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Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

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Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#51
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is one of the most pernicious aspects of the opioid crisis. Doctors are taught to be hypervigilant regarding "drug seeking behavior" which is pretty much a 1:1 list of behaviors of people whose suffering is "genuine." Number one criteria seems to be that the patient is requesting medication. In so many cases, the patient is the most reliable source of information... but when it comes to pain management, the pati…

> Doctors are taught to be hypervigilant regarding "drug seeking behavior" which is pretty much a 1:1 list of behaviors of people whose suffering is "genuine." Slate Star Codex wrote about this: https://slatestarcodex.com/2019/09/16/against-against-pseudo... Basically, an addict wants to look genuine, so a lot of genuine patients have to put up with stuff designed to cut off addicts. Like the scary "FBI warning" that…

[deleted]

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most fentanyl is administered IV as well, the “100x more potent” stuff is mostly misleading because the doses are different but it is substantially more effective than morphine. My wife does anesthesia and if they’re going to use opioids at all, it’s almost always IV fentanyl. It’s extremely rare that patients report any pain afterwards. Though there’s a big movement toward opioid-free surgery so that’s promising.

As someone who went through a IM nail procedure I couldn’t have done it without opiates. I didn’t get addicted either. It’s a valuable drug that was abused.

> IM nail

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intramedullary_rod

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#53
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Years ago I had a legitimate attempt by taking a combination of a full bottle of opiates and benzos (A pretty deadly combination). I was pretty hell bent on being dead. I know at the time, my thoughts where use a gun (I am a big second amendment advocate, so was not going to be a statistic in the argument), carbon monoxide, pills or hanging. The reason I bring this up, is I actually think there are two main branches…

> I just wanted a break from life. I feel that often. Even a drug coma isn't enough. I'd come back to new bills and house maintenance or other little adult annoyances like that. And my friends and family would age without me. My ideal vacation would be: Quit work at 5 pm Tuesday, do whatever I like for a year, and come back to work at 9 am Wednesday.

Yes I agree on the bills etc. It was more of a if someone could wave a magic wand and I just did not have to deal with it for 3 months, just knowing that I would not have to deal with it, at that very moment would have been such a relief.

I had that feeling of if I could just walk away from my life for a year too, just leave it all for a year and maybe I would be better. Tired in the soul is the only way I can describe it to people. At the time I did not suffer from depression and I was not depressed, I have ADD and had a bunch of life event stack up on top of me to where my ADD was so bad that I could not put one foot in front of the other. Something as simple as washing the dishes seemed like moving a mountain.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#54
post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

You should complain to the medical board. If the guy is too lazy to look at the chart, what else isn’t he doing?

I had spinal fusion and due to an unrelated issue ended up on the medical floor instead of the neurologist floor overnight. I had zero pain medication after a significant surgery and couldn’t sleep. The floor nurse and useless hospitalist straight up accused me of attempting to get pills.

The surgeon came to do rounds in the morning and was visibly shocked, and the overnight bozos didn’t do other stuff, because they never read the orders.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#55

I don't understand how he takes no meaning out of this. The meaning is clearly that there shouldn't be a gaping hole on the top of a 5 story building that people can access. Or at least that you shouldn't walk around a building you're not familiar with at night. Anyone who thinks there's no meaning to take from these kind of events is wasting a huge opportunity to learn that small things like a gap in a roof can mean…

> The meaning is clearly that there shouldn't be a gaping hole on the top of a 5 story building that people can access. Or at least that you shouldn't walk around a building you're not familiar with at night. Looking at the pictures, I'd vote for another option. The roof of that building isn't designed for casual use. The wall around the edge of the building is calf-height with no railing. What they're doing is likel…

> The wall around the edge of the building is calf-height with no railing

It doesn't matter how fit you are, all it takes is a strong wind gust, so many people underestimate this. That kind of roof access is meant for maintenance work only.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#56
If you actually find yourself falling from a similar height as described in this story, what can you do to maximize your chances of survival? Try to impact feet first? Sideways and cradle head with your arms? TFA says head impact is the main thing that determines who survives and who doesn’t, but other than that no clues as to what to try to do in the situation.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#57
post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

