primitives discuss hospitals cutting off pharmaceuticals

[franksolich]

http://www.democraticunderground.com/11515925

Oh my.

This little snippet of information is probably going to elude the casual reader, so be advised the primitive's talking about her 7' tall son, 400 pounds.

DebJ (7,437 posts)    Sun Aug 23, 2015, 01:23 AM

Is removing all meds a common hospital experience, or does this hospital have issues
 
that I should address in a letter to a number of people in administration? Or to who? I don't even know. It is a non-profit public hospital.

Is it common practice to remove all medications from a patient who enters the Behavioral Health units at hospitals upon their arrival? This is the third time my son has gone into the hospital in the last three years, and every time he gets zilch meds for about 48 hours, which further destabilizes him.

I called about that today, and I was told "Oh for some reason the medication order didn't make it to the pharmacy until today" He went in Thursday afternoon, and had not been given his trileptal, or his guanfacine (ADHD and high blood pressure) until late Saturday afternoon, nor allowed evem any klonazepam until late Friday evening. when at least they gave him that. (I would have to have klonazepam if I was in there, or I'd have a heart attack myself.)

After I got off the phone today, I remembered they gave me the same song and dance last year : "Oops somehow the order for medication didn't go the pharmacy the next morning" . Might have done so the year before, too, a third time for this; but that one I honestly don't remember...it was too traumatic as he had not been in the hospital for 13 years after his first truly hideous and frankly abusive experience at Sheppard Pratt in Baltimore. Is this cirremt hospital incompetent, or lying to me because this is a SOP?

The issue this time is quite serious. After removing all of his meds which have had him really well stable the past year, better than ever, but just a touch of mania that was ramping a bit too high so he checked himself in at his serious girl friend's advice, they have now not only destabilized him, but they gave him an SSRI.

I called and spoke to the nurse this morning, who spoke to the doctor, and by 8pm the doc was still working but hadn't filed paperwork to change the meds yet and she didn't know his determination as yet. I told them to watch my son, because he actually could become dangerous. I told her that the hospitals actions could easily trigger severe mania now, and there is a statistical correlation where severe manic attacks are followed by a higher likelihood of more frequent future severe attacks, and MORE severe. I said you may have permanently damaged my son's brain.

IMHO, having lived with this now since he first had behavioral difficulties at age 3 (after a sexual assault), he has two trigger issues right now, stressful situations, and one is to come to a final resolution Monday...but this 'resolution' has been scheduled 6 times in the past year so he's very anxious now...will this be the end, or just another interminable delay? The OCD starts working on his anxiety; he can't take SSRIs for OCD and apparently there still is nothing else for OCD. So the OCD ramps up the anxiety, and the whole ball of wax starts rolling, until medical intervention is needed. But he'd been doing so very well for so long, he was afraid to be honest with his psychiatrist. He was afraid of a med tweak, and finally, after 3 weeks of issues, he decided to check in.

My son has bipolar disorder, ADHD, OCD, and anxiety. The first time was hospitalized he was 17, and it was SSRIs that did him in. He was on five to seven of them, in sequence (for the OCD), and finally after doing some reading online written by people with children with bipolar disorder, it came to light that many with BP do worse with the SSRI's.

They send him skyrocketing into mania in very short order (like, 2 days). That entire hospitalization nightmare at Sheppard Pratt is a whole saga unto itself, but that's not my concern right at the moment.

He didn't need any other hospitalization for 13 years. He had been in the process of getting off Depakote, which added 200 lbs to his 7' frame, and it was rough at times as they kept trying different medications.

Three years ago in April, he had to go to the hospital. They put him on lamictal, which also turned into a bad choice. Fortunately my son is very good at monitoring his own responses to various meds, and usually with a tip-off from me that he needs a med tweak he sees his doc and gets it done.

He was on the lamictal for a year and a half, and during that time had another horrible problem in April again with mania, and I had to call the police for his own safety. He figured out after that, with discussion with his doctor, that he really doesn't suffer from depression seriously except when he's been given an anti-depressant to quell the mania, and that lamictal was really giving him some serious anger issues (ergo the hospitalization last year).

When my son told his regular doctor about the lamictal, his doctor replied, to our shock, yes that doc at the hospital just prescribes that garbage to everyone who comes in. He went on the trileptal last year, and has been doing better than ever in his life (girl friend is a miracle and that helps too). Problem is that he has also had serious weight gain again, maybe due to the trileptal.

And so, with that weight gain, they might well need to up his dose of the tripleptal. He's often had to do that with weight gains (and the opposite with losses) over the course of his life. But the hospital shrinks don't ask anything. They just take all his meds out for days and then do whatever they feel like. It is really horrendous, and makes him think many times over before seeking emergency assistance.

So is this SOP, does anyone know, to strip someone of his entire med routine for almost 48 hours? This is barbaric to me.

Appreciate any info I can get. If this is hospital ineptitude, I need to write some letters to a number of people until I get a response. So very many people in that hospital in that city have only a social worker to advocate for them, and the social workers are so overburdened, I don't know how they even remember anyone's names. If my son has experienced this at least twice in the past 16 months, I'm betting other patients have to. Just that no one bothers to speak up for them.

Tobin S. (7,884 posts)    Sun Aug 23, 2015, 10:44 AM

5. That's not been my experience.
 
I've been hospitalized three times and I went in through the emergency room all three times. They actually gave me something while I was still in the emergency room, and I was started on meds the next day.

I have a similar problem as your son. My main issue is acute mania. I do take a light dose of lithium, but the medication that has helped me the most is ziprasidone. It is often used to treat acute mania. I have been on those meds for over twelve years now and I have not been hospitalized in that time.

mopinko (44,529 posts)    Sun Aug 23, 2015, 01:18 PM

7. sounds extremely dangerous to me. and as others have said- malpractice.
 
srsly, they cant get meds from the pharmacy for TWO DAYS? gotta call bs on that. usually the sort of thing a phone call from a pissed off doctor would cure in 5 minutes.

is this unit part of a regular hospital, or is it freestanding? imagine if the medical wards worked like this? they'd be dropping like flies.

assume massive stupidity at work, but gotta wonder. maybe this leads to longer stays=more money.

you are a warrior mom. never stop.

[JohnnyReb]

I don't remember so many crazy, drug addicted young people back when folks were allowed to spank little kids and then later on whip older kids. Attitude adjustments worked wonders.

[Boudicca]

I don't remember so many crazy, drug addicted young people back when folks were allowed to spank little kids and then later on whip older kids. Attitude adjustments worked wonders.

It still does, just ask my kids.
Although I did raise them in the 80's and 90's but still, the CPS was all over the schools trying to tell kids to tell on their parents if they got spanked.  I know, cuz my son (recipient of many attitude adjusting sessions) threatened to tell on me, and I told him to enjoy his foster family forever.
It truly sucks when the system attempts to undermine a parent's heretofore unabridged right to bring up a child correctly.  It's not like I beat my kids, but they did know what corporal discipline was.
Mind you, the age my son came home and told me all this was 5!  He is holding down two full time jobs in EMT and ER work.  He was a pretty hardheaded little shit (like I was) and if he were doped up the way some of his peers were he'd probably be doing time.  There are legitimate mental health issues, but just trying to live in this overly permissive society while drugged to the gills as kids probably contributes greatly to the increased mental health problems in this country.

[Carl]

The truth likely is that the stoner was tripped out on something and they needed to get him stabilized and sober.