Some words of caution. Yesterday, my 29 year old patient respiratory
arrested on me. I had increased his dilauded from 4 mg to 8 mg. He has
been on opoids for quite a while and in such horrible pain, his doctor felt it
was an appropriate increase. I was leary and gave him 4 at first, reassesed
him in an hour and gave him the other 4. An hour later his respirations
were 4 and pupils fixed. Two doses of narcan and a trip to the icu, it was
reversed. Lets just say, a bit stressful to say the least. So, if you plan on
increasing your pain meds, under doctor supervision only, make sure
someone is with you for the first several hours to monitor you to make sure
your respiratory drive is not too depressed. Wow Lori,
That is scary. Great advice.
thanks
Thanks for the adivce...I do remember on a few of the pain meds i was on in the past that said something along the lines of taking more then precribed can cause breathing problems. Thanks again!Lori, thanks for the word of caution. We all get used to adjusting our meds and don't really think of the consequences. This is good advice to abide by. Lindy
Thank you for the reminder.
When I was on dilaudid in the hospital I was on a PCA pump with a basal dose. Also on the pulse oximeter to avoid exactly what happened to Lorsters poor patient.
Thanks for the information. I've had some bad experiences with pain meds and can't take the good stuff anymore. I'm glad your patient is ok.