code blog: tales of a nurse

Toradol is a wonderful drug. I see the Nurses and Docs here use it a fair ammount of the time. I've also noted that they give gravol with Demerol and Morphine. Does Toradol have less side effects than Demerol or Morphine in terms of the dizziness and nausea?
Just a question. :)
~Kaylin

Toradol is not a narcotic (which is why it's surprising to me that it works so well). Demerol has a lot of side effects, including possible seizures, high chance of becoming dependent on it, etc. I think Toradol has the potential for causing dizziness/nausea, but it hasn't yet in my experience.

Thanks for the Info Geena. I appriciate that. :)

~Kaylin

My Mom always said morphine made her pain worse for quite awhile before it kicked in and helped the pain.

As I told Rangel, our hospital still uses a fair amount of Demerol. We have several patients who are allergic to morphine and can't take NSAIDs (ie, no Toradol).

Myself, I'm so allergic to morphine that I have to wear gloves to draw it up for my patients. Yep. Can't even get it on my skin.

That's the same as me with powdered latex gloves. I get serious contact dermatitis if I wear the powdered latex gloves at all, even for a moment.

What comprises your patient's allergy to morphine?

Pretty much everything I've read on pain medications during birth mentions that the narcotics don't really take away the pain. Our childbirth class instructor said they "take the edge off;" women who've used them during labor seem more likely to describe it as "didn't do much/anything for the pain during a contraction, but between contractions I was stoned."

Excelent post. I mentioned it on my blog.

I was told today that Toradol can't be used for someone who might end up going for surgurey. One of our patients last night had a lower lumbar fracture from a fall and he was query for a surgical consult and admit. I asked the nurse if she might ask the Doc for perhaps some Toradol, because he was asking for Morphine like it was going out of style. I didn't think he was a drug seeker at all, and neither did she. But apparently because he might have been going for surgurey he couldn't have Toradol. Something about it acting like Ibuprofin and potentially causing a bleed.
Anyways, that's my .02 cents for the night.

Interesting comment, Kaylin. After thinking about it, I realize that I've only given Toradol to patients post-op.
Toradol can change the lining of the stomach, making it more susceptible to bleed, which causes all kinds of problems. It also can't be used long-term. But I hadn't heard that it shouldn't be given prior to surgery.

I'll see if I can't look it up in the CPS tonight at work if I get the chance. I love browsing through that thing.
I'm such a geek. LOL

Do you think gravol can be given to a person that did have valve transplant and Doctors are given medicine for aritmia and atincuagulant and now they are given morfine for the pain because is unberable can you help me with this question? I forgont my Mom is from Mexico. thank you

I understand that toradol has the potential to drop platelets, thus increasing the risk for bleeding. Works great for our post-op pt's but I saw it once given accidentally to a patient with ITP and she ended up in ICU due to hemmorrhage.

I NEED HELP FOR MY WIFE, SHE HAS CRONIC BACK PAIN, WITH TAKING RPEDNIZONE FOR YEARS, SHE HAS HAD A STROKE, A STINT PUT IN, AND A MULTITUDE OF OTHER ILLS, BUT THE PAIN GETS WORSE MORE AND MORE, WE HAVE TRIED, DEMEROL, IT MAKES HER SICK, OXYCODONE,20 MG. MAKES HER DIZZY, T 3S WORK THE BEST, BUT GIVES HER CONSTIPATION, IS THERE ANYTHING YOU CAN SUGGEST THAT WPOULD HELP WITH THE SEVERE PAIN.

Hi Bob, if you ever visit this site again, you could have her try dilaudid and gravol. Gravol is basically the same metabolized drug as many anti-allergy medications like Benedryl and effectivly the same medication, reducing nausea. Dilaudid is a synthetic morphine or hydromorphone. It shares many of the same properties as other narcotics however MUCH more potent than even oxycodone. Depending on your wife's wieght you can ask for about 4mg or so depending on circumstance. I myself was prescribed 8mg per dose but it was WAY too much, it was like I was swimming in drugs, couldn't function. Toradol works wonders for inflammation pain kind of like Ibuprofen on steroids. So if her back is external to nerve damage meaning skeletal or muscular in nature (For nerve damage hydrocodone would work wonders likely.)then Toradol could have a BIG effect on reducing pain meds and pain since when worked in tandem they are amazing...just make sure you have a good liver and no stomach issues or ulcers or it will aggrevate them. A Gravol/Toradol mix might be ok however you may want to look into a Maxeran/Dilaudid mix as that is amazingly effective in nerve damage cases and helps me function normally as anyone else (I had a bad head injury when I was 19 and almost died so I have TONS of residual nerve damage) Also a preventative may work well too like some anti-siezure medications although expensive can work wonders for some people. Anyway some ideas, I hope this helps. Cheers!

RE: toradol. I received it with small amount of moriphine after a hysterectomy and due to the thining of the blood ended up with both uterine arterys breaking loose of sutchers and lost 4 units of blood within less than 24 hours and had to replace prior to going in for surgical correction of the arteries which were double sutchered to start with... caution with the thinning and post op use of Toradol. I won't use it again, and I requested it as a recovering alcoholic.

RE: toradol. I received it with small amount of moriphine after a hysterectomy and due to the thining of the blood ended up with both uterine arterys breaking loose of sutchers and lost 4 units of blood within less than 24 hours and had to replace prior to going in for surgical correction of the arteries which were double sutchered to start with... caution with the thinning and post op use of Toradol. I won't use it again, and I requested it as a recovering alcoholic.

