buddy

New Member
I just went to change Q's weekly clonidine patches. The ones that they say are at such a high dose, no adult is on that high of a dose, etc... and if they come off and don't go back on he can have a stroke.

When he checked out of the hospital they said, hey, this says daily clonidine patches. I said no weekly so the one I put on friday should be there, you checked daily right to make sure...OH yes.. well with all his behavior, I took their word for it and thought, no biggie I wll change it Friday.

So, IT IS NOT ON! I quick grabbed two and put them on...

NO WONDER we couldn't get him out of the hospital that day!!!! Can you believe it. And he just said, mom is that why you think my heart has been pounding really hard and I am so sweaty every day? HUH????


He had just had a little "fake" spell and I asked him to lie down.

Now, I'm thinking can putting this on suddenly be too much???

I have to call another doctor. they are checking with the in. pt . doctor. but I will call mine too.

I am gonna be checking him every half hour. Just beside myself.


ummm and why did the day go so totally wrong with him???

I should know better...before the lamictal EVERY single time Q had a big behavior issue, there was a medication error. Either school forgot Concerta, or pharmacy couldn't get a medication in on time, etc. EVERY SINGLE TIME. I just thought with all that has gone on, maybe it was different this time. I am so .... ARRRGGGGGG
 

InsaneCdn

Well-Known Member
Go easy on yourself, Buddy.

Its SO HARD to split that fine line... some things change, some things stay the same, and we never know which ones are on which side of the line.

You were not the only one who missed this... hospital did too.

Breathe. You'll get through this, too.
 
L

Liahona

Guest
It is going to be o.k. Breath. This isn't your fault. Now that you know you can fix it, and he'll have a better day tomorrow. Talk to the doctor but repeat to yourself 'he is ok'. He needs you to be on even keel. Breath.

(((HUGS)))
 
T

TeDo

Guest
Oh man! Now I'M mad. I would ask for documentation from psychiatric hospital as to when patch was last checked. That is a HUGE medication error. I don't know that putting 2 on is the right thing to do though. I am glad you are getting ahold of the doctor though to make sure. It might be that he just has a rough couple days while the medication gets back into his system.

I just can't believe the stupidity sometimes. by the way, keep my spare armor. I just found a new set with rhino skin built in. LOL
 

buddy

New Member
so now all this drama with school could have been avoided...

And I put the patches on and now I am scared that it is too fast to go back up...so I called the pediatrician to make sure he will be ok. I called the hospital and they dont seem at all alarmed at their miss. Well, we dont really know how long... shouldn't it have been checked daily as part of his medications? The first time he was in that is what I asked and they said yes. I made sure they knew they come off sometimes in the shower so to check.


Yes I will calm but they spent all this time telling me that if they ever come off and I dont notice he can have a huge rebound high blood pressure. He is telling me now his heart has been beating really hard and hurting but he didnt want to tell anyone because he wanted to know if he could not have those on. I am trying to make it seem like nothing because he will go into one of his no sleep all night anxiety times. I think I have caught that tonight.

Ok I will try what you said, but really??? This just feels like th straw that broke the camels back
 

Hound dog

Nana's are Beautiful
(((hugs)))

You really need to make an enormous deal out of this with the hospital. Seriously. There is NO excuse for such a medication error. Yes, they're human. But you certainly don't shrug it off when it's discovered. Make certain you get this reported to the right people and don't let them put you off.

Now go soak in a nice hot tub and try to relax for a bit.
 

Wiped Out

Well-Known Member
Staff member
I would be so upset about this. When my difficult child is off of his clonidine he literally has NO control!! At one point when he was hospitalized they wanted to trial a medication on him that would require him to be off the clonidine. They gave up on that after about 8 hours. Your son really had no chance at school yesterday if he is anything like mine. Sending gentle hugs your way and I hope that you took that relaxing bath Lisa suggested. ((((hugs))))
 

DammitJanet

Well-Known Member
wow just wow. Hospital did this to me when I got taken in with the meningitis. I was so out of it that I was incoherent and was babbling in some disconnect tongues. I had a fever of 106. My oldest son had grabbed all my medications to bring with me to the hospital so they would know what I was on. I am on 3 if not 4 medications that can cause seizures if removed abruptly. The ER was convinced that I had taken a drug overdose and tried to tell my kids that was all that was the matter with me. Cory practically assaulted on PA when they said that because he knows I dont take too many of my medications...lol. Besides, too many of my medications wouldnt have caused a 106 fever. I had also had an ear infection the day before. Finally one of the idiot docs did a lumbar puncture and figured out what happened but they still didnt give me my medications by IV and I ended up having several severe seizures. Idiots. It took until I came out of my coma two weeks later...heck it must have been more like 3 weeks later when I was in the rehab hospital that they restarted all my medications again because I wasnt swallowing anything.
 

ready2run

New Member
i would be absolutely livid if i were you and i certainly wouldn't accept the hospital passing it off as no big deal. repeat back to them what you were told, that if you let him go without there could be dire consequences and that they could have caused him serious injury by not making sure that was on right. also, do they not do regular checks for BiPolar (BP) and whatnot? every time i have been in the hospital i got my vitals checked several times a day, but i am not in the us so maybe it's different there
 

buddy

New Member
Sharon, that is exactly right. It is THE medication that makes him be able to have control over aggression/anger/rage etc. And it works beautifully at the right dose. I am sure the administration will just say that is an excuse.

He is up and ok this morning. He had said yesterday in the car that there were "zings" happening in his head (same temporal lobe spot) just like when he was on the Lamictal. Then he said he was feeling fake a little bit for a couple of days. I wish so badly he would tell us but I suspect part of the problem is exactly that, that it IS happening and his judgement etc. is way off. Right before I was going to change the patches, he had said he felt dizzy and his heart was pounding. I asked if it was a seizure feeling and he said no. Different and it had happened sometimes at the hospital too. HE said, see mom I am sweaty and I took off all my clothes already. He had no fever, no signs of illness, I assume it was withdrawal.

Before he left psychiatric hospital when I had my talk about the medication concerns with his doctor. I was lectured about if we switch to Tenex in the summer, to go very very slowly to prevent any cardiac or stroke issues. I said, of course, that is why we are not going to do it during school. But when I called the hospital, the charge nurse was really under-whelmingly concerned. doctor said just put them back on. I called the pediatrician he said do half dose then and add the other 12 hours later. Q said no as usual, I couldn't take the one off (I had put them on even before I called then regretted it instantly)... but typical of him, he said no but came over and let me take it off.

I am not going to talk to the patient advocate this time. I am going to just call Dr. Williams directly, he is the one who was so crazy about his doses and all the protections we needed to have blah blah.... I really think, he may not tell me, but he was already saying other doctors were telling him to cover his butt in case anything happened to Q on these doses, he will likely have something serious to say to them about this. I just think they need a procedure to document a visual inspection of any patches twice daily while in the hospital . It does not leave the system immediately so that would be sufficient to catch if they needed to put a patch back on.

And, wow, when I think of his staying in the hospital that day he should have been discharged and even the day he did, how carefully we had to walk on eggshells and make his world so stress free to help him cope. They did many things right there, but last time with the Concerta error and this time way more serious with the clonidine error... Really guys he wears TWO TTS 3 !!! patches plus gets .1 three times a day and a prn dose if needed (very rare, but they did it at the hospital and I did it --thank heaven---yesterday at school which probably is why he didn't full on have the BiPolar (BP) reaction.)
 
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