Is this guy full of shit? (Medicinal Cocaine)

[PapaBear]

The son of one of my coworkers is an idiot, and quite often full of shit, so I don't know if this is for real. He claims that he had a nose bleed that just wouldn't stop. He went to the ER, and he says they gave him medicinal cocaine to stop the bleeding. This sounds impossible to me, as coke always had the opposite effect on me back in my "bad days".

[Gunner S]

The son of one of my coworkers is an idiot, and quite often full of shit, so I don't know if this is for real. He claims that he had a nose bleed that just wouldn't stop. He went to the ER, and he says they gave him medicinal cocaine to stop the bleeding. This sounds impossible to me, as coke always had the opposite effect on me back in my "bad days".

also, My Dad Does Cocaine alot and he says it causes Nosebleeds and doesnt prevent them
so wtf? sounds likes hes full of shit. I always know my Dad did Coke that night when i see a Square of toilet paper with blood dabbed on it.

[Dr Steve]

The son of one of my coworkers is an idiot, and quite often full of shit, so I don't know if this is for real. He claims that he had a nose bleed that just wouldn't stop. He went to the ER, and he says they gave him medicinal cocaine to stop the bleeding. This sounds impossible to me, as coke always had the opposite effect on me back in my "bad days".

Your coworker may indeed be an idiot and full of shit, but it is true that Ears Nose and Throat doctors remain the last bastion of medicincal cocaine use.

Cocaine is a "vasoconstrictor", not unlike oxymetazoline (the active ingredient in AFRIN nasal spray) or pseudoephedrine (the active ingredient in Sudafed or any decongestant with "D" in the name (like ClaritinD = Claritin + pseudoephedrine).

ENT docs used to use it a lot to dilate the nasal passages...it numbs them at the same time. So soaking a piece of cotton with cocaine solution and jamming it up the nose was a great way to prepare a nose for a flexible fiberoptic scoping.

When you constrict blood vessels, they don't bleed as hard, either, so cocaine can be used to stop bleeding from the mucus membranes including the nose.

Because people tend to like their cocaine a little too much and knowledge of vast quantities of cocaine kept in local ENT offices leaked out, most ENTs now use phenylephrine and lidocaine solution to do nasal preps. It's not abusable and studies show it works just as well.

The reason you remember cocaine CAUSING nosebleeds (epistaxis), is because you were abusing cocaine (using it for non-medical uses). Chronic use constricts the blood vessels in the nasal passages so much that they lose their blood supply. The mucus membranes die and your nose bleeds. I've seen people with the whole nasal septum eaten away by cocaine abuse. In addition, coke constricts other blood vessels in the body...like the HEART where it can cause heart attack (or in the brain, where it can cause stroke.

Jeez, what a buzzkill I am.

"Cocaine is a hellova drug!"
---Rick James

[Judge Smails]

Is this guy full of shit?

I don't know. But THIS (http://ronfez.net/forums/showthread.php?t=74815) guy definitely is.