I think during my ED rotations, I talked about patients coming in with chest pain from doing cocaine. Cocaine aside from making your heart race also closes down the coronary vasculature. So, it's like asking your heart to run a marathon and then cutting off the blood supply that keeps it going. Bad, bad, bad.
Keep doing cocaine over many years and you can imagine how much damage you can do. Now, just to add some fun to the mix have a family history (bad genes) of heart attacks, become a diabetic, have high blood pressure... oh, yeah, and don't take any of your medication because you "don't have any available cash." And, since you don't have any cash, wait about 6 hours for one of your "friends" from the half-way house to give you a ride to the hospital. Why use an ambulance? Your friend can get you there just as fast.
Keep doing cocaine over many years and you can imagine how much damage you can do. Now, just to add some fun to the mix have a family history (bad genes) of heart attacks, become a diabetic, have high blood pressure... oh, yeah, and don't take any of your medication because you "don't have any available cash." And, since you don't have any cash, wait about 6 hours for one of your "friends" from the half-way house to give you a ride to the hospital. Why use an ambulance? Your friend can get you there just as fast.
Of course, when I come to see you in the E.D. to admit you, you've sworn up and down you don't use drugs. Or drink alcohol. Or smoke more than a cigarette or two a day. I think I might believe you more if you wore long sleeves and didn't let me see the fresh track marks on your arm. But, that's just me. I always want to believe my patients... but, then I think of "WWHD?" (what would House do?) and I remember the mantra "everybody lies."
So, until your urine and blood tox comes back negative, I will have to withhold one of the drugs proven by research to be the best for people having heart attacks because since you do cocaine, the interaction between the two just might kill you. Not that the major coronary you're givingyourself isn't going to do that for you. Of course, given the choice between spending my money on street drugs versus pharmaceutical drugs, I might also choose the funner one.
That was my one admission for the night... the countdown continues...
CCU Countdown:Days left until the end of the rotation: 20Actual number of days I will be working during that time: 17Days left until painful attending returns: 13
Number of days until my next 24 hours off: 2
Number of short call shifts remaining: 2
Number of long call shifts remaining: 2
Number of patients: 2 - 2 in the unit, my floor patient went home
Number of evil Internal Medicine residents: 2
Number of evil CCU nurses*: 3 - Rude Ruby (who acts as though interns are small slugs she has to avoid at all costs, and she also never shares the vitals' book because she might need it 20 minutes from now after she's given report about one of her other patients in the unit), Weird Wendy (who turned off the radio because all the "thumping" was making her head pound, and who spazzes out about the littlest things), and Miss Biche (who complains all day long about everything, especially how interns have no training in doing simple things like writing orders, and who doesn't bother to learn anyone's name since it doesn't really matter to her anyway)
Number of days until my next 24 hours off: 2
Number of short call shifts remaining: 2
Number of long call shifts remaining: 2
Number of patients: 2 - 2 in the unit, my floor patient went home
Number of evil Internal Medicine residents: 2
Number of evil CCU nurses*: 3 - Rude Ruby (who acts as though interns are small slugs she has to avoid at all costs, and she also never shares the vitals' book because she might need it 20 minutes from now after she's given report about one of her other patients in the unit), Weird Wendy (who turned off the radio because all the "thumping" was making her head pound, and who spazzes out about the littlest things), and Miss Biche (who complains all day long about everything, especially how interns have no training in doing simple things like writing orders, and who doesn't bother to learn anyone's name since it doesn't really matter to her anyway)
(*names have been changed to protect the innocent, mainly me... :D)
2 comments:
The name of your journal caught my eye :) Pictures look real familiar. No I am not a stalker.... honest. Check out my journal... and no it's not all hockey. Scroll thru some previous entries I bet you see familiar pictures too.
d
Oh how funny. 12 1/2 years as an RN...11 years of that as an ER nurse. I feel your pain, lol. Just admitted a 28 yr old hispanic male last night who c/o left-sided chest pain, onset x1 week, radiation down lt arm. Looked up symptoms on internet and decided to come in. Oh does Cocaine hurt your heart? hmmmm ckmb 2555....wonder what his troponin was a week ago when he used (oh wait, it's been 8 months since you did drugs?). Oh btw...ST elevation on EKG. Cocaine..."Bad, bad, bad".
Your journal was recommended by a friend...drop by sometime when my life is back in order and I'm posting more regularly.
De ;)
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