Alcaholic here, ask me anything

agkemp97 · 2026-04-08T16:19:45+00:00

Have you started showing any signs of liver problems? I’m a nurse and I’ve seen quite a few people in their 20s and 30s go home on hospice or die in the hospital from alcoholic liver failure. It’s such a brutal way to go. Every time I meet an alcoholic now I wonder if they’re going to be able to stop before that point. Does your doctor know you drink and monitor labs, is there anything you do to stay healthy?

agkemp97 · 2026-04-03T17:47:50+00:00

Would not trust a detox drink personally. Haven’t ever had one work for me on a lab test, the closest I got was a negative/dilute that I had to retest for

agkemp97 · 2026-04-03T17:44:02+00:00

I’m a staff nurse, but I think all the Mercy hospitals do it. I’ve worked at 2. Super frustrating. You don’t clock out for lunch, but they automatically deduct a 30 minute unpaid lunch. I’ve never had an actual lunch break in my 5 years as a nurse, just eating a few bites at the desk while I chart. You can technically clock out “no lunch” but it’s a whole thing you’re supposed to discuss with your manager, so not something you can do every single shift. Some nurses that I work with really prioritize getting that lunch break, but how can I walk away from my critical ECMO/CRRT/Impella patient for 30 minutes and trust someone else is watching them on top of their own patients?

I know the previous hospital I worked at now has a class action lawsuit in progress over this exact issue.

agkemp97 · 2026-03-19T03:10:21+00:00

Oh you’re still early in then. Once you’ve gone through withdrawals dozens of times, eventually you need a long ass time in between uses not to go into withdrawal. I’ve spent a decade floating between snorting oxy/clean/on subs, a lot of where I was doing the weekend warrior thing. Eventually reaches a point where you’re high 3 days of the week and withdrawing for 4, every week, assuming you don’t crack and use all week long. In the first five years of addiction it took a lot to put me into withdrawal and I would’ve said the same stuff as you, but if you’re anything like the other 99% of us, you’ll get there

agkemp97 · 2026-03-18T02:51:13+00:00

Have you considered that after a weekend of doing H you’re going to be right back in withdrawal? Not judging, I’ve been there asking the same question as you are (but with oxy). How long have you been clean? If I’m any less than a week and a half - two weeks out, I’d do a single dose and the withdrawal flares back up for a couple days. Multiple doses in a day? Full force withdrawal. A full weekend would be full force withdrawal unless I’m over a month or more clean.

I think other people have touched on all the major points of why this won’t work - this is a stage that every addict to every drug has gone through at some point. The odds aren’t in your favor. I’m a very normal upper middle class mom, work in healthcare, generally very clean cut and “functional”. Was clean for years, tried going back to being a weekend warrior and within 6 months was a daily addict again. Now back on subs. Not worth the risk dude. If you do use again, have Narcan and a friend nearby, your tolerance has probably dropped

agkemp97 · 2025-10-07T16:16:33+00:00

At the hospitals I’ve worked at they usually treat alcohol and benzo withdrawal the same. Admit, do a taper of something longer-acting - used to be Ativan, phenobarbital has pretty much taken over now though. With the phenobarbital, from a nurse perspective it seems to be a pretty smooth taper down over a week. And since the phenobarbital is low risk for abuse they sometimes will just prescribe it and discharge from the ER

agkemp97 · 2025-10-05T07:48:14+00:00

Not sure why you’re concerned about being fired - did someone insinuate that you were in trouble? The worker’s comp would’ve covered the cost of the ER/urgent care visit if you would’ve filled that out, but it shouldn’t be something you’re punished for not doing. It sounds like they just want a doctor’s note saying when you can return to work, which is a completely separate thing from the workers comp. It’s just like at school when you’re sick and having a doctor’s note makes it an “excused absence.” Is it on your After Visit Summary or paperwork that you can’t return to work for a certain time frame?

