Aa
Need Advice ASAP
So the other day I posted about our mother being in a residential rehab for 14 years of opiate use. All was given to her legally by doctors. She had taken to much on several occasions and decided she needed to get off of them. Now after 22 days in residential rehab she is really having some mental issues. All the doctors seem baffled. She is really devoted to staying and getting better but has seemed to go a little crazy. They don't know what is happening to her. She is having so much nervousness, anxiety, only cares about everyone else and not herself at all. They checked her into a hospital for the day to be evaluated mentally. Also the hospital did a more extensive drug test and she tested positive. Is it possible to test positive after being off for 3 weeks. She did take Suboxone on a taper for 1 more week while she was in there but she swears she has taken nothing. She is there to get better and says she is not going to blow that. Now does anyone know about her losing her mind and what this could be. They say she is all over the place and can't focus on anything and seems to be not sleeping and to me it all sounded normal for someone coming off this much opiates. She was on lortab for 13 years and Methadone for 3 years all to come to a sudden stop. Will she ever mentally be the same. Does anyone have any idea why they think this is such a big deal if they are a drug rehab center who has never seen this extreme mental swing in a patient. Also I want to know about the drug test, why is she failing this far into it. It's not like she can really get drugs in a rehab center very easy. We need some advice from people who have experienced this. What do we do next?
I was on fetinal for many years. I moved to another city, & doctors cut me off, cold turkey. Talk about pain everywhere! I thought i was just dieing. thought withdrawals were for weak people. Act of God, & a doctor from another state, called me up, & signed me into his suboxine clinic. What a miricle, until, my local spyichietrist slipped me some anti-shycotic drugs. Ended up with severe cluster headackes, well first i suffered a heart attack. ended up with glacoma, & cateracts. Final straw was enlarged prostate. I let it get so bad, that flem was coming out of my pee! Went to diff. hospital, cas of severity of my cluster headackes. Woke up, & was in mental ward, where they fed me more anti-spicotic drugs! By now i was having disteria, & couldnt walk. I discharged myself, & looked at their charts, & it said, DO NOT RESESITATE! Talk about hell! Now my short term memory is shot. Hospital had enough nerve to tell me to keep doing their Abilify. I hope they dont have ur mom on that type of medicine. I should be happy to be alive, but now, i have no life, dont even leave the house. Much more to the story
Thank you for your concern and help. We still aren't sure what happened but she has made a huge leap in the right direction. She pulled out of her mental collapse last night and today remembers us all and even remembers our phone numbers. She has started calling us and is feeling really good. We don't know for sure what did it and we don't know if we are out of the woods but today we are breathing a sigh of relief. Thank you.
eddie- i would seriously pursue the avenue of investigation of the cymbalta issue- i really think its a possible explanation to the way she is acting. At first i thought they had just started her on it, but you said she was already on it for some time and that she CT taking that too. It can be dangerous to CT antidepressants, especially when CT'ing opiates at the same time. Her brain is now in super-overdrive with emotions and chemicals! All the things she was numbing/slowing down with the opiates and anti depressants are now surfacing to the top at a fast rate, too much for her to process or keep up with , is my guess. She may have had underlying mental conditions that you were unaware of (and her too) and this CT off of all drugs was the catalyst to bring it all to the surface. This is just a theory of course and Im no doctor, but that would be my guess as to what is going on with her. I hope the doctors figure it out and treat her properly. Keep us posted please.
That is why I have stayed away from methadone or anything else they want to give you to get off the pain meds........I sure don't need another addiction to break myself from.
Hey I know it's hard to do, but don't beat yourself up over this, you had NO idea what would happen and your were and are just trying to do whats best to help your Mom.
Cissy
Hey I know it's hard to do, but don't beat yourself up over this, you had NO idea what would happen and your were and are just trying to do whats best to help your Mom.
Cissy
Thank you Cissy, things are very stressful right now. I hope this will work out but if I could go back in time i would never have helped my mom get into a Methadone clinic.
Eddie you posted to one of my post and said I seemed familiar to your Mom........she is 3 years younger than I. Bless her heart and all your family you are in my prayers, I have no idea why she is going through this, but thank God she has a supportive Son who is behind her and cares.
I've had so many to tell me to get on Methadone or that Sub thing you all speak of but I said NO, I don't want another drug to replace the one I'm on to have to get off it too.....that being said after reading a lot of the posts seems that was a good idea on my part.
Hang in there and boy what a mess were all in, but through the Grace of God we will get through it.
Cissy
I've had so many to tell me to get on Methadone or that Sub thing you all speak of but I said NO, I don't want another drug to replace the one I'm on to have to get off it too.....that being said after reading a lot of the posts seems that was a good idea on my part.
Hang in there and boy what a mess were all in, but through the Grace of God we will get through it.
Cissy
Thank you, it may have been quitting cymbalta that helped spiral her into this. She has stopped taking everything pretty much cold turkey except the suboxone taper. It is a very strange thing.
is the cymbalta a new medicine??? could it be a bad reaction to the cymbalata? that is what sticks out to me from your post. I hope she is better today. update us when you can
You are great thank you. I am so unfamiliar with mental issues that it is hard for me to know what the outcome will be. Do you know anything about it. It sounds like by quitting all the opiates it has caused her brain to create too much dopamine and now she has crashed into a manic polar disorder or some kind. She has never had this before. She is scaring us to death and I just wonder if she can pull out of this with meds or if we made a mistake by supporting her on her quitting opiates. I would rather have my supporting smart, loving mother addicted to opiates than what she is today opiate free. She doesn't even know who I am.
56 is not very old for this displayed dementia.......keep pursuing the drug part and ask for consult from an addictionologist if necessary..........communicate with he treatment team, but give your opinions and dont be shy. I have been told by several top Docs (Mayo Clinic) that medicine works best when all parties are involved......the Doc, the Pharmacist. other support, AND IMPORTANTLY the patient or patients family..... possibly a med such as excelon or namenda could be of help - but let the Docs do their thing once you are comfortable with them......
Thanks again, she is 56 years old and has never had dimentia. Last night she was not herself. She has suffered some sort of a mental psychotic breakdown. She doesnt even know her family and won't take anything for it. We are all so nervous. This is not our mother.
Sounds to me like anxiety and depression compounded by not yet resolved narcotic thing. It took me months to get just a little ahead of a methadone cold turkey. And mental confusion and anxiety and mood swings are part of it. So are insomnia and not eating. I have no idea what impact geriatrics have here but metabolizing has to be happenning more slowly and probably a gob of other stuff. I fully agree with you - this sounds much more drug withdrawal oriented than dementia - although early stage dementia could be exacerbating things..........dont stop offerring your observations and asking for answers. Ask for copies of all tests, labs, and previous discharge order - - - - good luck! And ask for a consult with her treatment team....
Thank you, it is very concerning. We have no answers tonight. She has been transported from the residential rehab center to a mental health hospital. They act like they have never seen this before. She is a very loving normal woman who was not crazy going in to rehab. She has been the most mentally stable member of our family even on the drugs. We can't figure out why she is going crazy. They only have her on a clonodine patch and 60mg of cymbalta for depression a day right now. The most recent meds were a suboxone taper lasting a week but only a few mg a day. It has been almost 30 days since she has taken any lortab or methadone. This just seems weird to have this happen now. There are enough people on here that I hope we can find the answer.
All kinds of things can happen in the early days but what concerns me are the doctors there bafffled? I would really check out this rehab that she is in and what they are giving her. Get her chart and make a copy of it and get a second opinion from a addiction speacilist not from this rehab.
Peace
Peace
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