Hello all. For about a week and a half I haven't been able to open my eyes. I had to go to the hospital for a procedure and they read of my medication list. They asked why I was on haldol, zyprexa and cogentin (sp). I've never been on these medications in my life, but it seems the nursing home doctor put me on them. I was a complete zombie. What can I do about this? This angers me and I refused this morning's dose. Thanks for any input
You posted back in March about the NH not having your Meds and having to wait for them to be ordered. Is this the same NH? Two of those drugs are antipsychotic drugs. Now your suing for a bedsore. Why are you still at this place, if you are. Time to find another facility.
It isn't easy for these medications to be just found floating around out there.
The claim is that they were given without any MD prescribing them.
If they were found in the bloodstream and that's documented by the hospitals, and the patient had no access to any meds due to being in a NH, how, then did these meds get on board at all. They are not just sitting around free for the taking of any nursing home that wishes to quiet someone down a bit.
I think this is a legal case. There is a bedsore involved here apparently with a settlement or suit, also. All this is sounding complicated, and definitely legal needs involvement.
If you do not know what the pill is then you should tell the staff you will not take it until you speak to the doctor about it.
We cannot know your health history, but it sounds as though there was a situation in which you may not have been as rational and able to manage your own affairs as you now do seem to be.
Now that you ARE, and have been on these medications, and you wish to stop them, and if you are not adjudged by any court as incompetent in your own care, you will need to discuss with medical personnel how to decline these meds and how to safely be gradually titrated off them as Geaton suggests below. You will want to discuss with the doctor, again, why you were put on them, what occurred that they were given to you and you were not aware they were added, and how to titrate off them.
Please discuss all of this with your doctor, and in future do not take pills you do not recognize and understand without speaking to your MD about them first.
Again, a Forum of strangers can do little about this. This is for you to discuss with your medical team.
Wishing you good luck.
These are not life-saving drugs administered in an emergency situation. These are psychiatric drugs. If you make your own legal decisions talk to a personal injury lawyer. I certainly would.
I would ask that the nursing home doctor come talk to you when you return to explain why they did what they did.
I hope you have someone as your medical POA that can get to the bottom of this for you and be your advocate in this situation.