10:05 AM, Sunday, a living room in Lake Worth. A woman we'll call Ingrid, 38, engineer, is watching a nurse prep her first-ever hangover drip — and being an engineer, she is conducting an audit from the couch, one eye open: "Before that goes in my arm — what, exactly, is in it? Line items. I read spec sheets for a living." The nurse, delighted (this is genuinely the staff's favorite kind of client): "Four components. Want them in order of operation?" Ingrid did. So might you. Here's the spec sheet.
Component one: the liter
The base is a liter of clinical fluid — sterile saline or lactated Ringer's, the identical stock hospitals hang. Unglamorous, and the single most important line on the manifest: alcohol suppressed vasopressin all night, your kidneys exported fluid on roughly this scale, and every symptom downstream — the headache's fluid component, the fatigue, the cotton mouth — answers to volume first. Electrolytes ride in the base, repaying the sodium and potassium the night's diuresis shipped out with the water.
Everything else in the bag is a specialist. The liter is the infantry — nothing works until it's on the field.
Components two and three: the medications
This pair is what separates the formula from every wellness drip on the menu. Anti-nausea: ondansetron (Zofran) — the same anti-emetic running in hospital and chemo suites, at standard clinical dose, typically pushed early so the stomach stands down while the rest of the session works; for most clients it's the first noticeable event of the morning, often within minutes. Headache support: an anti-inflammatory such as ketorolac (Toradol) — an NSAID at clinical strength addressing the inflammatory half of the morning-after headache while the liter handles the dehydration half. Both are real medications with real screening: the health history covers who shouldn't receive NSAIDs (kidney issues, certain GI histories), which is one more reason the person pushing them should be an RN.
Component four: the restock
B-complex vitamins, closing the loop the night opened: alcohol metabolism and diuresis both spend B vitamins — thiamine most famously — and the restock logic here is the direct descendant of the hospital banana bag, modernized. Some menus add-on extras (glutathione, extra magnesium); the four components above are the canonical formula, and every one of them has a stated job. No proprietary blends, no mystery — a formula you can't get itemized is a formula worth questioning.
The manifest, delivered
Hangover $249
Every ingredient on this page, on a couch of your choosing.
B-Complex · B12 · Vitamin C · Anti-Nausea · Anti-Inflammatory
Ingrid, audit complete
She approved the spec — "fluids for volume, Zofran for the mutiny, Toradol for the drum solo, Bs for the ledger. Coherent system" — and, being an engineer, rated the experience afterward with characteristic precision: "Nausea resolved at minute six. Headache at minute forty. Would have paid the invoice for minute six alone." That's the manifest: four components, four jobs, zero mystery. Exactly how anything entering your arm should read.
This article is for general education and is not medical advice. IV therapy at SurgIV is administered by registered nurses under physician-written protocols, with a health screening before your first visit. Talk to your doctor about what is right for you.
