My wife's ER visit yesterday/today

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We just got back from the ER, because my wife accidentally overdosed on her Vicadin that she was prescribed to control the pain from her wisdom teeth extraction 2 days ago. Anyway, she passed out at the restaurant which my family, her, and I were eating at.

It turns out that she took more than the recommended dosage because of extreme (but as-yet undiagnosed) post-traumatic stress disorder relating to her teeth extraction. See, she has a horrible, mind-controlling, childlike fear of doctors, dentists, and needles. I mean it completely possesses her. I hate those three things too, and very much so, but I can will my way through it, whereas she barely, barely, barely can, and that only during my constant encouragement, hand-holding, and her extreme and bitter weeping, the latter of which seems to petrify medical professionals when they hear and see it. She is almost completely unable to go through a medical or dental appointment, and when she does so, she frequently relives it days, weeks, months, and even years afterwards.

So, she has a consultation appointment with a psychiatrist on Tuesday, and hopefully he'll be able to put her on the right medication to stabilize her mind. The ER visit was meant to get a psychiatrist to diagnose and start treating her immediately, since she was hysterical all day long yesterday while just sitting at home -- simply because the needle involved with her prior teeth extraction kept "playing in her head over and over, and it won't stop".

Well, the ER psychiatrist diagnosed her with anxiety/panic attack and fainting, but would not prescribe any medication, instead simply telling her to keep her Tuesday psychiatric appointment. Evidently, she didn't seem quite severe enough to prescibe meds on the spot and without really knowing her or her exact problem/issues.

So, we'll bridge this 5-day gap (or, actually, I'll call now and negotiate for a sooner appointment) with St. John's Wort, which does calm her down. She couldn't take that until just now, though, because of the teeth extraction (risk of bleeding).

Ouch. Been there... My Wife is BiPolar-I with Schizoid Psychotic episodes.

Your poor wife... I feel so bad for her. My prayers are with her.

I feel for her too. My As Bipolar BF seems to get into the same sorts of situations--medical emergencies due to trauma reactions. The thing is, he doesn't realize it's due to a trauma reaction. Everyone else sees it. He does not. It's an executive functioning problem.

I hope your wife feels better. You might try Valerian instead of St.John's wort. If she's taking an anti-depressant, you can get "serotonin surges" from toxicity of mixing the two.

Well, ya, I wouldn't have her take the St. John's with anti-depressants -- just until anti-depressants are prescribed, because she's psychotic without it. Her mom and stepdad are at our apartment now; they drove up to be with her today and through the weekend, which is a very good and quite necessary thing for her.

St.John's wort can work for minor depression not heard about anxiety. It also takes a while to kick at first in or so my firend say who takes it.

Or you could try pot, depending on where you live (very easy to come by in my neck of the woods, with or without a legal prescription).

It's both difficult and not difficult to imagine someone having that sort of reaction; on the one hand, I put off having my wisdom teeth pulled for 15 years because I was afraid of general anesthesia; on the other hand, once I finally had it done it not only didn't require general anesthesia, but was remarkably easy. I spent more time waiting for the lidocaine to take effect than I did having the teeth pulled, and never even bothered to fill my scrip for vicodin.

It's too bad your wife has such fear - I hope she gets some long-term help to get over it, because it's only going to get worse as she gets older.

I'm so sorry; hope she feels better soon. PTSD can have real effects and quite apparently that's not 'her' but the disorder.

Tell her to have a speedy recovery, from the Wrong Planet