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👍

499 Upvotes

85% Upvoted

369 comments sorted by

View all comments

40

u/pushdose Nurse Practitioner Feb 02 '25

This is my crown jewel of allergy lists. Expand image for full effect.

9

u/Francisco_Goya Feb 02 '25

How is such a person even still alive? Odds are something would have killed them by now in normal life or during an emergency. A well meaning paramedic or one errant carrot hell bent on maximum destruction and it’s, “good night, Irene.” Luckiest and bravest person alive. Wow.

14

u/pushdose Nurse Practitioner Feb 02 '25

They’re either the luckiest person alive or, now bear with me, they are 100%, absolutely, positively, full of shit.

6

u/Francisco_Goya Feb 02 '25

Hopefully they are not allergic to shit. At least not in the high doses you’re describing.

2

u/1000thusername Feb 02 '25

Haha As a layperson working in an adjacent industry and who finds this sub fascinating, I was starting to think to myself “…. So you just show up for the tests and the saline, then?” because is there anything beyond these that a hospital can actually do amid this laundry list of “don’ts”?

7

u/pushdose Nurse Practitioner Feb 02 '25

These same people usually come with a second list of things they want. Either written or verbal demands, they are very picky and manipulative. It’s a chore.

1

u/Asleep-Palpitation43 Nurse Practiciner Feb 03 '25

That's the word. A chore. You're making life-altering decisions all day for normies while a nurse continuously contacts you, seemingly attempting to reinvent American healthcare to conform to the standards of "20 allergy lady"

15

u/DoctorBarbie89 BSN Feb 02 '25

Tomato, Carrot 🤣

6

u/alexisanalien Feb 02 '25

I have a food based latex allergy. Tomatoes and potatoes both contain that latex protein. Cooking breaks them down but raw means I have to get my epipen ready.

Very sad, but also means if I'm stuck in a ward the hospital needs to know so I don't die.

The food based part is because of my severe latex allergy. My epipen is my best friend for obvious reasons

1

u/DoctorBarbie89 BSN Feb 03 '25

That really sucks! I was mostly tickled at how they're tacked on at the end there, I know they exist IRL. I'm also allergic to latex & I assume that's why I hate bananas.

3

u/cant_helium Feb 02 '25

Peach!!🍑

3

u/cant_helium Feb 02 '25

This makes me wonder how and if this patient has actually received all of these meds.

2

u/Elasion Med Student Feb 02 '25

We just had one of these, I stg she was about to get ertapenem for her uncomplicated uti because it was the only thing not listed