Never Ceases to Amaze Me
Sorry, been off my posting game lately.
Anyway, what always amazes me is when I see an elderly person coming in for drug OD or even just with a positive U-tox. I guess Marijuana is not such a big deal in most cases but I’m shocked when I see Cocaine or Meth. How does this happen? I imagine they are not just suddenly picking up a hard core drug habit when they are eligible for Medicare, but probably have done the drugs for a long time – and never put them down.
Then that always surprises me when I wonder how they survived that long while doing drugs that have such a high incidence of cardiac-related complications which are additive to the regular DM, HTN, and CAD that many people develop.
Still, they do die on occasion from it. It’s sad when an old guy strokes out when doing blow or when he seizes and then has a v-fib arrest all because of something that should have been addressed years before. Remember, not everyone is Keith Richards!
Sunday, November 11th 2012 at 1:23 am |
We lost a dear friend just after she turned fifty as she was having a weekend full of crack and fun sex. They said heart attack. No doubt complicated by her 400 pounds, her HTN and DM. I wonder how long she’d been at it before she died of it.
Monday, November 12th 2012 at 10:53 am |
Funny you should mention that. The other night a pt over the age of 70yrs came in and had a lot of cardiac issues with no real significant Hx. The Doc ordered a UDS and one of the nurses overheard and asked why on earth we would do that for an elderly lady, he said that age does not preclude one from illegal substances…turns out his hunch was right. It was a pretty impressive list of stuff in her system
Friday, November 16th 2012 at 2:32 pm |
Nursing homes for drug users. A reality as baby boomers hit the assisted living stage?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/jan/26/older-drug-users-habits-die-hard