*Weird* Patient Allergies

[cherrybreeze]

What are some of the weird allergies/reactions that patients have told you they have? I can't remember so many that made me go "hmmmmm.." but not long ago, I came across these two (on the same person!):

Caffeine: causes tachycardia (really?)

Cocaine: anaphylaxis (perhaps you took too much??)

[LaceyRN]

My ICU pt told me me was allergic to cocaine and heroin! I told him it was no problem -as I wasn't planning on giving him any! :chuckle

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

i have an "allergy" (dont know if it is a true allergy or not I get a severe rash) to morphine, dilaudid, and [here is the wierd one] a filler/the casing of a certian medications capsule form, I can take the tablet form fine.

[ghillbert, MSN, NP]

Definitely a true allergy if you get a rash.

[lpnstudentin2010, LPN]

Definitely a true allergy if you get a rash.

thanks i have never actually known if it is a true allergy or an adverse reaction

[smartin13]

I think my grandmother takes the cake. She literally can only eat 7 things, potatoes, apples, bananas, some kind of beef (I'm not sure which kind), peas, green beans, and water that has been distilled, boiled and the condensed steam collected to drink. It's crazy, I know it sounds crazy. She use to be able to eat anything and as time went on it dwindled down to this. If she eats/smells/or even touches some things she will break out into hives and go into anaphalactic shock. I remember when I was little she could drink milk, and I was there the day her body decided it didn't like it anymore. Besides all the foods she has a ton of environmental allergies as one could expect. She broke her hip this last summer and the only pain med she could take post op was a baby asprin. Some how she is always in a good mood and happy to be alive though!!

[abundantjoy07, RN]

The color orange.

At first we were thinking anything orange, orange flowers, orange shirts, orange markers...

Finally, we figured it out after really investigating, the patient was allergic to "orange dye."

Whatever...:icon_roll

[pyrazen]

I had a patient the other day allergic to marijuana.

Reaction: coughing

[C_K_GrodeckLPN]

i had a patient the other day allergic to marijuana.

reaction: coughing

i am actually allergic to said substance, aka marijuana. if someone has the scent on their body/clothing, i go into an asthma attack. if a person is within a half block & is actually smoking :smokin:the substance, i can go into a seizure!!!

[psalm, RN]

Brocolli, Spinach. This was from a patient who was on tube feeds.

And people when was the last time you saw a cat on the unit?

Some people are so allergic to cats that just being around someone who has cat hair on clothing can get them wheezing. I had a rummage sale with a friend who has 20 cats (some are foster cats, she is an animal rescue person). It was in MY garage; she brought over books and clothing to sell. My next-door neighbor had to leave my rummage because of the "cat smell". His wife asked me about it...coz we have just one kitty. He told her the garage smelled like cats! And this from a man who has been in our garage before.

So yeah, sometimes it doesn't take much...

[nrsang97, BSN, RN]

i am actually allergic to said substance, aka marijuana. if someone has the scent on their body/clothing, i go into an asthma attack. if a person is within a half block & is actually smoking :smokin:the substance, i can go into a seizure!!!

wow that is insane that it can cause a seizure with in a half a block. i can't stand the smell of that stuff anyway.

i am allergic to so many perfumes. i worked one night and had to walk away from one of the day nurses to the other side of the unit to be away from her perfume. i coughed so hard i almost puked. i literally couldn't breathe. i think the reaction was higher since i had bronchitis. but still if it did that to me what could that do to a pt who was allergic or had asthma?

i think i am allergic to alcohol. i broke out after drinking a hurricaine in vegas, i also am allergic to the orange smirnoff dirnk. it made my lip swell and itch.

now wierd allergy for a pt i actually had was mountain dew , but i can't remember what the reaction was. i have had people allergic to many different foods, like poultry. i was curious at the reaction and they broke out in hives.

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

I'm allergic to chocolate... it makes my rear end swell.

Seriously though... I'm allergic to raspberries, but not any other berry. I didn't become allergic until I was an adult and I used to eat them off the wild bushes in my back yard as a kid. Go figure.

My daughter is allergic to raspberries. She has never had a reaction to any other berry. I was beginning to question myself but I've never wanted to expose her to them again because poor thing, she was miserable with hives...and I was miserable too because we were about to go out of town when it happened and had to cancel our trip. Makes me feel a little better about it since someone else has had the same problem.

I'm allergic to PCN (anaphylaxis), sulfa and Flagyl (hives), and latex. Seems like my local reaction to latex gets worse the older I get. Once upon a time I could handle latex gloves for a few minutes to do a sterile dressing but had to go latex free for patient care. Now I can't even have them on my hands but a minute and my hands are itching severely and red for hours afterward. It's not the powder because the reaction is the same with or without powder. I list it as an allergy even though I'm not sure it would make a difference if I had a latex foley or the surgeon used latex gloves while operating on me.

I think mold is a migraine trigger for me, so I try to avoid damp areas. My sister-in-law had some mold growing in her closet. I looked at it, thinking I'd be able to describe it to my husband and my friend who does drywall so they could fix it, and I had a migraine within an hour. I felt like an idiot, but it seems pretty obvious now. Would that be an allergy?

My son had an allergic reaction to the blue frosting on his cake at his first birthday. Everywhere the blue frosting touched he had whelps. Thank goodness he doesn't smear cake allover himself anymore, lol! He looked awful in his pictures at his party!

[whipping girl in 07, RN]

Back before I was a nurse, when I had my first baby, they gave me pain meds during the labor. First stadol, then nubain (or maybe it was the other way around) and neither worked. at. all. I actually asked the nurse if she gave me something. I was miserable. Pain was 25/10. Thought I was dying.

(I had taken stadol once in the ER for a migraine. I was asleep for nearly 24 hours. I fell asleep in the McDonald's drive thru after I'd taken two bites of an ice cream cone...not my finest moment lol).

So they gave me morphine when the stadol and nubain didn't work. And I had maybe 30 minutes of no pain. I was dry-heaving the whole time, but it was pleasant compared to the pain. When it started hurting again, I asked for more. The nurse told me, "No, you've been dry-heaving since I gave it to you. You're allergic to it." So for the next several years, I listed morphine as an allergy, till I studied pharm in nursing school and found that was a SIDE EFFECT! But it was easy to shut me up with "you're allergic." I didn't question the nurse at the time 'cause I didn't know any better.

Since then when I have surgery I tell the anesthetist I have nausea problems with morphine. With my last c-section I dry-heaved the whole time after I threw up my Bicitra. No morphine, they gave me fentanyl maybe? And I had a Demerol PCA, which made me dizzy the whole time I had it. Finally at about 1 AM I asked the nurse to take it off and just give me percocet for pain. "But you're nauseated and dizzy." "I know, just trust me on this one." She did and I was fine the next morning. I've decided IV pain meds just don't do it for me! Can't handle the side effects! I don't list 'em as allergies, although I'm tempted to. Constant nausea that doesn't respond to zofran is miserable too!