>  One of the first thing the doctor did when working up a family history
 >  was to ask about any addictions in our family...the only person with
 > any
 >  type of addiction history was my late husband who was the *step-father*
 > of
 >  my children...and who, by the way, was in AA for many years. He ran
 > into
 >  a "registered nurse" who "knew about addictions" and convinced him that
 > he
 >  should throw away his medicine and start vitamin suppliments...he went
 > into
 >  convulsions as a result and had to be rushed to the hospital...so I
 > tend
 >  to be a bit suspicious about "wisdom" from other than a medical doctor.
Was her name Jane....:)
If this nurse was a properly educated nurse and knew about drug addictions, 
and
alcoholism, she would have known you can't do that.  This is very elementary 
information when studying nursing.  I am appalled at the amount of nurses who 
don't know anything about discontinuing certain drugs abrutly.
I worked in a nursing home for a while.  A patient there was on Klonopin for 
epilepsy.  Well seems as though she didn't have a siezure for a long time and 
the doctor took her off the Klonopin cold turkey.  Well the nurse who took 
the order did not question it.  Needless to say, the patient went into status 
epilepticus and ended up dying.
Some people are under the perception that nurses don't do anything all day 
long.  Do you know how many times I had to question a doctor about his order, 
in order to save a patient's life.  I have only 6 years education, a doctor 
has a lot more.  And if something happens to a patient, even though I am just 
a lowely nurse just following a doctor's order, guess who gets the wrap?
The situation above was not me.  I was working at the time in a quality 
assurance capacity.  By the time, this incident came to my attention it was 
already too late.  Doctors are not GOD!
If a nurse gives you advice, and I know she is not God like doctors are, 
MOST--not all of the time you should take her word for it and question
the doctor, if he doesn't agree get a second opinion from another doc.
MaryAnn
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