Still Kicking

October 28, 2003

Hello all. I am out of the hospital and feel like I have been run over by a big

truck. I had quite the scare while in the hospital. One of the nurses was

putting in some demoral and some phenterghan into my iv when all of a sudden it

felt like fire was rushing through my body. I immedidately new something was

wrong and told the nurse. the nurse immediately quite putting the drugs into me

and more nurses were running into the room. I felt like I was dying. I heard

them say after checking my BP that it was 220 over 150 and that my heart rate

was at 145. I felt bound up inside and very stiff. I said something to the

nurse and she asked me what I said so I repeated myself more clearly. Tell my

wife that I love her. I really thought that this was it. So they put some

norcan into my iv to counteract the demoral along with some benedryl.

Eventually I mellowed out a little and everyone surmised that it was the

phenerghan that did it to me. I was Still in quite a bit of pain so they

started putting demoral back into my iv, but much more slowly this time. As

soon as they started to push the meds in.....I felt the same flush feeling

start...very sick kind of feeling....hot all over and they stopped immediatly.

I know that it scared them almost as bad as it did me.....They again pushed the

norcon and I told them I wanted nothing more iv.....I was still in pain but

didn't want to die...and that is how I felt...like I was dying. I have since

spoken with the Dr and he is doing some research for me...He says that maybe the

demoral was bad or it had a contaminate in it. I have been taking demoral since

87 and have never felt like this before. I have some strange reactions to many

medications (pain meds) but nothing like this has ever happened. I myself will

be doing tons of research on the matter. I will try to be back at the computer

soon to help answer any questions that you all may have. Keep my in your

prayers.

I hope this finds you and yours well

Mark E. Armstrong

NW Rep, PAI

www.top5plus5.com

casca@...

October 28, 2003

Hello all. I am out of the hospital

This is very scary and I feel could happen to any of us. I sure hope you are

doing better and can find out what happened to you. I just feel it would be

so hard to live with out pain med. when we have an attack but also do not

want to risk dying.

Myrna

October 29, 2003

Mark,

I am glad that you are home but sad that you had a bad expereince with the

Demerol. Just from my nursing experience and going to conferences, sounds like

you had some kind of reaction. I went to the conference in Indy last year and a

pain doc was there talking about Demerol. Apparently someone along the line had

a seizure from Demerol and they were thinking about taking it off of the market.

But Demerol has been around for YEARS. I spoke with my MD acupuctuncture doc who

is an ER doc. He told me that pushing Demerol too fast can cause a reaction, in

addition to giving it in an artery vs a vein can cause problems as well. Sounds

like that was not the case for you. In addition, I can't remember which was

which but he said that the FDA has not approved Demerol for IV use, just IM. But

of course it is given IV all of the time, in the ER, OR, pre op, post op etc.

We both chuckled about that, how can it not be FDA approved for IV use but it is

used that way all of the time.I know they gave it to me in the ER once when I

had a SOD attack as Morphine is supposedly contraindicated for SOD attacks. I

think I would freak if I knew it was not available in the event that I needed

it. In addition, my urologist uses it for kidney stones and has not seen anyone

with a reaction to it. But the Indy doc said that seizures were reported and I

think that our Kimber had a bad reaction to it as well. I have a RN friend that

has kidney stones and takes it every year or so when she developes a stone. She

works in pre op procedures and told me that she herself has never seen anyone

have a reaction to the Demerol. I have not either but I am sure that it can

happen. Your docs opinion about the bad batch may be possible as well. Check out

the FDA non approved for IV and see what you can find out. Life is full of

learning for us all. Do you take BP meds ? I wonder if your BP was elevated at

the time and this pushed you over the top ? BUt it usually causes a decrease in

BP. I have seen demerol cause sweating and urinary retention to the point where

patients needed catherized because they could not urinate. Well I know that you

will chek it all out. What are you using for pain now ?

Take Care,

Lily from OHIO

Still Kicking

Hello all. I am out of the hospital and feel like I have been run over by a

big truck. I had quite the scare while in the hospital. One of the nurses was