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Pot warning ... extremely long post
I'm writing this in the hopes it may help someone & they can avoid going through what we've gone through. My 17-y/o son smokes pot. It's something I was very upset by & had argued about. My son is he is very honest & respectful. If I ask him something, he will answer honestly. And when he answered yes to my question of "Were you smoking?" he would answer yes despite knowing there would be some consequence.
In late July he got a sinus infection & had a bit of nausea. The doc gave him amoxicillin & the sinuses cleared up but still wasn't feeling great. Often nauseas & had a diminished appetite, though he was eating, drinking & still going to the gym & to the muay thai class he takes.
We went to the Cape for a long weekend, in part to see his girlfriend (who was his first love and unfortunately she broke up with him last week & he is so brokenhearted in addition to what's going on with him physically.) While at the Cape, he went off with her to do some things in town. He called me & said he was feeling really sick to his stomach & it was getting bad. I asked him if it was bad enough to see a doctor or should we wait until we got home, & he said he didn't want to home but there was an urgent care in town &we went there.
The doctor thought the nausea was related to the antibiotic, though I told her it had started before taking it. She told my son the pot probably was helping so don't stop that. (I'm like, "Really? Did you really just say that?" She suggested an OTC antacid, which we tried & it helped a little.
We get home & he's no better. The appetite is gone & he's not going out much. He's spending less time at the gym & the mixed martial arts class. We head back to the doctor a few days later & she suggests a change in the antacid & thinks the nausea is due to a combination of likely a stomach bug that was aggravated by the antibiotic. Through all this there wasn't much vomiting but the nausea was pretty much 24/7.
Now he's getting weaker & not eating much. He's still drinking fluids but is definitely looking unwell. Back to the pediatrician who now decides this is going on too long. She orders blood & stool samples & adds culturelle. That was last Thursday. By this point he's not eating but was still drinking fluids.
Friday morning things were worse; he couldn't even tolerate drinks. Took him to the ER. Within a 1/2 hour the doc admitted him. Blood & urine samples taken & nothing by mouth to give his stomach/bowels a rest & will get GI consult. Also had bad adominal pain. Was given Zofran IV for the nausea, though it didn't help as much. GI ordered a CT scan & endoscopy. I asked about something for pain but it seemed like no one wanted to prescribe anything. The pediatrician & GI agreed that Toradol was not an option due to possible stomach bleed. They felt a narcotic was no good due to bowel complaints. I was sort of aggravated because he was in a lot of pain & he's not a kid who complains. (As an aside, he told me he was planning to quit smoking pot on 9/4, the first day of school. I asked why wait & he said he wanted to enjoy the summer, etc. I did believe he wanted to stop on that date & he's always been a kid who when he says he's going to do something, he does it & he gives it his all.)
Saturday morning more IV Zofran & also gave him IV Ativan as he was increasingly nauseas, the pain was worse & he was definitely anxious. Ativan seemed to help the Zofran w/the nausea & for a few hours felt slightly better. The pain was bad & the doctor ordered a small dose of morphine. That helped a lot. The morphine wore off & now they're trying to get him to do the drink for the CT scan & the vomiting starts. The pain & nausea are back full force. The doc comes in with/the nurse. She's quite smug & had an attitude. She sits down & I ask what her plan was & was told again about the scan & endoscopy. I told her he was having trouble getting the drink down for the scan but he said he'd do his best. I asked what they would give him in the meantime for pain until we knew what was going on & was told she was not inclined to give any pain meds. I asked why & she very smugly told me he tested positive for marijuana. I told her I wasn't surprised & he had stated that in the ER. I was very clear that I had never approved of his smoking. I told her despite the positive pot screen, I felt he still needed a workup & help for the pain. She's still copping an attitude with me. I am worried, frustrated, and exhausted. She changed the Zofran to a stronger antacid & said he could have a dose of IV Ativan & melatonin to help him sleep. She stated the cause of all this was pot.