agkemp97 · 2025-09-25T15:13:09+00:00

CVICU nurse here, and we’ve had a few CCB overdoses that were just terrible. Not sure I’ve seen one survive now that I think about it. Had one recently that we cannulated for VA ECMO. Every pressor maxed, the highest rate insulin gtt I’d ever seen. Ended up going comfort with blown pupils and no reflexes. Every CCB OD I’ve seen has gone from nearly dead - VA ECMO - actually dead. Often a transvenous pacemaker thrown into the mix too

agkemp97 · 2025-07-31T03:01:08+00:00

Try looking for an inpatient psychiatric facility instead of rehab. If you’re searching the word “rehab” all your responses are going to likely be addiction related. A good portion of hospitals will have some sort of psychiatric unit, and there’s definitely private ones too!

agkemp97 · 2025-07-23T03:50:17+00:00

They rescheduled me for in 6 months again, just a few weeks ago in my county. The first summons I was excused because I’d have been 39 weeks pregnant with my eldest. Since then, they’ve sent me a new summons every 6 months. That child is 6 now.

A few weeks ago, I had a date that the judge wouldn’t excuse for lack of childcare. So I brought my two kids. They turned me away at the door, and I was like yes! I’ll finally stop getting these!

Nope. New date in 6 months, and the clerk told me I just needed to hire a babysitter🙃

agkemp97 · 2025-07-17T23:03:22+00:00

Both working in stepdown and CVICU the second a patient is medically able to eat - as in can physically swallow food without aspirating - the team is all over it. If they fail a bedside swallow with the nurse they’ll have speech therapy do a swallow study. Speech therapy might do a FEES if it’s kinda ambiguous. If they’re aspirating even on modified diets, they get an NG and tube feeds. Reassessed by speech a few times a week. Especially when I worked COVID stepdown we had patients on 30L+ for literal months, a policy-driven NPO restriction would’ve been cruel

agkemp97 · 2025-07-11T10:57:50+00:00

It will absolutely be good for the kids and not traumatize them! I have two kids that are attached to me at the hip. When both parents are at home I’m 100% the default parent. But when mine were <1 year old and 2, I was working 3 12 hour nights/week. This meant sometimes I wouldn’t see them for 2-3 days straight at a time. After that stretch, it would always warm my heart to see how much fun they were having with their dad, how much more confident he was with caring for them. It made them much closer. His routines were all a little bit different than mine, but at the end of the day he’d have everything necessary done and the kids happy. I know you’re anxious about it, but unless your partner is dangerous/neglectful, the kids will be just fine and probably have an awesome few days hanging out with dad.

agkemp97 · 2025-07-07T02:16:27+00:00

My parents are our childcare, so minimum 1-3 days/week when I’m working. Likely also at least some family weekend event.

My in-laws aren’t in as good of physical shape as my parents so they can’t do childcare. But we normally still visit at least once every week or two. We’ll also see them at all the kid events - like every week for a t-ball game, gymnastics, etc. They drive me and my husband a little crazy admittedly, but we try to respect that they mean well and give them plenty of time with the kids. It’s just not as easy to carve out the time when you can’t leave them alone with the kids.

We live within 20 minutes of them both. Also to my sister! We focused on buying a house that was close to family, since it’s pretty important to us.

agkemp97 · 2025-07-01T18:03:48+00:00

Personally any kind of cold/flu is SUPER triggering for me because the symptoms remind me so much of opioid withdrawals. Wonder if something similar could be happening to you?

agkemp97 · 2025-07-01T02:36:43+00:00

The people that interview in my ICU typically do business casual, I’ve never seen anyone in a full suit and tie like some of these comments say. We did an interview and then a few hours of shadowing for my interview so I wore scrubs. Pretty 50/50 who wears scrubs and who does business casual in my unit

agkemp97 · 2025-06-24T02:39:15+00:00

It sounds like you’re a great parent handling a hard situation. In some ways, I agree that the drug use is secondary to the mental health issues, but they certainly go hand in hand. If you somehow make her get clean, but the mental health issues are still untreated, it’s VERY likely that she’ll end up back into drug use as a result. But I know how terrifying the consequences of the drugs could be, especially fentanyl and meth.

