeth. No real major changes at all in my life.

I agree on the mouthwash and a positive etg WITH COMMON SENSE. Meaning....I use alcohol based mouthwash daily. Except common sense applies. When I get out of bed, I check in before going to the sink. If I'm selected, then common sense tells me....hold off on the mouthwash for the day and equally important, mouthwash only needs to be in your mouth long enough to kill bacteria so on the days I use it, I make sure no more than 10 seconds and that's worked fine for 4.5 years.

You mentioned stop scaring people on "Food and Lifestyle." I'm not sure what those words mean. The only thing I watch carefully is cake icing and I still eat cupcakes and cake, but I'm careful. I eat sweets daily. Love them. That's it. I still eat poppy seed muffins. I love them, but I eat one and only one. Is that a "dramatic" Food change? I don't think so. As for "Lifestyle," I'm not sure what you are talking about. Other than not being able to drink alcohol and smoke weed and obviously not do drugs, what else is there related to "lifestyle" that you are talking about?

NurseJackie69 · Jan 30

I agree with the one poster on mouthwash and common sense. Common sense on mouthwash. What kind of fool and lets put it honestly and nicely, what kind of fool would wake up, go use a bunch of mouthwash, and then check in immediately after, and head off to the testing center to pee? If a human is that stupid, we really need to question if they need to be at the bedside taking care of other humans. Yes, I would an do have empathy for this person, but for the love of God, this person has to be borderline (something is wrong with them) in order to actually Do That.

I wrote this above. I use alcohol based mouthwash daily and have done so for 4.5 years in the program. I also use Common Sense daily. When I wake up, I immediately check in. If selected, I brush my teeth and skip and the mouthwash for the day. I eat sweets and cakes all of the time, DAILY. I even eat cupcakes every 2 or 3 days when they are around. Why and How? Read the ingredients. On the back, it will tell you if the icing contains rum-alcohol based vanilla extract or vanilla flavoring (no alcohol). Most cakes and cupcakes you get a grocery stores do NOT contain rum based vanilla based extract because those are high end cupcakes and more expensive. I eat a lot at nice restaurants and many of those icing's on their cake deserts DO contain rum based vanilla extract and when I eat these, I do it on a Friday. Other than the above, I've made no major changes in my life in 4.5 years other than obviously, no alcohol or weed, etc.

Universe93B · Jan 31

NurseJackie69 said:

I agree with this with one exception. Who are the people "Scaring Everyone." I've literally just told you I eat cakes all of the time, but I do it on Friday's and some Saturdays, but early Saturday. And once again, it's amazing how nurses confuse vanilla extract-rum based with ALL THINGS SWEET. I eat the he** out of sugar and have donuts within an hour sometimes of when I test because Donuts, Candy, M and M's and Sugar and Simple Carbs have ZERO alcohol. Any kind of CAKE icing that is simply not coated with real vanilla rum based extract is also fine. I've said this on here for a while. The only thing SWEET a nurse has to be careful with is Cake Icing that is rum based vanilla extract. That's it. there are 1000 other sweet things that aren't that. I also wrote that me personally, I am careful with the cake icing. I still eat it and that's the ONLY change I've made in this program. I don't eat poppy seed muffins during the week except on occasions and I only eat 1 for the day, except on occasion and when I do, it's in the morning on a day I'm not selected and of course, Friday I load up. I use alcohol based mouthwash daily and have done so for years and have never changed. Why? I rinse with mouthwash for 10 seconds and it's gone. I spit it out and of course, I make sure I'm not tested that day. If I'm selected to test that day, I simply skip the mouthwash and brush my teeth. No real major changes at all in my life.

I agree on the mouthwash and a positive etg WITH COMMON SENSE. Meaning....I use alcohol based mouthwash daily. Except common sense applies. When I get out of bed, I check in before going to the sink. If I'm selected, then common sense tells me....hold off on the mouthwash for the day and equally important, mouthwash only needs to be in your mouth long enough to kill bacteria so on the days I use it, I make sure no more than 10 seconds and that's worked fine for 4.5 years.

