Tuesday, May 03, 2011

Emma is doing great, but here's a medication warning that is important

Sorry no update for a while, nothing exciting going on, Emma is doing wonderful as always! I did want to post a medication warning from a friend who's son got very sick because of singulair (used for asthma or allergies) It was such a hard time for their family I just had to pass it on----


Please please read this and send it on to anyone you know who is taking or has a child that is taking Singulair.  It's very important!

My son Tyson Sawyer's sweet happy demeanor changed drastically Friday night, April 22nd.  He became extremely anxious, crying and screaming with no reason why. 

On Saturday, his behavior continued and we took him to the emergency room.  While there they decided that his actions were do to his having a tiny hair in his ear.  After irrigating it out, they sent us home.  That evening, his anxiety heighted to the point where he would not let me (his mother) close my eyes and he would not go to sleep.

The next morning we again took him to the emergency room.  By now, he was flitting his eyes around and screaming as if he was seeing something terrifying.  The doctors did a CT scan to see if he had a brain tumor or a bleed or maybe a stroke to be causing this behavior.  When it came back normal, they sent us home with a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication saying he was just having anxiety attacks.  That night was no better.

On Monday morning, he was admitted to the hospital with severe anxiety and hallucinations.  Doctors were baffled as to what was causing this behavior.  Over the course of a few days it got worse and worse to the point where he was hurting himself--biting his fingers, banging his head, and digging into his skin with his nails.  What ever was going on with him had become dangerous to his well-being and we had the horrific experience of having to put our 4 year old son in restraints tied to the hospital bed.  Infections and toxins were ruled out with several different tests.  Brain cancer, stroke, bleeds, epilepsy...all ruled out as well.  We went through hell for 7 days trying to find out what was torturing our baby.

Finally one of the doctors found that Singulair, a drug our son has been on for 4 years now for asthma and allergies, can cause anxiety, hallucinations, and self-harm behaviors.  So stabbing into the dark since its been 4 years of no such side effect, they decided to take him off of that.  With in 72 hours, our son was back!

I'm writing this now to tell anyone and everyone to get off of Singulair!  It is extremely dangerous.  This "side effect" is not widely known and the doctor who prescribed it didn't even know about it.  After doing some research online, we have found multiple accounts of this exact behavior from other Singulair users, many who had been taking the drug for upwards of 2-7 years and just developing the side effect...and sadly, even some that have commited suicide or cause great bodily harm to themselves while on this medication because no one knew this stupid drug was causing this.

PLEASE take your child off this drug, stop taking it yourself, or if you are not wanting to stop at least be aware of this and watch for this side effect...and pass this on!!!!  Help us tell the world so it doesn't happen again!

**Here's another account from a family who prayed for us during this horrific time.

So very thankful to have you in my life, eventho it's just through facebook! Because of you sweet Ty, you've brought this horrible drug to my attention. Since my son was almost 2 years old he's been taking Singulair. He's now 5 years old and we've always thought that his behavior was just him..after all, thats what his doctors told us. Boy were they wrong, Seth has now been off of Singulair for 6 days and has been happier! He's smiling more, listening better, more energy, not as aggressive..just acts better! He still is scared of being alone, but I'm LOVING the new him!

Contact us via email at:
emmaandmommy@yahoo.com