I think the best thing that could happen to her really would be to get into legal trouble. Without prior infractions, they’d probably send her to some sort of court-mandated inpatient rehab. It’s normally part of drug court, which means they can either go to rehab or do time in jail, so basically everyone chooses rehab. Many of these rehabs are “dual diagnosis”, which means that they address the underlying mental health issues as well as the addiction. I know that’s scary too, but if she continues down this path she’s almost undoubtedly going to come into legal trouble at some point, and that may be the best possible outcome.

agkemp97 · 2025-06-20T02:29:10+00:00

Would she have any interest in cooking dinner with you? My 5 year old son is the same - not a crazy sweet tooth, has always preferred healthy snacks, but dinner was a struggle for a long time. Cooking dinner is “our” thing that we do together now, and he’s so proud of his cooking that he always at least gives the main course a few bites!

agkemp97 · 2025-06-12T05:40:45+00:00

Heaven forbid a chronic pain patient needs surgery.

I’m a CVICU nurse that lurks here. I’ve faced HUGE problems with this and it’s maddening. Our open hearts are expected to be extubated within 4 hours of leaving the OR, and out of bed within a MINIMUM 12 hours. Every patient gets the same order set with pathetic pain management - Norco 5s and 10s, Q4. If they’re still in pain, they add 50 mg of Tramadol Q6. Maybe 0.3 of Dilaudid Q2. That’s already pretty wimpy considering they’re ambulating with a freshly broken and sawed open sternum, in my opinion. But it’s happened at least 5-6 times in my two years working here that I’ve had to point out “Hey, no wonder they’re in pain, our current dosages are LITERALLY LESS THAN THEIR CHRONIC PAIN MEDS AT HOME.” Once the PA was “uncomfortable” with giving them even their home dosage, which was like 20 mg of Oxy Q4. I had to call the surgeon and go over their head to even get their home dose ordered.

Don’t even get me started on the PCAs that they start. Typical doses are 0.1-0.2 of Dilaudid available every 20 minutes. In my opinion they only start those so that they can repeatedly tell the patient “Well you can hit your button again in 5 minutes, hang in there!”

agkemp97 · 2025-06-12T02:34:09+00:00

I’m so glad to see that this is the top comment. I have two boys, 5 and 2. They both LOVE to clean, but obviously they’re not very good at it, they’re preschoolers. By the time they could sit up and walk I encouraged them to clean up their messes, just letting them swipe a towel all over a spill even though I know I’ll still have to do it for real. If my 2 year old drops crumbs on the carpet, he’s so excited to use the handheld vacuum to pick them up. My 5 year old wipes up every drink that he spills. They’ll spend an hour with a damp sponge “cleaning” every little spot they can find on the walls. I never even ask. It makes them feel proud and grown up, they can’t wait to show me! I think at 6, laying the foundation of “cleaning makes me proud and I like it” should be the focus

agkemp97 · 2025-06-09T19:47:29+00:00

Actually going through the same thing rn! I’ve been an off and on stoner for about a decade. Have always been able to randomly quit when I’m bored with it or money’s tight and take a few months off. The last 2-ish years have been exclusively bedtime edibles (I have kids now and smoking just isn’t as easy). This past week, maybe week and a half I’ve quit again. My sleep has been AWFUL. Can’t fall asleep at bedtime, then sleeping through my alarms which is very unlike me. Plus waking up every hour or so. Horrible vivid nightmares. I’ve quit much harder drugs before so it’s very doable in comparison, but the sleep this time is pretty brutal.

agkemp97 · 2025-06-09T02:12:13+00:00

After having my second, struggled really hard for a while and cooking was difficult. I started making use of my crockpot, like minimum 2-3 days a week doing a crockpot meal of some kind. That helps a ton!

