Sapphire Silk's comment about the ER doctor that didn't seem to know his medications triggered a memory for me from an instance several years ago when I ended up in hospital, where likewise the ER nurses/doctors seemed... less than knowledgable shall we say.
I'll emphasize that this is purely a historical curiousity for me, I'm on a totally different class of drug now (which seems to be working really well). I'm mainly just posting as the incident just had such totally opposite attitudes from the different parties involved. And I'm a curious kitty about such things....
I have treatment resistant depression, and on the journey of discovery on what medication to use, my pyschiatrist tried me on a class of drugs called Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Prior to commencing them he strongly emphasised how dangerous they could be, how important it was for me to follow the dietry restrictions and check with a pharmasist on any (even OTC or herbal) medicines which might react (which seems to be most of them), and to check my blood pressure regularly. He gave me a letter which I was supposed to carry which basically said that I was on this class of medication and it is known to cause dangerously high blood pressure possibly leading to death, and I was instructed to show it to any medical professional that I interacted with. If my blood pressure was too high (and nobody really defined too high, just as higher than my normal), I was to seek medical assistance URGENTLY (with big emphasis of the urgently).
Having been suitably scared out of my wits, I was very good about following the restrictions and monitoring my blood pressure and things went smoothly for probably about 6 months. Then one night I had chest pains, and when I went to read my blood pressure it was highish (170/110 I think or thereabouts, where my normal was 130/90).
I completely freaked out, and after a bit of panicing and dithering rang 000 (911 for you Americans). I think it got up to about 190/120 when the ambulance arrived, (the panicing would have been pushing it higher) and when they asked I said I'd like to go to the hospital just to be safe (they were fairly unconcerned about it being a true emergency but didn't seem to think it was completely trivial or a waste of their time either). So off they took me to the hospital (at the time I was of the attitude better safe than sorry and since I was living on my own I was scared if it was a reaction to the medication I might die. In retrospect I think the ambulance and hospital was overkill). Neither the ambulance guys or the hospital ER people seemed overly concerned about my blood pressure (although it did stay, in their words 'fairly high', all night) so I've always felt a little bad for possibly overreacting.
I had shown the letter to the ambulance guys, and to the nurse/doctor when I arrived at the hospital. The hospital people (actual nurses and doctors, not the admin people) basically said 'MAOI, whats that?' which seemed (to this day) such a bizzarely different attitude from my pdoc. I could understand not knowing specific drugs, but this was a entire class of (older) drugs, and one with a supposedly fairly easily occurring fatal side effect.
To those in the field, is this a fairly understandable response? Are there so many drug classes that it's reasonable for ER staff to not be familiar with even those that have a common fatal side affect? Or is it that the pdoc and pharmasists were being overly cautious in so stridently emphasising the risks? And what are your thoughts about whether going to the hospital was overkill vs a not unreasonable response (was I a SC or drama queen)?
Thanks for any responses.
I'll emphasize that this is purely a historical curiousity for me, I'm on a totally different class of drug now (which seems to be working really well). I'm mainly just posting as the incident just had such totally opposite attitudes from the different parties involved. And I'm a curious kitty about such things....
I have treatment resistant depression, and on the journey of discovery on what medication to use, my pyschiatrist tried me on a class of drugs called Monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs). Prior to commencing them he strongly emphasised how dangerous they could be, how important it was for me to follow the dietry restrictions and check with a pharmasist on any (even OTC or herbal) medicines which might react (which seems to be most of them), and to check my blood pressure regularly. He gave me a letter which I was supposed to carry which basically said that I was on this class of medication and it is known to cause dangerously high blood pressure possibly leading to death, and I was instructed to show it to any medical professional that I interacted with. If my blood pressure was too high (and nobody really defined too high, just as higher than my normal), I was to seek medical assistance URGENTLY (with big emphasis of the urgently).
Having been suitably scared out of my wits, I was very good about following the restrictions and monitoring my blood pressure and things went smoothly for probably about 6 months. Then one night I had chest pains, and when I went to read my blood pressure it was highish (170/110 I think or thereabouts, where my normal was 130/90).
I completely freaked out, and after a bit of panicing and dithering rang 000 (911 for you Americans). I think it got up to about 190/120 when the ambulance arrived, (the panicing would have been pushing it higher) and when they asked I said I'd like to go to the hospital just to be safe (they were fairly unconcerned about it being a true emergency but didn't seem to think it was completely trivial or a waste of their time either). So off they took me to the hospital (at the time I was of the attitude better safe than sorry and since I was living on my own I was scared if it was a reaction to the medication I might die. In retrospect I think the ambulance and hospital was overkill). Neither the ambulance guys or the hospital ER people seemed overly concerned about my blood pressure (although it did stay, in their words 'fairly high', all night) so I've always felt a little bad for possibly overreacting.
I had shown the letter to the ambulance guys, and to the nurse/doctor when I arrived at the hospital. The hospital people (actual nurses and doctors, not the admin people) basically said 'MAOI, whats that?' which seemed (to this day) such a bizzarely different attitude from my pdoc. I could understand not knowing specific drugs, but this was a entire class of (older) drugs, and one with a supposedly fairly easily occurring fatal side effect.
To those in the field, is this a fairly understandable response? Are there so many drug classes that it's reasonable for ER staff to not be familiar with even those that have a common fatal side affect? Or is it that the pdoc and pharmasists were being overly cautious in so stridently emphasising the risks? And what are your thoughts about whether going to the hospital was overkill vs a not unreasonable response (was I a SC or drama queen)?
Thanks for any responses.
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