You mentioned stop scaring people on "Food and Lifestyle." I'm not sure what those words mean. The only thing I watch carefully is cake icing and I still eat cupcakes and cake, but I'm careful. I eat sweets daily. Love them. That's it. I still eat poppy seed muffins. I love them, but I eat one and only one. Is that a "dramatic" Food change? I don't think so. As for "Lifestyle," I'm not sure what you are talking about. Other than not being able to drink alcohol and smoke weed and obviously not do drugs, what else is there related to "lifestyle" that you are talking about?

Right, I think we are trying to say the same thing, but might differ on the small things.

As for the "scaring people," I see posts on here weekly about poor people just beginning monitoring and how their entire life for the next 1-5 years is run by an app and checking in and somehow going to the lab center in the middle of work (or passing tests so they can actually work and make an income) and ask on here about foods and other lifestyle changes. There are so many replies telling them to change their entire lifestyle, don't eat this and don't eat that and don't go out to eat, etc etc. Everyone still has to somehow enjoy themselves, learn how to relax and find a purpose during this difficult monitoring time. I see it all the time on this board.

Healer555 said:

Someone in my monitoring program was forgiven for a positive Alcohol test due to mouthwash. So the powers that be think it's legitimate. Someone else had a false positive and doesn't know why.

I don't want one extra day of this misery. I avoid anything that I think could trigger a false positive. When my sentence is done I'll eat drink and be merry.

You're lucky in your state/monitoring agency if they actually listen to you for that. Most states (including mine) will NOT take mouthwash as a false positive. I spoke with my CM and he says the main physician head of the monitoring agency knows mouthwash won't cause a false positive.

Those things are just put in the monitoring contact so that people won't use them as an excuse. Even 0.0% alcohol beer is in the monitoring contract. We all know I can drink a 0.0% beer right before a urine etg and I'll be negative. but they still list all of that so you can't use it as an excuse.

NurseJackie69 · Jan 31

I agree

discobiscut · May 6

Hi, I was just wondering how long you were in the program before you were PEth tested?

Healer555 · May 6

discobiscut said:

Hi, I was just wondering how long you were in the program before you were PEth tested?

We never know what were tested for. I assume it's possible fir every blood test

Heatherlynn76 · May 7

I had my first PETH test after 64 days! It was negative as have all my urine tests have been. I had another PETH 2 weeks ago with negative results. In my monitoring I am told when it's going to be PETH in my check in status. I no longer drink alcohol and try and avoid any foods containing alcohol to the best of my knowledge. If I'm unsure, I just won't eat it. I also use alcohol free mouthwash and hand sanitizer. I wear gloves with everything at work and even using cleaning products in my house. It can be nerve racking to say the least. I also have a prescription for everything I take down to my Allegra and naproxen just to cover all bases. I hope this helps!

discobiscut · May 7

Thank you for responding! I was just wondering if it's common to PeTH test at the first test for the program. I've been abstaining (since I learned I would be in the program) my involvement isn't from anything that happened while I was a nurse, I'm just really being dragged through some hoops. But I'm worried it hasn't been long enough to be negative and I don't want to be screwed before I even start.

Abgirl · May 7

discobiscut said:

Hi, I was just wondering how long you were in the program before you were PEth tested?

Never know when but mine was 3 mos after. For reference. You got this.

NurseJackie69 · May 7

Do NOT start drinking, but keep in mind most recovery programs know that many nurses coming into the program will not have clean urine or blood or hair or nails. They aren't robots. They know this. They know the new nurses, a decent size portion of them, have used in the last 2 weeks or 2 months, etc. prior to coming into the program. Again, do not do drugs or drink when you read this, but understand they aren't going to kick you out of the program if you have been in the program for 2 weeks and you have a positive Pleth or Hair test. They will not start the 3 year or 5 year monitoring clock (when your time ends) until you pass the first test.

I've seen programs do a baseline hair test and Pleth within the first week. It truly varies with each program, each individual, and each case manager. What you do NOT want to do and something that could get you in big trouble? You pass your first Pleth 2 or 3 weeks or 1 month in the program, then you fail the next one at 2 or 3 months. Don't do that, but rest assured as you are just entering the program, you are given some grace in the first month.

discobiscut · May 8

Thank you all, no worries, I'm definitely not risking anything! I'm starting the program for something involving only alcohol that was not recent. I am just worried about the first month of testing in case I won't be completely negative for Peth. I will be negative for everything else though!