Medical Advice about Fentanyl and Haldol: Don't laugh. It might come to you.

My BIG MEDICAL MESS was about this: 




I had my hip replaced in Georgetown Hospital, and they kept me one night, shifting me to INOVA Fairfax, Telemetry Unit, which was my home hospital. There they found a pulmonary embolism, started pumping me with blood thinners (Heparin, to be specific) and found that my hemoglobin was dropping like a stone. The trick was to thin my blood without driving me into hemorrhagic shock. In spite of their efforts, I fell into it, anyway. INOVA Fairfax they saved my life again. The first time was almost three years ago when they brought me out of cardiogenic shock, something people survive 50% of the time. Both times I was a guest in CICU, or Cardio Intensive Care.

The hip was still in "screaming pain", as my friend, Jeanne calls it from experience, but after they allowed me out of bed (I did get really good at bedpans), and I had physical therapy, which is God's gift to all of us, I was finally transferred to a state-of-the-art intensive rehabilitation hospital also connected to INOVA, which lives in INOVA Mount Vernon Hospital. You know, near George Washington's place?

There was a darker side to this part of the hospitalization. While I was on heavy pain killers I dreamed many strange things about my situation, weaving together both reality and fantasy. I was paranoid and when they attempted a medical procedure, I "tried to hit a nurse". The dream ended when they actually injected me with Haldol, which is an anti-psychotic medication, and, I have been assured, inappropriate treatment for an senior in a delusion. When a robot appeared in my room the next day, yelling at me to stay in bed (I was adjusting my gown), I asked my nurse what it was for.  It was to "keep me safe", and staff, too, of course. The robot stayed, despite my insisting they remove it. 

I mention all of this because we should all make sure we forbid the use of Haldol when we act crazy. It is dangerous, and no longer smiled upon by the medical establishment.  and ask if they will give you Fentanyl, and you have the possibility of having psychotic symptoms. You will also risk dangerous depression of breathing and pulse. This episode destroyed my former trust in the hospital where, in 2018, I had a heart transplant. I remember that time as a lesson in unconditional love and care. With the right to inject and remotely observe patients, this trust was shattered for me.

It is so nice to be able to walk, again. But some of this horror could have been avoided with injectable blood thinners that can be neutralized with vitamin K. This was not done where I had my surgery. To their credit, they took me, a heart transplant survivor when the Anderson Clinic wouldn't. 



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