I was very surprised. I told her, in a nice way, I had never heard of that & I was under the impression, like a lot of people I think, that pot often helped nausea. She told me this is a very common thing, marijuana use causing the stomach trouble & in fact, they had four people inpatient for it this month.
A different doc saw him Sunday & he confirmed this illness was due to pot & it's getting more & more common. He felt the endoscopy would be the test that would tell us what was going on. He decided to let my son have some juice and could try some bland food and he was able to get a small amount of food down. The GI doctor came back & concurred this was likely due to pot use. By now I've done some research & though there's not a ton of info(that I could see that was current & there were different opinions about it but at this point I am convinced this is very real. My son was still doubting that he could become that ill due to pot use.)
Monday had endoscopy. That department confirms they're seeing more of this, mostly in males in the upper teen years to around age 30. Endoscopy showed substantial damage to esophagus & stomach. Was given a script for Prilosec &discharged. We get home & talk & he is still not convinced pot is the cause of. He's feeling better though still has some pain and slight nausea. He went out w/a friend & he felt really sick when he came home, nearly as bad as when he was admitted. Being a teen who knows everything, he had to test things out & he smoked a bit of pot while he was out. Now he has had a huge turnaround. He is convinced this illness was was at the very least exacerbated by the pot and most likely was the cause of it. He has told some of his friends (who of course don't believe it.) He told them he hopes none of them get sick like this and it is so not worth it.
Despite his pot smoking, he was a kid who was very anti-drug. He didn't consider pot to be a drug. My son drew a big distinction between pot & other drugs. Now he does believe that pot is dangerous & says if he had known, he never would have tried it. He has a long way to get his health back. This has scared him & I'm concerned for him as well.
He has to make big changes in his life. I wrote this because I'm sure lots of people don't know about it & even a lot of doctors are unaware of it. But it really did some serious damage to him. The GI doctor who did the endoscopy said he had severe esophagitis and severe gastritis and the damage she saw on endoscopy was consistent with what she has seen in other patients with this. (I think it's actually called cannabinoid vomiting syndrome.)
I hope anyone reading this understands how serious this can be. Smoking pot isn't as innocent as it seems. It has a lot more dangers than a lot of people thought.
In late July he got a sinus infection & had a bit of nausea. The doc gave him amoxicillin & the sinuses cleared up but still wasn't feeling great. Often nauseas & had a diminished appetite, though he was eating, drinking & still going to the gym & to the muay thai class he takes.
We went to the Cape for a long weekend, in part to see his girlfriend (who was his first love and unfortunately she broke up with him last week & he is so brokenhearted in addition to what's going on with him physically.) While at the Cape, he went off with her to do some things in town. He called me & said he was feeling really sick to his stomach & it was getting bad. I asked him if it was bad enough to see a doctor or should we wait until we got home, & he said he didn't want to home but there was an urgent care in town &we went there.
The doctor thought the nausea was related to the antibiotic, though I told her it had started before taking it. She told my son the pot probably was helping so don't stop that. (I'm like, "Really? Did you really just say that?" She suggested an OTC antacid, which we tried & it helped a little.
We get home & he's no better. The appetite is gone & he's not going out much. He's spending less time at the gym & the mixed martial arts class. We head back to the doctor a few days later & she suggests a change in the antacid & thinks the nausea is due to a combination of likely a stomach bug that was aggravated by the antibiotic. Through all this there wasn't much vomiting but the nausea was pretty much 24/7.
Now he's getting weaker & not eating much. He's still drinking fluids but is definitely looking unwell. Back to the pediatrician who now decides this is going on too long. She orders blood & stool samples & adds culturelle. That was last Thursday. By this point he's not eating but was still drinking fluids.
