Now that's about the dream diagnosis for narcotic-seeking women. Go ahead... prove that the patient doesn't have it. You can't.
Of course, since this diagnosis has become mainstream there are oodles of women claiming to have it just so they can get their
Vicodin. These women are called
fibromyalgeurs. Two of my favorite ER/ED nurses (
Nurse K and
MonkeyGirl ) frequently share about their experiences with these women in their respective ERs/EDs.
The point of this post is not to bash on the
fibromyalgeurs. I just wanted to share an experience of mine with one of these patients.
About a year or so ago, I had a forty-something woman show up at my pharmacy counter wanting an OTC recommendation for her chest congestion and cough. It was slow, so rather than just tell her
Mucinex -
DM and send her on her way I decided to probe a little deeper.
She shared that she had been diagnosed with depression, hypertension, asthma,
fibromyalgia, blah, blah, blah... all over the past three years. Then she rattled off all of the
meds she was on. She shouldn't have been able to walk with that many chemicals circulating
thru her body. And the thing of it was that none of her conditions were adequately controlled.
We continued to talk and she shared that she had spent over a thousand dollars in the last year alone trying to get her dog's skin condition under control, but had no luck with that either.
She tells me that the house that she is renting has a water problem that has never been controlled. The basement is always wet.
I asked her how long she had been there.
Three years.
I mentioned that she might want to have the house checked for mold. Maybe that was the cause of her respiratory issues. By then it was after closing time so I sent her on her way and closed up shop. Didn't see her again. Didn't really think of her either.
* * * * *
Jump ahead to the present day. She walks up to the pharmacy a few weeks ago and asks if I remember her.
I tell her that her face looks familiar, but I can't remember why. Then she reminds me about our mold conversation. That rang a bell for me.
She updates me that she had the house tested. It came back positive for several nasty molds. She rattled off some names (I can't remember) of the ones that had exceptionally high counts.
She moved out of the house about six months ago. Within three months, the dog's skin condition had healed.
She was no longer on the anti-depressants or BP pills. She only has an albuterol inhaler as a rescue medication.
And the fibromyalgia is gone.
I'm not saying that I'm a genius and have found the cure for a fair share of the cases of fibromyagia out there.
But I'm not not saying it either.
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Of course, since this diagnosis has become mainstream there are oodles of women claiming to have it just so they can get their Vicodin. These women are called fibromyalgeurs. Two of my favorite ER/ED nurses ( Nurse K and MonkeyGirl ) frequently share about their experiences with these women in their respective ERs/EDs.
The point of this post is not to bash on the fibromyalgeurs. I just wanted to share an experience of mine with one of these patients.
About a year or so ago, I had a forty-something woman show up at my pharmacy counter wanting an OTC recommendation for her chest congestion and cough. It was slow, so rather than just tell her Mucinex - DM and send her on her way I decided to probe a little deeper.
She shared that she had been diagnosed with depression, hypertension, asthma, fibromyalgia, blah, blah, blah... all over the past three years. Then she rattled off all of the meds she was on. She shouldn't have been able to walk with that many chemicals circulating thru her body. And the thing of it was that none of her conditions were adequately controlled.
We continued to talk and she shared that she had spent over a thousand dollars in the last year alone trying to get her dog's skin condition under control, but had no luck with that either.
She tells me that the house that she is renting has a water problem that has never been controlled. The basement is always wet.
I asked her how long she had been there.
Three years.
I mentioned that she might want to have the house checked for mold. Maybe that was the cause of her respiratory issues. By then it was after closing time so I sent her on her way and closed up shop. Didn't see her again. Didn't really think of her either.
I tell her that her face looks familiar, but I can't remember why. Then she reminds me about our mold conversation. That rang a bell for me.
She updates me that she had the house tested. It came back positive for several nasty molds. She rattled off some names (I can't remember) of the ones that had exceptionally high counts.
She moved out of the house about six months ago. Within three months, the dog's skin condition had healed.
She was no longer on the anti-depressants or BP pills. She only has an albuterol inhaler as a rescue medication.
And the fibromyalgia is gone.
I'm not saying that I'm a genius and have found the cure for a fair share of the cases of fibromyagia out there.
But I'm not not saying it either.