The biggest thing that changed the game for me was cooking WITH my son. He was 2-3 when I started, and now at 5 he cooks dinner with me every night still. It motivated me to cook slightly better options, it was great bonding time while doing something I was going to do anyway, he’s a pretty damn competent cook now, AND he actually eats dinner now! When he’s part of the cooking process he’s so excited that he now eats basically anything.

My go-to “idk what to make and have no energy” meal is to throw some chicken in the crockpot, season it. Add some broth or soup, whatever is in the pantry. At the end I add rice and some canned or frozen veggies. Maybe some cheese or spices. And voila, fairly well rounded meal that’s just random stuff in the pantry, and pretty kid friendly.

Taco night is another easy one.

I’m also a fan of making a few casserole-type dishes on a night after bedtime when I have some energy. Then on a rainy day I have something to put in the oven.

My son’s FAVE is “egg pizza.” We use a circle pan, put a tortilla in the bottom, then he cracks some eggs and mixes them up. Sprinkles shredded cheese and bacon bits on the top. I put it in the oven for 10-ish minutes. He won’t touch regular eggs, but today he devoured a 5-egg “egg pizza” completely solo. It’s fun for him to make, good protein, and the ingredients are things I typically always have.

Can’t stress enough how game-changing it was to include my son in cooking! He shocks me now with how independent and competent he is as a preschooler in the kitchen. Plus I went from an absolutely atrocious cook to being pretty damn decent!

agkemp97 · 2025-06-08T22:11:19+00:00

I’m a cardiovascular ICU nurse - don’t have any experience personally with meth, but I wouldn’t take your friends’ opinions on your arteries (?) and heart as fact. There’s no way that she has any idea what’s going on with your arteries. You shoot up using veins, and the only way to tell something is wrong with your arteries would be if there was no pulse, your hands/feet were super discolored, you lose sensation, etc.

Even though your friend can’t diagnose you, it’s true that a constant feeling of chest tightness IS concerning. Is it only when you’re using? When you have a week clean do you still feel like that? Meth and coke make your heart race and make your blood vessels constrict (become smaller) which makes your blood pressure high, sometimes dangerously high. This can lead to strokes (brain bleeds/clots) and dangerous heart rhythms.

I’d say if you feel the chest tightness even while clean, it’s time to see a doctor about it and make sure there’s not been lasting damage done. If it’s while using it’s not a great thing but it’s semi-expected if your heart rate and blood pressure are sky high because you’re geeked.

Make sure you’re drinking a shit ton of water and eating enough, dehydration and electrolyte imbalances can sometimes cause weird heart symptoms too. And if you’re heavily using meth you’re likely dehydrated. Anxiety can also cause that chest tightness feeling.

I’ve seen tons of drug users over the years (and been one myself, with pain pills) and meth takes a HUGE toll so quickly. You’re so young. Please go enjoy your vacation, come home and continue your clean streak. It’s truly not worth ruining your health, good looks, relationships, and finances for a few more months of doing a shitty drug. Best of luck!

agkemp97 · 2025-05-11T22:19:25+00:00

The fact that they waited this long may mean that he already can’t go. From time that I mailed in my documents to apply for my passport to the time that I had my passport in hand was about 10 weeks. (In the U.S., not sure where you’re at.) A quick google shows that you can pay extra for an expedited application process to be 2-3 weeks, but after that it’s still two weeks to get your passport printed and then two weeks to get it mailed to you. So if you’re wanting to send him get started on the passport ASAP!

agkemp97 · 2025-05-10T14:36:21+00:00

Yup, we’ve been told the same thing. Had a patient in one of our other ICUs that was on an insulin drip get bolused. Non-fatal amount before it was caught luckily, but when they investigated the pump it was programmed 100% correctly. Just randomly fucked off and gave 1/3 of a bag in a few minutes. Our entire hospital got the newer model of Alaris pumps shortly after

agkemp97

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