I was in high school when an oral surgeon removed my wisdom teeth & I was given percodan. Don’t recall what happened, but the doctor told my mom to make sure I never took it again.

In college I was given vicodin for the first time - my neck turned red; I was in so much pain that I didn’t notice the rash. By the second day it was difficult to breathe. A few years later, new doc didn’t believe I was allergic, so wrote the Rx for hydrocodone - as if I’d be able to breathe if he used the generic instead of brand name. I figure myself lucky to have survived. It’s happened a few other times - doctor was told that I’m allergic, but prescribed it anyway. Now I just say “No thanks. I’d rather breathe.” When pain gets unbearable, 800mg ibuprofen three times a day plus 1000mg tylenol four times a day allows me to function.

I understand that doctors need to be careful about those who are drug seeking. But some of us really ARE allergic to a couple pain medicines. There should be a way to convey that information in a believable manner. When I say that I’m allergic to vicodin & percodan I’m not wanting something even stronger. I’m scared to death what would happen if I was to ever take another narcotic pain med. FWIW

And for those who say lots of allergies mean the person is crazy, I know the exception to the rule. My mom has a long list of allergies, several of which are medical.

YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO EAT THE WHOLE PACKAGE IN ONE SITTING!

Hey, I have a suggestion for a future post. How ’bout covering how much “history” you need when a patient comes into the ED/ER? I never know what info they really need and at what point they start thinking “shut up, already” when they ask for a history LOL.

the longer the list of ‘allergies’, the crazier the patient.

I know it sounds evil but it proved itself over and over again…

My favorite is the guy who once told me

“I am anaphylactically allergic to something that starts with a “B”…name some “B” drugs…”

“Do you have the name written down somewhere sir?”

“Yeah, on my fridge.”

Perfect.

And I once heard about a woman who had chronic skin rashes that also defied treatment, until her dermatologist discovered she had a copper-containing IUD. IUD replaced with one containing no copper: rash gone within hours.

Just as Rameses has an ALLERGIC contact dermatitis to chromium - BTW chormate salts are also used in leather tanning, so if you have foot rashes, itching, etc, think of that.

Overall, I haven’t taken many different medications so I wouldn’t know in most cases if I was allergic to something or not until I was given it and had a bad reaction to it. So far, the few medications I have taken in my lifetime, I have had no allergic reaction to them at all. Touch wood.

The weirdest “allergy” I ever saw? A little old lady who said she was allergic to enemas. Hmmmm, I’m probably allergic to those too.

I’m curious about mineral allergies, since I never believed I had any allergies until an internist decided the peeling skin and clear ‘bubbles’ of fluid on my hands and fingers were a sort of allergy to chromium. I never mention this to doctors because I’m not actually sure if it’s an allergy or just some oddity of my personal chemistry.

Unfortunately even cutting out minerals in my multivitamin only moderately reduced that reaction, but, of course, chromium is present in half of everything and there’s simply no way to avoid exposure.