MomTimesFive
06-12-2008, 01:35 PM
This is kind of an update on my Mom and also a warning on the dangers of administering medications improperly.
My mom had been doing fairly well after her surgery. She was in good spirits and had the same wonderful, playful personality that we've always loved about her.
On Friday, the home health nurse noticed that her blood pressure was higher than usual. It was still high on Saturday, and then on Sunday it was getting near a dangerously high level. The nurse said to monitor her, and if there was any change in the way she was behaving to have her taken to the ER immediately. We took her back to the hospital later that day.
She was having difficulty swallowing, so the nurses crushed her nighttime pills and put them in applesauce. The next morning when my brother went to see her, she was having crazy hallucinations. It was unbelievable. They released her the next day in that condition :eeek: They said she was like that when she came in, which she definitely wasn't :mad:
When she got home, she seemed to recognize everyone, but then she started screaming that there was a rat on her bed. She became very agitated when I told her that there wasn't a rat. She said there were ants crawling on the wall next to her bed and saw people that weren't there. It was the scariest, most heartbreaking thing I've experienced in my life. She was a completely different person.
My husband remembered that they had crushed her pills and suggested that I call the pharmacist to find out if it was ok to crush the kind of pills she was taking. They said that OxyContin (one of her meds) should absolutely NOT be crushed. Crushing it can cause hallucinations and death :eeek:
The hospital would not admit that they had made mistake. They said their pharmacist said that crushing OxyContin wouldn't cause the kind of problem she was having. They said that the records showed that she was "alert and oriented" throughout her hospital stay :jawdrop:
We took her to a different hospital yesterday. They confirmed that she was suffering from chemical-induced dementia, and they are going to detox her. I just hope there isn't any permanent damage :(
My mom had been doing fairly well after her surgery. She was in good spirits and had the same wonderful, playful personality that we've always loved about her.
On Friday, the home health nurse noticed that her blood pressure was higher than usual. It was still high on Saturday, and then on Sunday it was getting near a dangerously high level. The nurse said to monitor her, and if there was any change in the way she was behaving to have her taken to the ER immediately. We took her back to the hospital later that day.
She was having difficulty swallowing, so the nurses crushed her nighttime pills and put them in applesauce. The next morning when my brother went to see her, she was having crazy hallucinations. It was unbelievable. They released her the next day in that condition :eeek: They said she was like that when she came in, which she definitely wasn't :mad:
When she got home, she seemed to recognize everyone, but then she started screaming that there was a rat on her bed. She became very agitated when I told her that there wasn't a rat. She said there were ants crawling on the wall next to her bed and saw people that weren't there. It was the scariest, most heartbreaking thing I've experienced in my life. She was a completely different person.
My husband remembered that they had crushed her pills and suggested that I call the pharmacist to find out if it was ok to crush the kind of pills she was taking. They said that OxyContin (one of her meds) should absolutely NOT be crushed. Crushing it can cause hallucinations and death :eeek:
The hospital would not admit that they had made mistake. They said their pharmacist said that crushing OxyContin wouldn't cause the kind of problem she was having. They said that the records showed that she was "alert and oriented" throughout her hospital stay :jawdrop:
We took her to a different hospital yesterday. They confirmed that she was suffering from chemical-induced dementia, and they are going to detox her. I just hope there isn't any permanent damage :(