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What Causes False Positive For THC In Drug Test?
Question: I am a nurse of 6 years. Last night one of my male pts. Weighing over 240 lbs. fell backwards on me and then we (pt. and I) fell through the privacy curtain onto the other pt. in the other bed. Since I got injured in this fall, my supervisors started to fill out a workers comp packet. I was drug tested on the spot. Here is my issue: I have had spinal decompression with fusion in 2009, and have been in chronic pain since. These are the narcotics I have been taking since 2009: 1. Fentanyl patch 25 Mcg. 2. Percocet 10/325mg 1 pill every 4-6 hrs for pain. 3. XXXXXXX 350mg 1 tab at bedtime. 4. Bactrim 800/160 1 tab twice a day for uti (I currently have a kidney infection because I have a fairly large kidney stone). 5. Naproxen 220 mg 1 tab bid for inflammation to my back, and now my Lt. Knee.....here comes my problem. My supervisor did a urine drug screen test on me on the spot and my urine tested positive for a small trace of thc. I haven't touched marijuana since I was 18-19 years old and I am now 44 years old. Is there ANY possible way that any of my prescribed medications may be throwing a false positive test for thc? My nursing job is on the line and i am so stressed out and worried about this situation. Any information. Would be greatly appreciated at this time. I did refuse to accept their test result, so they sent me to the nearest hospital and I had another urinalysis done along with some blood work per workmans comp. can you please give me your true opinion about this as I know it's been 20t years since I've even been around marijuana. Thank you XXXX
Brief Answer:
Keep scrips handy, hospital tests should be OK
Detailed Answer:
Hi there. I'm so sorry to hear about your injury on the Job. It must be killing you on top of all the other spinal issues that you have had to go through.
Urine THC false positives are well known to occur with many different medications. Including some of the ones that you are on. So I'm glad you got re-tested by two different methods in the hospital. You might wish to request that 'Gas Chromatography' be done as a test as that is probably the most accurate. JUst that its a bit expensive. So I do not know if they will spring for that in a workmans comp claim.
I use this website to keep a handy list of drugs that may show a false positive THC test. Take a look. You might want to print it out and take it with you to the workmans comp eval.
http://passmydrugtest.com.au/blogs/news/0000-pharmaceutical-drugs-which-can-cause-false-positives-in-a-drug-test
Overall though, I wouldn't be too worried. Since you haven't touched the stuff, the hospital tests will come back negative. Plus, a simple hair test will also be negative. With all that testing I'm sure you will be vindicated.
Hope it all goes well for you. Hope you get a chance to heal from the injury. Please take care of yourself. The world needs good nurses more than doctors (I should know, i'm a doc in a NeuroCritical Care Unit when I'm not doing this, and I lean on my nurses more than anything else).
Feel free to follow-up on this or anything else. Thanks for coming to HealthCareMagic.com
Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
Thank you so very much for your honest opinion. Hopefully with the hospital retesting my urine and the blood work it will show that I do not participate with this drug. It's just very embarrassing for me when my superiors know the results of the original test. I just feel like I am being looked at in a different way now. I am a strong willed person, so I will overcome this. Once again thank you so much for your time and expertise.XXXX
Brief Answer:
Lemme know how it goes
Detailed Answer:
Hey, no problem. Take care of yourself and if you ever need anything lemme know.
Vin
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Above answer was peer-reviewed by :
Dr. Vinay Bhardwaj
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