SCARY drug exp post C-Sec - DROPERIDOL

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Nov 5, 2004

We used to give Inapsine (droperidol) for nausea and vomiting that didn't respond to the usual medications........most patients didn't like it, it was VERY sedating, and I've seen people have some dramatic reactions to it. However, I didn't know it was EVER given intrathecally, and it sounds to me like you might have come pretty close to coding. How frightening!!

I also didn't know it was off the market, even though I haven't seen it around for a few years........I'm glad somebody realized how dangerous it could be. I think you were very lucky--it would be interesting for you to see the medical record for yourself and find out what really happened.

In the meantime, you'll want to make sure this drug is on your allergy list......you never know if they'll put it back out on the market, and you don't ever want to receive it again.

alphafe · Nov 5, 2004

Thanks so much for your message. This experience was so bad I believe it's the main reason I did not have any more children and experienced panic disorder starting about 6 mos pp. Was I sent to recovery due to the drug experience? Do most C-section moms go directly back to their room? Sorry -- I've only been on the L/D unit to have my baby and visit friends -- and am not yet a nurse, so don't know the protocol.

Why would you think I almost coded? The doc yelling in my face? I've been telling myself that while I *felt* like I was dying I was, most likely just incredibly sedated.

Now I want to SUE. :angryfire

Anyone who would prefer may Email me privately. I need to work through this... :crying2:

alphafe · Nov 5, 2004

I googled Droperidol and it does NOT appear to be off the market, tho has been given the black box. Perhaps the doc I spoke to said "We don't use it anymore..."

Fiona59 · Nov 5, 2004

C sections if under GA go to recovery (it is a surgery). Some can be pretty groggy after being determined OK to go postpartum. Spinals and epis usually return to their rooms within a shorter period.

Then they are monitored like any other surgical patient, q15 for first hour, q30,..etc.

alphafe · Nov 5, 2004

I was not under GA -- had an epidural. Why was I sent to recovery?

I will get those medical records will they ALL be with the OB/GYN's office (every hospital notation, etc.?). Until then, I'd really appreciate your opinion about this experience and if you've ever seen anything like this in the OR.

I *do* remember one nurse saying "Well **here's** a patient who hasn't had much experience with recreational drugs!" like my response was a big joke.

ERNurse752, RN · Nov 5, 2004

Sounds like they gave it to you for sedative effects since you complained of fear.

I haven't heard it was taken off the market, or any other problems with it...we use it in the ER sometimes.

I've never heard of it being given through an epidural.

If your vitals really were fine, then you weren't close to coding. The only way to know that for sure is to get ahold of the medical record.

kmrmom42 · Nov 5, 2004

I was not under GA -- had an epidural. Why was I sent to recovery?
I don't know anything about the medication you are talking about but I can tell you that all of our cesarean patients go to recovery for a period of at least an hour and a half before we bring them to their postpartum room. It is typical in many places whether the anesthesia is regional or general. I can also tell you that I had a similar sensation when I fainted after my VBAC. I felt so good compared to my cesarean that I tried to get up too soon. I have fainted many times but never such a deep faint. I remember the exact sensation you are talking about, like I was fading away...far, far away. I could hear people calling my name but it seemed like they were a million miles away. I struggled hard to come to, and finally I did. I don't know if any of this is any help but I just thought I would share it.

alphafe · Nov 5, 2004

Thank you -- it's very validating. The C-Sec was such a huge disappointment in the first place and I was SO exhausted (had been awake for 36 hours, in labor for 14), and I went into the whole experience so *pressured* to have a vag delivery (I lived in a part of the country where everyone read Mothering Mag, Silent Knife, etc.). I was just so vulnerable and felt like a complete failure being wheeled down that hall - sleep deprived and in love with my baby whom I longed to meet.

To know you had a similar sensation is really validating. I'm NOT someone who enjoys altered states of consciousness at all. I wish I could have gotten through this earlier and had one more baby -- but that's my emotional, peri-menopausal voice there!

:kiss Barbara

zambezi, BSN, RN · Nov 5, 2004

I don't do L&D...I don't think that Inapsine (droperidol) is off the market...I use it quite often for post op nausea/vomiting--and it truly works well...I usually start with half the ordered dose and work up. I am sorry for your experience...

kmrmom42 · Nov 5, 2004

Barbara,

I can really relate to what you are saying. I am a childbirth educator (and L & D nurse) and I had my cesarean after I got to 5 cm. when they realized that my 9lb 14oz dtr was a footling breech. I was very sad at the time...I had the same expectations for a natural birth that you had. I kept asking other people whether they would have considered delivering me lady partslly and I kept getting the unanimous opinion that they would not have.

I went to a childbirth conference years later (and after two successful VBAC's) and I was in a workshop given by Nancy Wainer Cohen (Silent Knife). She handed out bandaids for us to put on the part of us that was "wounded" by our cesarean. She had me sobbing like a baby. I had no idea I had such unresolved feelings about my C/S until they came out that day.

I did have two VBAC's ...both over 10 lbs and posterior...yanked out with forceps! I was so thrilled to have those lady partsl births but now when I look back on it I wonder if I did my sons any favors...one has mild Tourettes and the other SEVERE ADHD (they are all adults now).

The thing is, we can't change the past. All we can do is make our peace with it and find the joy in life as it is now. I hope you can find some peace for yourself.

Karen

Long Term Care Columnist / Guide · Nov 5, 2004

That's why you need to look at your medical records.....find out what your VS were (you may NOT have been close to death, but I've known doctors to sugar-coat things when they really don't want the pt. to know how bad things were for a time), what they did to counteract the reaction you had, and what kind of monitoring was required.

I speak from experience. After my second C-section almost 20 years ago, I developed a uterine infection that I later found out progressed to sepsis, which necessitated IV antibiotics until about 15 minutes before I left the hospital a week later. At the time, I had no idea what was wrong, only that I was running a temp and shivering and felt like I was dying. I didn't know why they were taking VS every 2 hours (I learned later that my BP had been very low)......at one point I remember hearing my doctor talk to another MD about transferring me to ICU, but I guess things weren't quite as bad as all that because it never did happen.

It was only after I went back for my follow-up appointment that my OB told me how sick I'd been. "You had one HELL of an infection," said this devout Catholic doctor who, in six years of going to him, I'd never heard use a swear word. "A generation ago, you'd have been a dead lady." Well, thank God for small favors (!), but I never knew when I was going through it that I was in danger. All I was worried about was my baby, who'd spent 3 days in the NICU because she wasn't breathing right, but who was ready to go home four days before I was!

Sometimes, I guess, ignorance is bliss......I'd be scared spitless if such a thing were to happen to me now, but back then I wasn't even thinking about becoming a nurse, so I knew about as much as the average layperson. It would be interesting to look at the records now that I know why they performed so many tests and drew so much blood, and what the numbers meant.

Seriously.........I hope that you find the answers to your questions, and that you can get some help to work through this. I was terrified of going through another birth experience like that too--I had a feeling that if I went septic again, I wouldn't make it the next time, but I never had another problem with my last 2 kids, even though the final one was a third C-section (for an almost 11# baby). :)