difficult child almost passed out this morning.

[DammitJanet]

When I was 12 or 13...probably 13, I was getting ready for school one morning and something that sounds eerily similar happened to me. All of a sudden the room got hot, things started fading out for me, and I lost my vision and down I went. It only lasted a second or two and I came to again but I felt weird the rest of the day. I never told anyone about it so I dont have a clue what happened to me.

Mine wasnt drugs or drinking back then either.

You have said before that your son doest eat regularly and can go for long periods of time without eating. That can effect him in this way. It can make a person woozy when they stand up or get hot in a shower. He could be starting to get hypoglycemia. It could be a number of things. The combo of the lamictal and topamax cause me to be a bit dizzy in the shower so I have to make sure I am steady on my feet or holding on to something...of course that just could be my other problems too...so it might not be the medications.

I hope you can get it figured out.

 

[flutterbee]

Time for a new pediatrician doctor and a new psychiatrist and time to get an educational advocate. Your difficult child can't possibly be learning anything with so much time spent out of the classroom.

Sent to the office because he forgot his books. For God's sake. Half of the kids I went to school with would have never graduated if they had been sent to the office everytime they forgot their books.

I read your post on the WC re: psychiatrist. 1) I wouldn't care what his thoughts are re: the neuropsychologist - it's not his decision to make and 2) I'd be mistrustful if a psychiatrist was so adamant against it. Our psychiatrist knew about the neuropsychologist evaluation and was anxious to see the results.

 

[TerryJ2]

Well, you could always check his blood sugar level for hypglycemia. He needs to sleep more and eat more often, that's obvious.
I'm glad you're seeing the neuro tomorrow.
Good luck.

 

[Marguerite]

A few thoughts.

If you're concerned about the company he keeps and he DOES test positive for a drug test, particularly if he was as willing as this to take a test, I'd be wondering if his drink got spiked. He sounded too willing to take the test, for a kid who had been knowingly taking drugs.

The episode in the shower - a hot shower (doesn't have to be too hot, just hotter than his body can handle that morning) can cause this. If his skin is colder than usual, for example, the shower doesn't need to be very hot at all. What can happen - the heat causes the surface blood vessels to dilate. As the body warms other blood vessels dilate. Too sudden a change in the blood vessels can lead to a drop in blood pressure. The next thing - a faint, because the body now wants all non-essential services shut down so as much blood as possible can be shunted to the brain. Because the body does not know if the BiPolar (BP) drop is due to vasodilatation, or traumatic limb amputation, it clamps down all peripheral circulation, including the skin. Hence - the normal pink colour of the skin is gone, leaving him looking waxy, pale, and green (or blue).

Hypoglycaemia can have similar effects - the brain is hogging as much of the blood as it can, to get every skerrick of sugar it can get to keep functioning.

It sounds like this could be a one-off, but with his history of migraines it does need to be checked out. I wouldn't panic overmuch but certainly it should be checked out just to make sure it's nothing else.

And maybe for a while, encourage cool showers. Don't worry about the colour he went - that's just vasoconstriction.

Marg

 

[Kathy813]

Kjs,

My difficult child had a similar experience when she was 16. She collapsed in the shower and we ran in there and had to pull her out. Her eyes were dilated and I kept asking if she had taken something and she denied that she had.

We went straight to the ER where the doctor said he thought she was just dehydrated and had gotten dizzy and fell.

We found out a year later that she had actually taken an handful of Coricidin cold tablets that kids use to get high. It is called Skittles.

Recreational use
Coricidin is sometimes used in high doses as a recreational drug because it contains the psychoactive drug dextromethorphan. In this context, Coricidin is referred to as C's, Corey (Cori), Skittles (they are the same size and color of a red skittle, and taste like skittles) or Triple C's (the coricidin used for recreational activity has three c's on the front). Use of Coricidin for this purpose is dangerous because chlorphenamine has anticholinergic activity, which in high doses can cause serious reactions. Fatalities have resulted from overdoses of chlorphenamine.[1] Some Coricidin products also contain acetaminophen, which is toxic to the liver in large doses.

The problem is that dextromethorphan won't show up on standard drug tests. Skittles are a very big problem with younger teens. It is often the start of drug use. I had a student collapse in my class last year and it turned out that he had also taken too many of the cold medicine pills.

I'm not saying that is what happened here but be on the look out for cold pills. They use the Coricidin High Blood pressure pills (CoricidinHBP) to get high. After I found out what my difficult child was doing, I found some in our medicine cabinet.

I hope it turns out to be nothing serious.

~Kathy

 

[Lothlorien]

With the bluish lips, it sounds like it could have been a seizure.

That aside, I also had something similar happen in the shower once, as a kid. I had been drinking. I wasn't drunk when I went to bed, but had been drinking all day the day before. I got up for work and got in the shower and passed out. I was hallucinating. I asked the science teacher about it at school and he said that alcohol comes out in the pores and when the steam hits your skin the alcohol goes right back into your bloodstream all at once, causing alcohol poisoning.

Just something to think about. I'm still thinking possible seizures. I would have him evaled by a neurologist. If he was up all night, that could have made the seizure threshold a lot lower.

 

[Kjs]

I did talk to the neighbor where he was. They did pop in on the kids throughout the night. She is one that is so protective half the neighborhood thinks she's nuts. When I told another neighbor friend that I did a drug test she thought I was crazy to think such a thing at that house. It wasn't so much the house, it is the kids sneaking something in. I do like the kids he hangs out with now. They seem to be good kids.

We had a long talk, he is so against drugs and smoking and drinking. But I know, could all be a front, and it could all change overnight. I do keep my eyes open and try to always stay one step ahead of him. That must be why I am so tired. He's a tough one.

He has so much anxiety it would really surprise me if he drank or did drugs at this point. He knows he takes medication, he knows medications don't mix. We talked about different drugs..I played dumb, and he informed me. Telling me how you can die from just taking cold medicine. And how kids sell their Adderall. He informed me how they snort it, and how it makes your heart race and how you can die. I let him do the talking and inform me of all the dangers.

Neurologist said regardless of what happened it is not normal and he needs to see him.

You guys are all so right. I should of kept him home yesterday. I didn't want him to know how worried I was, I know from experience what that can lead to with anxiety. So, I just said it was because the water was to hot and he didn't eat on Sunday. But, I was much more afraid. He was really out of it. Real spacey after just staring into space. After school he watched some TV, did homework and he was out sleeping so sound I had to go move him a couple times throughout the night. He was really wiped out. Thank god they cancelled his baseball game last night. He would of insisted on playing.

Neurologist today.

 

[nvts]

Hi! I'm so glad you're taking him to the neuro - and the psychiatrist is a dope that he doesn't want to have a neuropsychologist done. Since psychiatry is as much as an art as it is a science, I would think you'd want all the help and buy-in that you could get from other professionals. Sheesh! What a tool! :geek:

But I digress: I noticed you said that 1. he doesn't eat 2. played videos all night 3. took a hot shower 4. and here's the biggie: drank tons of Mountain Dew. I don't remember the exact values, but I remember when I was in college (yes they had colleges "way back then" to the amazement of my kids!), it was reported that every 9 ozs. of Mountain Dew was equal to like 3 or 4 cups of coffee because it had so much caffeine. :coffee:

Could that have hit his system, thus letting him stay up all night and then having it all drop out of his system? :sleeping:

Just a thought but something that you might want to share with his dr.

Hope all is well!

Beth

 

[TerryJ2]

How did it go at the dr's ofc?