Friday morning things were worse; he couldn't even tolerate drinks. Took him to the ER. Within a 1/2 hour the doc admitted him. Blood & urine samples taken & nothing by mouth to give his stomach/bowels a rest & will get GI consult. Also had bad adominal pain. Was given Zofran IV for the nausea, though it didn't help as much. GI ordered a CT scan & endoscopy. I asked about something for pain but it seemed like no one wanted to prescribe anything. The pediatrician & GI agreed that Toradol was not an option due to possible stomach bleed. They felt a narcotic was no good due to bowel complaints. I was sort of aggravated because he was in a lot of pain & he's not a kid who complains. (As an aside, he told me he was planning to quit smoking pot on 9/4, the first day of school. I asked why wait & he said he wanted to enjoy the summer, etc. I did believe he wanted to stop on that date & he's always been a kid who when he says he's going to do something, he does it & he gives it his all.)
Saturday morning more IV Zofran & also gave him IV Ativan as he was increasingly nauseas, the pain was worse & he was definitely anxious. Ativan seemed to help the Zofran w/the nausea & for a few hours felt slightly better. The pain was bad & the doctor ordered a small dose of morphine. That helped a lot. The morphine wore off & now they're trying to get him to do the drink for the CT scan & the vomiting starts. The pain & nausea are back full force. The doc comes in with/the nurse. She's quite smug & had an attitude. She sits down & I ask what her plan was & was told again about the scan & endoscopy. I told her he was having trouble getting the drink down for the scan but he said he'd do his best. I asked what they would give him in the meantime for pain until we knew what was going on & was told she was not inclined to give any pain meds. I asked why & she very smugly told me he tested positive for marijuana. I told her I wasn't surprised & he had stated that in the ER. I was very clear that I had never approved of his smoking. I told her despite the positive pot screen, I felt he still needed a workup & help for the pain. She's still copping an attitude with me. I am worried, frustrated, and exhausted. She changed the Zofran to a stronger antacid & said he could have a dose of IV Ativan & melatonin to help him sleep. She stated the cause of all this was pot.
I was very surprised. I told her, in a nice way, I had never heard of that & I was under the impression, like a lot of people I think, that pot often helped nausea. She told me this is a very common thing, marijuana use causing the stomach trouble & in fact, they had four people inpatient for it this month.
A different doc saw him Sunday & he confirmed this illness was due to pot & it's getting more & more common. He felt the endoscopy would be the test that would tell us what was going on. He decided to let my son have some juice and could try some bland food and he was able to get a small amount of food down. The GI doctor came back & concurred this was likely due to pot use. By now I've done some research & though there's not a ton of info(that I could see that was current & there were different opinions about it but at this point I am convinced this is very real. My son was still doubting that he could become that ill due to pot use.)
Monday had endoscopy. That department confirms they're seeing more of this, mostly in males in the upper teen years to around age 30. Endoscopy showed substantial damage to esophagus & stomach. Was given a script for Prilosec &discharged. We get home & talk & he is still not convinced pot is the cause of. He's feeling better though still has some pain and slight nausea. He went out w/a friend & he felt really sick when he came home, nearly as bad as when he was admitted. Being a teen who knows everything, he had to test things out & he smoked a bit of pot while he was out. Now he has had a huge turnaround. He is convinced this illness was was at the very least exacerbated by the pot and most likely was the cause of it. He has told some of his friends (who of course don't believe it.) He told them he hopes none of them get sick like this and it is so not worth it.
Despite his pot smoking, he was a kid who was very anti-drug. He didn't consider pot to be a drug. My son drew a big distinction between pot & other drugs. Now he does believe that pot is dangerous & says if he had known, he never would have tried it. He has a long way to get his health back. This has scared him & I'm concerned for him as well.
He has to make big changes in his life. I wrote this because I'm sure lots of people don't know about it & even a lot of doctors are unaware of it. But it really did some serious damage to him. The GI doctor who did the endoscopy said he had severe esophagitis and severe gastritis and the damage she saw on endoscopy was consistent with what she has seen in other patients with this. (I think it's actually called cannabinoid vomiting syndrome.)
I hope anyone reading this understands how serious this can be. Smoking pot isn't as innocent as it seems. It has a lot more dangers than a lot of people thought.
