OK, we’ve got a thread going about general anesthesia, and another going about morphine, which brings me to something I was discussing with my sister last night, regarding IV Dilaudid. We both have this reaction to it, and according to the nurses I’ve talked to, it’s pretty common, though none of them seem to be able to explain it.
The nurse puts the syringe in my IV, depresses the plunger, and almost instantly I feel warmth and pressure across my collar bone, at the tops of my shoulders, and the top of my head. The pressure at the top of my head is almost enough to register as “headache”, but lasts for maybe two or three seconds. By the time that warmth and pressure wears off, the drug has hit my blood stream full-force, and I may still be in pain, but I’m no longer concerned about it!
So what, exactly (and this is why I put this in GQ) causes that pressure/warmth thing? Other IV narcotics don’t seem to do it (at least not to me or my sister). My sis told me she’s never gotten a satisfactory answer from any medical person, and I said “If there’s anyone who knows, it’s a Doper!”