Doctors, surgeons in particular, are both project manager and individual contributor. At peak IC work load, the manager role gets starved for cycles. A failure to track "X was intended - did it actually happen?" is a typical of this. Having someone with you can help. "He's right, Doctor, the nurse hasn't yet ...". A role of maintaining a clear picture of project state, making sure everyone is on the same page, and mo…

That's true and it's only recently that I realized the importance of it. It's imperious that patients be accompanied by a loved one or someone they can trust to look out for their interests and provide an adversarial viewpoint to the medical staff. Patients who are gravely injured/sick can not advocate for themselves and doctors will not listen.

I was recently hospitalized after an accident and was unable to have any family with me because of covid measures. As a result I received the worst medical care I've ever experienced. Including but not limited to: waiting 8 hours in the ER with four broken limbs and no painkillers, having procedures done with no painkillers that required them, being given dangerous dosages of drugs because of a miscommunication between teams despite my protests, having sequels from surgeries that were never addressed by the medical team and that I was too high to ask about, having to program my own medical bed so that it'd stop shaking my broken limbs after 5 hours of unanswered pleading with the staff, having to solve severe complications from the drugs with the help of my family doctor, not eating anything for a week without anybody getting worried... I could go on. I'd experienced similar issues during previous hospital stays, these sort of things happen regularly in hospitals, but I always had someone trustworthy with me to point them out and make a fuss before they became real problems.

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#58
post #8
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Really seems like a "hey nurse did this patient have their fentanyl yet?" would have resolved this issue. Anyway if it's really 100x more potent than morphine you'd think any person that did have it in their bloodstream would not be all that capable of stating that they have not had their medication yet.

This is one of the most pernicious aspects of the opioid crisis. Doctors are taught to be hypervigilant regarding "drug seeking behavior" which is pretty much a 1:1 list of behaviors of people whose suffering is "genuine." Number one criteria seems to be that the patient is requesting medication. In so many cases, the patient is the most reliable source of information... but when it comes to pain management, the pati…

I understand where they're coming from but could they not loosen the rules for the person who has a clearly visible injury?

Could they not check the chart? Is there even a chart anymore?

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#59
post #50
post #2

The most pressing issue for the orthopaedic team was my left shoulder, which was visibly dislocated. Before attempting to reattach it, the doctor told me I would be given a dose of fentanyl: an opioid that is up to 100 times more potent than morphine. He went away, returned and started using a bed sheet to try to pop the shoulder back into the socket. Alarmed, I told him that I had not been given any pain medication.…

I've dislocated my shoulder twice. The first time they gave me strong opiates and then put it back in. It was painless. The second time the doctor said pain killers would be dangerous and insisted I have absolutely no pain killers in my system before reseting it. His description of it feeling like medieval torture is apt.

I've dislocated my shoulder once and it was reset without any pain killers.

While the method indeed is quite similar to medieval torture, it was certainly not the worst pain I experienced that day.

Although I might have been lucky that the doctor worked in a ski resort and was very skilled in "the art of resetting shoulders".

Re: Falling five storeys from a New York rooftop changed my life

#60
post #59
post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've dislocated my shoulder twice. The first time they gave me strong opiates and then put it back in. It was painless. The second time the doctor said pain killers would be dangerous and insisted I have absolutely no pain killers in my system before reseting it. His description of it feeling like medieval torture is apt.

I've dislocated my shoulder once and it was reset without any pain killers. While the method indeed is quite similar to medieval torture, it was certainly not the worst pain I experienced that day. Although I might have been lucky that the doctor worked in a ski resort and was very skilled in "the art of resetting shoulders".

My first one with the opiates was at a ski resort too! First run of the day, dislocated on the bunny run. Ironically, it relocated itself when I stood up, so I was like, "oh hey it's ok!". Then I started doing arm circles to prove it was ok, and that's when it got stuck out. :(
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