He was a heavy pot smoker. No one he smokes with has become ill. They ran every test there was and GI who did his endoscopy says she sees this fairly often and it does damage the esophagus and stomach. There isn't much online about it but he's done with pot. He has never been this sick. If you google it, you will see it seems to exist. I was pretty shocked.
The first thing I thought is what nursegirl said above:
I'm sorry to say, but they seem to have tunnel vision about the pot and are relating everything TO it and are not treating him properly because of it.
Cannabis is prescribed in my state primarily FOR stomach issues and vomiting. So the danger I see is that there's some other issue that they're conveniently blaming on cannabis.
All that being said, I've heard of the symptoms you describe from people smoking pot that had been doused by pesticides by the growers or herbicides by the government. Of course, if it's legal (like it is in my state), this is never a concern. Might be worth it for his peace of mind to see if other people smoking the same weed had any similar issues.
I'm sorry to say, but they seem to have tunnel vision about the pot and are relating everything TO it and are not treating him properly because of it.
Cannabis is prescribed in my state primarily FOR stomach issues and vomiting. So the danger I see is that there's some other issue that they're conveniently blaming on cannabis.
All that being said, I've heard of the symptoms you describe from people smoking pot that had been doused by pesticides by the growers or herbicides by the government. Of course, if it's legal (like it is in my state), this is never a concern. Might be worth it for his peace of mind to see if other people smoking the same weed had any similar issues.
I agree that they had a huge attitude problem as soon as the urine screen came back. But he has always been honest about this. He told his primary care pediatrician last year and they had a long conversation about it. They agreed to disagree about the risks/benefits of pot. There was one woman pediatrician who came in Saturday early evening. I had asked them about treating his pain and the nurse kept saying the doctor won't order anything other than Tylenol. I asked for the doctor to come talk to me and she was the most smug, rude person I've ever met. She also said she it was noted that I condoned his MJ use and even have procured it for him.
I was very angry and so was my son. She actually filed a complaint with the Department of Children's Services, though after talking with the case worker, she said she doesn't feel there is any reason to open a case. But it was for the same reason, that I condoned his pot use. Which I have never done.
My son will never smoke again. He said if he had known this could happen he would never have smoked. I had never heard of this (and I worked in the medical field and legal field for years.)
I'm not sure if I'll have to take him back to the hospital. He was discharged on Monday but the nausea is so persistent and he is having a very hard time eating. He hasn't thrown yet but he is very weak. He has lost close to 15 pounds since last week. The pain is still there as well. I just called the pediatrician's office. I know they won't give him anything for the pain but I asked to see if they would give him Zofran or Compazine or something. School starts next week and the way he is now, he'll never make it through a day.
My son is 6'2 and was 185 pounds. Despite his pot use, he is very anti-drug. He considers pot to be in a different category. Or he did. He's an athlete and takes very good care of his body. (When he had 4 impacted wisdom teeth out in April, he only used Advil, despite the oral surgeon's near insistence to take a script for Percocet.)
This syndrome is very like cyclical vomiting syndrome.
The GI doc who did the endoscopy was great. She was very nonjudgmental but very honest. She says she has seen a lot of this and it is largely unrecognized. There are some ER doctors who are familiar with it but tend to consider the patient drug seeking as patients often return quickly to the ER. (Some articles suggest IV Dilaudid is often given.)
When we went to the ER, we were expecting some IV fluids and then to go home. I think it's outrageous that his pain wasn't treated properly. I intend to file a complaint. If I do have to take him in again, I most likely go to a different hospital. Not sure I want to go all the way into Boston but there's another hospital about 15 minutes away that could let me go back and forth fairly easily. (I slept at the hospital with him from Friday to Monday but I have 3 other kids (though the oldest is away in college) and an 85-year old dad I care for.
Seeing my son this weak is killing me. I am hoping they'll give him something to help with the nausea.
I really just posted to make people aware of this. Maybe it's not overly common but I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through with this.