My son had a creatinine count of 1.3 in January of 2005. He was put on toradol, and today the creatinine count is 4.0. His kidney's are failing. Do you think it could be from the toradol?

I was diagnosed w/chronic ITP shortly after returning from serving in the Gulf War...Yesterday, I presented to ER w/severe pain in my right kidney...The ER doc asked if I was allergic to anything and I advised him that I couldn't take anything containing NSAIDS...Come to find out, I had a kidney stone and Morphine was given IVP the first time and then he ordered that I be given Toradol IVP; even after I had just told him about my ITP...My platelets dropped over night to 8,0000...Do Physicians ever listen to their patients anymore? This could have ended far worse than what it did....

my mom went to hospital,had surgury,abdommel block.after 2 days she she not,talkin like my mom,she thinks the hospital staff is trying to kill her.she had morphine for 2 days now she stop all pain med. she in california i am in texas.my sister had to stay the night in the hospital because my mom is not right.i talk to my mom on the phone and she said to me,you knew i was going to die,i said what mom are you talking about.my sister said its the morphine.the dr. said to her.she will not drink water from hospital or foood.my sister,has to go to store and buy water for my mom to drink it.any one can help me whats happen to my mom.i love my mom

That's about my experience with IV morphine, and that of an ex-boyfriend. He has a nice little story about being shot in the gut and being given IV morphine...that morphine is interesting, because it doesn't take the pain away, it just makes it...okay. EVERYTHING is...okay. You're just good with it alllll. You still hurt, but that's fine...

I personally regard opiates with a respect bordering on fear, because anything that can take me from sobbing and writhing in pain, no embarassment, no propriety, and put me into the "I've just had three orgasms in a row" happy pink place is some dangerous stuff. And yes, likewise, I still knew I hurt, I was just too blissed out to react to the pain.

back to the initial post - I wanted to respond, though this post is a little old now... I was severely burned over ten years ago, and I remember the effects if the pain meds. administered to me during the whole treatment and recovery quite well. I have found, with my own experience that NOTHING takes the pain away (of burns). At least no med. that was available at that time. Morphine and demoral had interesting effects, however. They made me not pay attention to the pain. They made it possible for me to "get through" the pain, and kept me distracted, at least during the peak moments of drug action. I used the TV, my visitors' company, nursing staff, etc., as tools to help me NOT focus on the constant burning sensation as well. I won't lie, it's a hard thing for me to re-visit. I've had natural childbirth since that time, and I can say that it was an absolute cake-walk compared to the pain of burns. I am very relieved to know that today's burn patients have more options, including simply "sleeping" through the whole ordeal in induced coma-like states. I wish so much that those options had been available for me. I will finally add here, for your education, that the best way I can describe the activity of the opiate-derived pain meds. is that you still feel the sensation of the nerves' pain responses, but the actual pain perception is altered. You are fully aware of how much pain your body is in; it's your body's way of asking you to seek help. It's a fully "survival-mode" function, and a bio-evolutionary, unchangeable facet of our physiology and design. However, the opiate derivatives allow the brain to interpret that message differently, and to actually IGNORE that emergency messaging system. So you lie, aware of the tremendous pain, (and sometimes nothing touches that pain - this was my experience with the whole bathing and cleaning sessions), but the pain is MOVED...the awareness is not in the most conscious, focal part of one's thinking. The pain is sort of moved - to the "back" of your mind, filed along with the telephone ringing, the voices in the hall outside, etc... The focus becomes on things like one single ray of beautiful light flowing in through the window at midday... a single petal on a beautiful bloom in the flower arrangement sent by a loved one... the sound of a raindrop on the outside sill of the window... The effects of those meds. are truly poetic. Must be why the street versions tend to attract and entrap writers, musicians, poets.
Thank you for letting me share my experiences here.

Surgery for a lot of cervical issues. hernated disc c-3 unstable neck ( previous failed fusion) cord compression, kyphosis etc. I develop hives and itching from the top of my head to the bottom of feet with diaudid. I want some information about alternatives. Post op benedryl etc does nothing. Surgery is 2 weeks.

Several years back I fought cancer and won.
I also became fairly addicted to morphine 15mg tablets during that time.

A year or so later I hurt my back. My PCP put me on extended release morphine and IR morphine.

This went on for about 15 months. All of a sudden, based on a comment I made that I didn't like being dependent on pills anymore.... she cut me off. Completely, utterly. Wanted Physical Therapy instead.
Afterwards I went to several other doctors, but my old doctors notes (state doctor) seemed to be everywhere and each doctor would congratulate me on my length of sobriety from the narcotics and none would treat me.
This week I had two lower wisdom teeth pulled out.... I now have dry socket... I am in serious pain. I am leaving for the ER as soon as my ex-wife is done with her shift (last person I want to see for my nurse). I already feel the doctor will try to shove more OTC meds down my throat as if I haven't been trying them already. Makes me wish I was still living closer to the boarder... USA doctors are way to afraid to give pain meds for pain.... and we wonder why some people opt for the cheaper (and illegal) street heroin.

Matt

i was recently in the er for pain in the chest was given great results that they found nothing to be wrong that it could be stressed related, as i was waiting to be released the np said she was going to give me a shot of toradol to take the edge off the pain, im like ok i guess i told her i didnt want anything that made me feel bad, she said it wont. she had an RN give me a 30mg injection, i told her that burns. and then i had like a medal taste in my mouth. then thats when my life went spinning out of control.blood pressure dropped to 60/30. next thing i know im on a journey to a bigger hospital 45 miles away in ccu ..now thanks to this injection i am having heart problems .. kidney problems.. etc etc...