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Went to emergency room, doctor there gave me Ativan... what can I do now?

Went to emergency room, doctor there gave me Ativan... what can I do now?
So I had a reaction to Unisom which caused several severe side effects one night, I called the emergency number and got taken to emergency room. They asked me some questions, I was in a lot of distress. I had a resting heart rate of around 170 when I went in, and around 140 for the next few hours. Among that, dry mouth, constant muscle spasms. I was very confused, I remember being asked if I'm stressed out at work. I did answer yes it is stressful sometimes (I'm military). They hook me up to a IV and a nurse comes in and hands me 2 pills called Ativan. He says they will calm me down. I ended up looking this drug up later it is apparently a Benzodiazepine. On top of that I had side effects to the Ativan (double vision, amnesia, blacked out at a certain people couldn't retain memories basically the rest of the night)

Anyways the problem is, down the road I applied for retraining in military and got medically disqualified because I apparently now have "anxiety/stress" generalized anxiety disorder. All this for a completely unrelated issue of side effects to a drug. Now I feel screwed, I don't want to get out of the military and have the VA report me for mental health problems when I obviously don't have any. I arm up with a rifle and pistol nearly everyday. I mean come on!!

What are my options? Is it possible to get this information expunged from my medical record? I didn't ask for this...

I'm also concerned if I get out of the military I won't me able to buy a gun now because of this bulls**t... because apparently HIPPA doesn't apply to Americans anymore when it comes to this.
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1696489 tn?1370821974
I am sorry you are having such a hard time, and sorry that I have no info to help you.  I just wanted to say this: THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE, SOLDIER.  I pray for the miltary every day. - Blu
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Avatar universal
I'm not sure this has anything to do with buying a gun, at least not yet.  That's only if you've ever been committed involuntarily or have shown to be potentially harmful to yourself or others.  Just having GAD wouldn't be enough for that even under the new laws being proposed, though with what you're going through it's kind of odd getting a gun has any priority at all.  The first question is, do you have GAD?  That's a pretty serious and constant anxiety disorder, very hard to live with and to treat, but if you had a one and done bad night you don't have GAD, you don't have anything but a bad reaction to a medication.  Also, stress isn't a medical diagnosis of any kind -- everyone has stress.  Anxiety that gets in life's way is a disorder, occasional anxiety isn't -- again, everyone gets anxious sometimes.  So again, the question is, do you have a continuing anxiety problem or just a one and done don't ever take that antihistamine again?  Also your side effects don't seem related to the Ativan but probably the combination of what you were already suffering from the Unisom added to by the docs when they gave you Ativan to relax you.  If you were having an allergic reaction the a medication they'd usually go for benadryl, but maybe didn't in this case because your reaction was to a different antihistamine.  At any rate, if you don't have any continuing anxiety problems and it was just that night, what you want to do is to contact the hospital where you were treated and get your diagnosis of a severe reaction to a medication on paper, and then see a mental health professional who can see you and attest to your lack of any continuing anxiety problem.  Assuming, again, you don't have any continuing anxiety problem.
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Arlington, VA
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