Narcan to the rescue!

My last long call, I had a little old lady patient who came in with pancreatitis. As usual, they gave her some i.v. pain medication in the emergency dept...0.3mg of dilaudid. That might not seem like much, especially 1.5 hrs later, when it is supposed to be wearing off....at least, that's how it seemed to me. So, when she started breathing "funny," per her daughter and not responding very well, my first response was to call for an arterial blood gas and glucose levels. Both of which were relatively unenlightening, though she did not squirm at all during the abg sticks (1st was unproductive). Thank goodness for my upper-level resident, Super-Barbara, who came to the rescue (as I was about to ask about moving the patient to a higher-grade bed) and ordered the Narcan. What a wonderful drug! About fifteen seconds and she started to wake up! I was very relieved...felt a bit stupid, but at least I learned something.