r/emergencymedicine • u/Asleep-Palpitation43 Nurse Practiciner • Feb 02 '25

Advice Allergy Olympics

Is it wrong that if I see a patient has more than 10 allergies I IMMEDIATELY assume she's (bc it's always a she) a psych case?

In 24 years I've never been wrong.

You'll never read this in a textbook but add it to your practice today and thank me later👍

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u/AMH1028 Feb 02 '25

They are usually side effects that wrongly catagorized “allergies“. Like when a pt has allergy to morphine bc causes nausea. Mysteriously every narc but dilaudid will cause nausea.

16

u/Comprehensive_Ant984 Feb 02 '25

Bruh. I had Reglan listed as a med allergy for YEARS, bc I got it via IV push once for a bad case of food poisoning and had the predictable reaction you’d expect, but instead of telling me it was a side effect of the delivery route and could totally be avoided, the nurse just told me I was allergic to it. TEN YEARS that was in my chart as an allergy, until one day someone finally filled me in and deleted it.

10

u/harveyjarvis69 RN Feb 02 '25

I always give pt’s the benefit of education and careful questioning for this reason…some asshat nurse said some dumb shit cuz they fucked up.

“My veins roll!” Nah they just sucked.

3

u/TourQue63 Feb 02 '25

After a recent operation, IV morphine and dilaudid gave me full body rashes & began closing my airway, but I had no side effects from oral oxy. Never had any medication allergies before, not a particularly fun way to find out