Diprivan, Drug From Hell

Okay, I just came out of the hospital yesterday. Long story short, my insurance wouldn't cover root canals so I had to get two teeth extracted, I'm deadly allergic to local anesthetics like Novocaine so I had to be knocked out via general anesthesia.

Now, I've been knock out for dental work in the past. It's about the only way for me to even get a cavity filled. And I love it. The whole room turns into pastel rainbows and it's the closest thing to an acid trip I'm willing to experiment with. *cue Whiter Shade of Pale music.*

This time was no acid trip, unless it was a real bad one.

They had me in the operating room, bright UFO lights on, nurses and doctors staring at me in that expectant "go to sleep kid so we can get more donuts" look, and I'm waiting for the doctor to walk in. I didn't see the anesthesiologist sneak in from somewhere until I heard a male voice behind me (all nurses and the doctor/dentist were female... let's hear it for women in the medical field!)

Anyway, I suddenly feel the most wretched pain in my hand and I yelled out and brought my hand out from under the warmed blankets, shouting something must be wrong with the IV, my hand is killing me. One nurse gently explained this is just the anesthesia.

"Thanks for warning me," I yelled. God, my hand was horrible. Have you ever read Dune, where Paul puts his hand in that box and it feels like the flesh is being burned off the bone? Let's just say I would not make a good Bene Gesserit. Then suddenly that same burning sensation was spreading up my arm through the veins.

"No way!" I shouted out loud to the ire of the nurses.

This wasn't the relaxing rainbow world I'm used to. I wasn't feeling loose and drugged and trippy watching a swirling world of Skittles dancing ballet in a flushing toilet bowl. I was screaming and trying to jump off the table. Now I know why they strap you down. God, that sensation was something I never, ever, EVER want to feel again.

To make it worse, I woke up post-op coughing up blood all over the place and crying (I'm told that's normal for pentathol patients... crying, not coughing blood; that was just from the extraction). I recall whining out, "Where's my mother?" Just like I was some 4-year-old.

To top it off, I have an allergy to eggs (which was right there on my charts, in red ink) and Diprivan has egg lecithin... so I had an allergic reaction anyway, anaphylaxia, just the same as if I were to have regular old Novocaine in a dentist's chair.

And what did the nurses do? Did they try to counter my allergic reaction, a potentially fatal one? NO! They were sick of this kid who is not being obedient, who yells at pain and vomits blood and then dares to complain "I can't breathe!" They insisted they gave me nothing allergic and kicked me out. Kicked me out of the hospital while in the midst of anaphylactic shock!

Can you say "lawsuit"?  It wasn't until I complained about all this to my boyfriend's mother, who is a nurse, that I found out what Driprivan was. I didn't even know the name of the drug, but when she heard about the burning fiberglass-up-the-veins sensation, she recognized it immediately and shouted, "They can't give you that. It has eggs!"

She's a damn good nurse. That anesthesiologist is an asshole, and the hospital is horrible. I could have died. My mother had to treat me in the car by basically overdosing me on Benedryl, then began to drive me to another hospital. However, the Benedryl did the trick nicely, I was too pissed and groggy and in pain, so I just wanted to go home.

I never did get to see the rainbow swirling world.