Posted by Sarah T. on February 20, 2005, at 23:37:32
In reply to younger sister with brain damage, posted by eazup on February 20, 2005, at 13:38:34
I'm so sorry to hear about your sister. Doctors are able to do toxicology screening for patients who have the sorts of reactions your sister had, but it might be too late for a toxicology screen now. They should have taken blood and urine samples at the time she was admitted to the hospital. You mentioned that your sister was on Prozac. I'm assuming that you meant she was on Prozac at the time she ingested the unknown substances. Prozac CAN cause some serious interactions with other medicines in sensitive, susceptible individuals, and it's possible your sister falls into that category. It's possible that the metabolism of Prozac in the liver interfered with the metabolism of the other substances, causing them to build up in her system. Further, Prozac is one of those medicines that has a long "half-life." In other words, it stays in the body longer than several other drugs in the same class. Different people metabolize drugs in different ways. If someone is a "slow metabolizer" and they take a drug that interferes or competes with the metabolism of another, the drugs (or the breakdown products of the drugs) can stay in the body too long. I do hope that it is not too late for some sort of toxicology screen. If your sister has indeed suffered brain damage, I do hope that she will be in a good rehabilitation program, consisting of physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. I have seen some remarkable changes in patients who participate in these programs, although it may take months of consistent therapy for the changes to occur.
poster:Sarah T.
thread:460850
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050217/msgs/461111.html