He was given a script for 40 mg of Prilosec twice a day and the GI doc said it could take up to 3 months to heal his stomach and esophagus.
I was very angry and so was my son. She actually filed a complaint with the Department of Children's Services, though after talking with the case worker, she said she doesn't feel there is any reason to open a case. But it was for the same reason, that I condoned his pot use. Which I have never done.
My son will never smoke again. He said if he had known this could happen he would never have smoked. I had never heard of this (and I worked in the medical field and legal field for years.)
I'm not sure if I'll have to take him back to the hospital. He was discharged on Monday but the nausea is so persistent and he is having a very hard time eating. He hasn't thrown yet but he is very weak. He has lost close to 15 pounds since last week. The pain is still there as well. I just called the pediatrician's office. I know they won't give him anything for the pain but I asked to see if they would give him Zofran or Compazine or something. School starts next week and the way he is now, he'll never make it through a day.
My son is 6'2 and was 185 pounds. Despite his pot use, he is very anti-drug. He considers pot to be in a different category. Or he did. He's an athlete and takes very good care of his body. (When he had 4 impacted wisdom teeth out in April, he only used Advil, despite the oral surgeon's near insistence to take a script for Percocet.)
This syndrome is very like cyclical vomiting syndrome.
The GI doc who did the endoscopy was great. She was very nonjudgmental but very honest. She says she has seen a lot of this and it is largely unrecognized. There are some ER doctors who are familiar with it but tend to consider the patient drug seeking as patients often return quickly to the ER. (Some articles suggest IV Dilaudid is often given.)
When we went to the ER, we were expecting some IV fluids and then to go home. I think it's outrageous that his pain wasn't treated properly. I intend to file a complaint. If I do have to take him in again, I most likely go to a different hospital. Not sure I want to go all the way into Boston but there's another hospital about 15 minutes away that could let me go back and forth fairly easily. (I slept at the hospital with him from Friday to Monday but I have 3 other kids (though the oldest is away in college) and an 85-year old dad I care for.
Seeing my son this weak is killing me. I am hoping they'll give him something to help with the nausea.
I really just posted to make people aware of this. Maybe it's not overly common but I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through with this.
He was given a script for 40 mg of Prilosec twice a day and the GI doc said it could take up to 3 months to heal his stomach and esophagus.
Woah!!
What did they say specifically was going on with him medically that was caused by the MJ? I personally in almost 20 years of being an RN have NEVER heard of such a thing, and also, it is COMPLETELY wrong for them to deny treating his pain because of a + MJ result (that they knew about because he was honest about it). Addict or not, pain is something that needs addressed if a patient is having it.
I'm sorry to say, but they seem to have tunnel vision about the pot and are relating everything TO it and are not treating him properly because of it. I wouldn't be okay with that.
No doubt it would be best if your son stopped using it, but right NOW his issues need handled.
"Endoscopy showed substantial damage to esophagus & stomach."
I've never heard of such a thing. Does your son smoke the pot or consume it in food products? If the latter, I could maybe see that. I'm just not convinced. Never hesitate to get a second opinion, okay?
I hope your son has a speedy recovery, and I hope he decides that it's time to be done with the MJ.
What did they say specifically was going on with him medically that was caused by the MJ? I personally in almost 20 years of being an RN have NEVER heard of such a thing, and also, it is COMPLETELY wrong for them to deny treating his pain because of a + MJ result (that they knew about because he was honest about it). Addict or not, pain is something that needs addressed if a patient is having it.
I'm sorry to say, but they seem to have tunnel vision about the pot and are relating everything TO it and are not treating him properly because of it. I wouldn't be okay with that.
No doubt it would be best if your son stopped using it, but right NOW his issues need handled.
"Endoscopy showed substantial damage to esophagus & stomach."
I've never heard of such a thing. Does your son smoke the pot or consume it in food products? If the latter, I could maybe see that. I'm just not convinced. Never hesitate to get a second opinion, okay?
I hope your son has a speedy recovery, and I hope he decides that it's time to be done with the MJ.
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