Paradoxical Reaction from hell to Compazine..no kidding!

by Chan Li
(Boise, Idaho )

I am an oncology nurse and about 17 years ago for no reason I began to have these strange headaches, they literally would come from nowhere and last for days on end. I went to my doctor and he said it was probably stress.

Well in my mind (because I was a cancer nurse)I just knew that I had a brain tumor! I was at work late one night on the cancer floor and one of these headaches came on and I said enough is enough...I went clocked and went to the ER and checked in as a patient. The resident doc who seen me said that it was probably a sinus infection and prescribed two large shots of Rocephin one in each hip and a prescription for hydrocodone.

I went home thinking that I was cured, woke up the next day with the same headache, so I went and got the pain med filled and took 2 of them (yuck..I threw up). A few days went by and I was at work again one night and here we go again...the worst one ever. After my shift was finished I went back to the ER and checked in and this time I spoke with a doctor and I told him here is my bottle of hydrocodone, I do not want pain meds, I want to know why I am having headaches and my doctor won't help me...I want a CT of the brain.

He laughed and said okay, I am going to have the nurse start and iv to give you some fluids and some Compazine, I said I am not nauseated and he said it's for your headache not nausea. So they started the iv and gave me the Compazine iv push, minutes later while my mother was sitting in a chair next to my bed, I sat straight up and yelled, "I need to get the f..out of here! I want to go home, I need to leave NOW!".

My mother was horrified and got the nurse and doctor back into the room and he said that I was having a paradoxical reaction to the Compazine. He gave me Benadryl 50mg rapid iv push and seconds later, I felt much better, but still on edge. I had the CT scan and there was no tumor, nothing was wrong with me! The doctor told me that it was more than likely stress and that I needed to take a vacation and that's what I did, and from that day on, I never had another headache, ever!

I will never forget that feeling of having to flee the scene and cursing in front of my mother. I was horrified because I didn't understand what was going on even though I had witnessed this paradoxical reactions in my patients. God bless anyone that has to go through one of them!