Juan M. Carrillo, a deputy medical examiner in Los Angeles County, described Ms. Presley’s health problems after the bariatric surgery as a “known long-term complication of this type of surgery.”...
For months, she complained of abdominal pain, fevers, vomiting and nausea but did not seek medical attention, according to the report.
We're told "[t]he report stated that although Ms. Presley had a previous history of drug use, she was sober 'for the past few years'" but also that she "was prescribed opiates after her surgery" and then "another type of medication so that she could be taken off the opiates" and "toxicology results showed 'therapeutic levels of oxycodone' in her blood." Maybe I don't know the meaning of the word "sober."
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There’s no official AA designation for what sobriety means. To the majority of AAs I’ve known it means abstaining from alcohol. But for the hard core big book Nazis, taking any “mind altering substance” without a doctor’s prescription qualifies as a slip, no longer sober.
“ I think if you were Satan and you were settin around tryin to think up somethin that would just bring the human race to its knees what you would probably come up with is narcotics.” Cormac McCarthy.
Apparently she had some sort of cosmetic surgery fairly recently and was prescribed painkillers after that. I think the way to parse this is that she seems to have been sober for several years but had trouble in recent months.
Opiates cause constipation. ER docs are always having to fix drug addicts' bowel obstructions. Takes surgery at some point.
This one, though, she sounds especially dumb.
Maybe if you have a prescription, you’re treated with delicacy.
It did say 'therapeutic' levels, which I interpret as consistent with a prescribed regimen.
'Sober' implies an element of personal agency associated with drug intake, but I would exclude doctor's orders from this. A reformed addict may still occasionally need surgery, but would surgical anesthesia count against sobriety?
What a sad legacy, both Presley's dying of lifestyle-predicated gut issues. I Wonder why she didn't seek medical help.
Maybe 'therapeudic' means 'therapeudic'. If you're not celibate, that doesn't mean you're a slut.
I had to give up alcohol about five years ago (I drank a LOT). Once you commit it's easy peasy. But I miss a little buzz once in a while, so I allow myself 10 mg of Oxy ONCE a week. Works for me. In fact it makes me a better me. I'm about the most active, cheerful 80 year old you're likely to meet.
You know, when the goverment went all ape-shit about opiods a few years ago, the number of prescriptions were cut in half. Funny how the fatal OD numbers went up astronomically. Maybe we should bring back prohibition.
"Did not seek medical attention" is implausible.
Here's a likely scenario. She had "bariatric" surgery. It's what people did for radical weight loss before Ozempic came along. It has always been a troublesome treatment. So she, like many, had constant issues with abdominal pain, intermittent partial bowel obstructions, etc. After a while it probably just got easier to ignore mild to moderate symptoms with the hope they'd get better. A miscalculation....bowel obstructions that progress to the point of perforation will kill you if not detected and treated promptly. You don't need to invoke narcotics or alcohol but neither would be surprising and would naturally make the whole situation worse. A sad life.
Ah, my mistake-of-memory, Elvis died of a myocardial infarction, but it was suffered while straining on the toilet - his autopsy also revealed a large bowel obstruction owing to a barium X-ray treatment he had received a few weeks beforehand.
Poor woman.
I have noticed that doctors in general are much less likely to give opiates as post-operative pain killers these days. They want you to try to recover with Motrin and Tylenol if you can.
Even my dog! He had major surgery and they didn't give him anything that would be addictive to a person.
So she didn’t die of the Covid jab after all, like all those other thousands of people, eh?
>Ann Althouse said...
results showed 'therapeutic levels of oxycodone' in her blood." Maybe I don't know the meaning of the word "sober."<
Which is to imply that she was intoxicated (the antonym of "sober") with only therapeutic levels of the drug. In which case I must agree that maybe you don't.
Postop bowel obstructions are well known to every surgeon. She was just dumb and another Darwin Award candidate.
Just like her daddy. Pills to stay up, pills to sleep, pills to feel no pain, and sooner or later the shit won't come. IIRC the medical examiner reported Elvis's bowels to be full of impacted solid stool--chalky and white.
Chalky White sounds like an old bluesman.
My friend's friend had bariatric surgery which went wrong. She lost nearly her entire intestines. For the rest of her life she will have to subsist on a nutritional paste that the stomach alone can absorb--very expensive. and gross. This is not a risk-free cure for obesity.
It's just all so sad. WHY do people ignore significant pain, vomiting etc? My uncle was only 47 when he died in 2003 from a dead small intestine. He'd mostly ignored signs for months, although he also went to the ER twice and they only gave him Maalox instead of an X-ray so that was some horrible malpractice too.
Turns out that the artery that supplies the small intestine was blocked by atherosclerosis. If he'd gotten prompt treatment, there would have been enough healthy small intestine left to enable him to continue a normal life.
A periodic capsule endoscopy should be standard if this is a known complication.
Blogger Inga said...
So she didn’t die of the Covid jab after all, like all those other thousands of people, eh?
Nope, it was just stupidity so you need to watch out.
Among those in the recovery ministry at my church (many of whom have struggled with long-term addictions), "sober" means not drinking alcohol, and "clean" means not using drugs. Most refer to themselves as "clean and sober" if they are free from both.
