svengandhi
Well-Known Member
We recently moved my 90 year old aunt into an apartment near our home. We hired a friend of mine to work as her aide.
She is in really good health, her only problem is long standing high blood pressure and recently diagnosed GERD. She occasionally takes 1/4 Xanax but I have confiscated them because she said she wished she would die.
Last night, the aide called and said my aunt was on the toilet, unresponsive and lethargic when she stopped by. She called 911 while we ran over. EMS arrived and we had her taken to the hospital. I asked for a urine test to see if she had Xanax in her system because I had left 2 0r 3 at her apartment. She denied having taken any and I wasn't sure if she was lying or really didn't remember.
This afternoon, H called and said that the hospital had called and wanted to know why we were giving a 90 year old woman MARIJUANA because she had tested positive for cannabis! We were freaking out because the hospital called Adult Protective Services (yup, they get you at both ends of life!).
Anyway, we did a bunch of research and H located an article which said that 20 odd elderly people in a Missouri nursing home had tested positive for pot. The only connection between them was that they all took Protonix, a Rx for GERD which my aunt recently started taking and which I used to take as well. Apparently, Protonix can cause a false positive for cannabis. We had dinner with my friend, who is a psychiatrist at an ER and she had never heard of this reaction - she said that she often sees older people, women in particular, who seem stoned and now she wonders if they had taken these medications. It's also been found with Nexium, Prilosec and other similar PPI medications. We brought copies of the article to the hospital - nobody there had ever heard of it even though the article is from 2008!
What's interesting is that I took this medication for 6 months and did not have the reaction, so I am wondering if it may be more common in elderly people.
Anyway, this was so bizarre that I just wanted to share it because I am sure that, with our difficult children, I am not the only one taking medications for stomach problems.
If it helps you, pass it along!
She is in really good health, her only problem is long standing high blood pressure and recently diagnosed GERD. She occasionally takes 1/4 Xanax but I have confiscated them because she said she wished she would die.
Last night, the aide called and said my aunt was on the toilet, unresponsive and lethargic when she stopped by. She called 911 while we ran over. EMS arrived and we had her taken to the hospital. I asked for a urine test to see if she had Xanax in her system because I had left 2 0r 3 at her apartment. She denied having taken any and I wasn't sure if she was lying or really didn't remember.
This afternoon, H called and said that the hospital had called and wanted to know why we were giving a 90 year old woman MARIJUANA because she had tested positive for cannabis! We were freaking out because the hospital called Adult Protective Services (yup, they get you at both ends of life!).
Anyway, we did a bunch of research and H located an article which said that 20 odd elderly people in a Missouri nursing home had tested positive for pot. The only connection between them was that they all took Protonix, a Rx for GERD which my aunt recently started taking and which I used to take as well. Apparently, Protonix can cause a false positive for cannabis. We had dinner with my friend, who is a psychiatrist at an ER and she had never heard of this reaction - she said that she often sees older people, women in particular, who seem stoned and now she wonders if they had taken these medications. It's also been found with Nexium, Prilosec and other similar PPI medications. We brought copies of the article to the hospital - nobody there had ever heard of it even though the article is from 2008!
What's interesting is that I took this medication for 6 months and did not have the reaction, so I am wondering if it may be more common in elderly people.
Anyway, this was so bizarre that I just wanted to share it because I am sure that, with our difficult children, I am not the only one taking medications for stomach problems.
If it helps you, pass it along!
