Monday, August 23, 2010

A sad moment of real life

I don't talk about family much here; I think a lot of people have the cherished illusion that professional Dommes are completely attachment-free except for their adoring submissives/slaves/pets and it drives them crazy to hear otherwise. The fact is that I have a warm relationship with my extended family, the majority of the adult members of which know (although with varying degrees of approval) what I am and what I do.

Two weeks ago my nephew, who happens to be autistic and have other sensory disorders, was placed on a new kind of medication - Abilify. Within a week he was having uncontrollable muscle spasms and could no longer feed himself, use stairs, or buckle his own seatbelt. He no longer wanted to eat or sleep. His parents took him to the emergency room Saturday on the advice of a neurologist - not the one who prescribed the medicine, that one was on vacation. After hours in the ER, during which the staff neurologist and resident went out to confer and call the prescribing neurologist, they came back in with the news that they were taking him off the Abilify immediately. A rare side effect (occurring in 2% of the studied population) was causing the issues.

The real kicker? We'll find out sometime late this week, certainly not before Wednesday, if these symptoms are permanent.

Before putting him on Abilify, my sister did research it, but she does not recall seeing this side effect mentioned.

I'm on the phones taking calls as usual this week, but to be honest I don't know what to write that's sexy. I hope you'll forgive this lapse into the real world. Fantasy is a wonderful thing. It just won't make him healthy again. All I can do is pray that once the medication is fully out of his body, he'll recover a little.

The family is gratefully accepting good wishes, positive anecdotes, prayers, and energy. If any of those are yours to offer, please do.

2 comments:

  1. So sorry to hear about you nephew. Its always terrible when a persistent and difficult condition such as autism worsens, but when things take a turn for the worse because you followed the directions of someone that you trusted to help you...well, that just multiplies the problem.
    When I was in middle school and high school I was prescribed a medication called Accutane. Years latter my parents learned that the medication was believed to cause depression and serious joint pain in some individuals, both of which I suffered from and neither of which the prescribing physician had warned us about. To make matters worse, my parents also learned that the side effects of Accutane had been known at the time it was prescribed to me.
    Fortunately an effective and easy-to-practice way to help avoid such scenarios to to temper your trust in prescribing physicians is to maintain a healthy level of curiosity and cynicism when listening to medical advice. It might seem unreasonable that everyday people be expected to take time out of their busy schedules to double check the advice of trained professionals who, by all accounts, can and should have already done so, but when all is said and done everyone is ultimately responsible for the consequences of their decisions and puting too much trust (and therefore responsibility as well) on other people's shoulders only ends up multiplying the chance that something will go wrong.
    I hope it didn't sound like I was trying to lay blame on your nephew's family by suggesting that they somehow brought this awful turn of events on themselves or imply that there was any negligence or wrongdoing on the part of the prescribing physician, as neither was my intent. Anyway, best wishes to you, your family, and especially your nephew. I dearly hope that his recovery is full and swift, and neither he nor anyone else has to suffer such an event again.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Lady Ru'Etha's.

    I can't begin to imagine what you and your family must be going though. Having a sick familiar is never easy, and when there is situation like this the waiting is always the worst part.
    We will try to do anything to make it stop, to make it better. But in the end it all depends on the strength of you nephews.

    I don't know if it means much right now, but you I will add your family on my pray today.

    ReplyDelete