Michael K,
You’re such a charming old geezer.
A long period of brutal, intense pain unrelieved by NSAIDs, acetaminophen, and muscle relaxers will change your opinion about the use of opiates. I invite you to give it a try.
An emergency room visit will yield couple of days of relief while you wait weeks to see a spinal surgeon who "doesn't prescribe opiates pre-surgery" and then weeks longer while you wait for another appointment. Most doctors around here simply refuse to prescribe even low level 5 milligram doses of norco regardless of your clean history and an x-ray that looks like a three year old's attempt at building blocks and play-dough.
They cite the DEA as the cause. It's insane.
I'll add, if you haven't experienced this within the last three or four years you're in for a very different experience than before.
Not sure what sober means? Wonder where that puts me. I quit drinking 22 years ago. Rehab, AA, the full regimen (although the AA meetings will drive you to drink so I quit going after 3 or 4 months). Nary a slip in 22 years. I cook with wine, my wife drinks a glass of wine or two several nights a week, I entertain clients quite a bit and it has just never been an issue for me.
6 years ago I fractured three vertebra in my back, was temporarily paralyzed and given the nature of the fractures, it is inoperable in so much as any procedure has about a 20% success rate v a greater than 50% chance of causing additional problems including paralysis or death.
When I left the hospital after a week in ICU, I came home with 4 different opioid prescriptions, 3 or 4 muscle relaxants, a couple of nerve meds and some other pills like calcium units and stool looseners. This was right before the Fed brought the hammer down on opioids. When regulations got onerous, my PC referred me to a back specialist and we severely pared back on the meds and settled in on 3 hydrocodones per day/90 per month. I really need 4-5 per day but just figured we could make that work. I run short every single month with about a week left. I never crave them when I run out and have no drug seeking behaviors. I just suffer for a week, pee in my little cup and start the new cycle over again.
Am I sober?
I'll further add that the abusers who use opiates for a euphoric high are using hundreds of milligrams daily. Or they were when those were medically available. Now they use street drugs laced with fentanyl.
You can see the results of these policies in the morgue. And not every one in there was looking to get high. Many were simply seeking pain relief that the medical community will no longer provide.
I've recently seen grown men, obviously not homeless addicts, writhing, crying in pain, and begging Jesus for help for hours in an ER waiting room. They likely got a day or two's worth of relief if they were lucky.
Then the pain comes back. And there is no answer.
The pressure to prescribe narcotics was a factor in my retiring from ER work. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. The system as a whole was dysfunctional, so handing out a few days worth - even if you could sort out the legit from the Seekers - didn't accomplish much. Usually they had no luck getting any useful follow up short term. Hand out bigger supplies and you'd have some of the less - ahem - temperate drug abusers come back in full arrest.
It was hard to do the right thing by either the legit or the addicts.
Blogger Inga said...
Michael K,
You’re such a charming old geezer.
The operative word is "old." I'm doing fine. How is your president vote looking these days ?
Doing opioids or fentanyl will cause constipation. Take laxatives if you are doing these drugs.
"California Sober"
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Here's my take and what I've heard in the "rooms" over my 29 years plus of sobriety. I don't drink alcohol. Many alcoholics, fearful of relapsing early on in recovery, ask about pain meds and such. The advice I give, IF ASKED or if it is my sponsee, is 1. take as prescribed. 2. Maybe ask a spouse or loved one to dole them out to you every so many hours as the prescription dictates. 3. Be honest with your physician 4. Be honest with yourself. No one should have to suffer pain but the government thinks so.
Having said that, as soon as you mention the "marijuana maintenance program" that many alkies like to stay on after taking their last drink, you get the "coffee is a drug and addictive, what about that???"
I don't want to take any mood-altering substance because my judgment over the years has proven to be real bad for myself, and I need to be reminded of how bad it was drinking against my will for over a decade. I don't need a substance to cloud what I've learned in the rooms.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Take home message: Keep your mind full and your bowels empty.
Maybe I don't know the meaning of the word "sober."
I would say possibly not. It doesn’t mean a prohibition against receiving normal levels of pain relief. You’re right though that such people need to be treated much more cautiously to make sure the prescribed regimens are not misused.
Aggie is right.
SBO is not so uncommon, especially as a complication after the surgery she had. Parts of the intestine adhere to each other and close off passage, is I believe what happens. The part below stops absorbing nutrients and the slowdown in its activity makes it easier for the bacteria within to translocate into the bloodstream, causing sepsis and death. Additionally the adhesions might have contained abscessed tissue, possibly worsening that infectious process. An unfortunate way to go.
A therapeutic level of opiates is probably consistent with suboxone. It is used to treat operate addicts with a very mild dose of opiate, plus and additive to prevent you from getting the high from opiates, to help keep you from abusing. Eventually you hope to wean off that but it is challenging and many stay on suboxone for years. This is a legitimate treatment for addiction and though many are dogmatic about being totally substance free, this help millions get off opiate abuse. I wish people would be less dogmatic about it. Whatever works to get you from abusing should be tried including medical intervention.
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