A few years ago while vacationing with friends, I had an experience in a small town in Delaware that luckily ended okay.

While in the E/R for uncontrollable dyskinesia and pain from both hands having carpal tunnel syndrome, the E/R staff gave me an anti-nausea medicine through the IV in my arm. Unfortunately, they didn't use Zofran (which is safe for PD patients) but used one that works by stopping dopamine production!

All of a sudden, my lungs quit working and I couldn't breathe. I mouthed "help!" to one of the friends who was with me. She thought I just wanted help with the pain. In retrospect, when I told her they'd given me the wrong medicine which stopped my breathing, she said "Oh! That's why they slapped that oxygen mask on you so fast!" But I never knew what happened after I mouthed "help."

If they had asked me, I would have told them I could have Zofran, but not any other anti-emetics that I knew of, but no one asked and I didn't think to tell them because I didn't realize what they were putting in my IV. Now, if I go into the hospital, I tell them up front I can have this, I can't have that, etc. If they seem bored by what I'm telling them, I just repeat myself until they do listen.