There is a problem with that

Last week my son was playing with his friends outside.  One of them was pointing to something and being in the wrong place at the wrong time, her finger ended up in Owen’s eye.  He came in crying and rubbing his eye.  He had a hard time opening it, I assumed it would get better and  I raced off to boot camp.  He slept while I was gone and when I got home he woke up and immediately started crying saying that he couldn’t see. 

I suspected that he couldn’t see because he couldn’t keep his eye open and not because he was going blind, but just in case, we decided to load up to head off to the night urgent care.  Upon arriving, they immediately gave him some numbing drops and it was like he was a new kid, in fact he asked if we could leave. 

The dr. came in and with some drops and a black light we determined he had a large scratch on his cornea.  He prescribed some pain medicine, an antibiotic ointment, and put on a little patch.  He told me eyes heal fast and within 24 hours he should feel better.

The problem with all of this is that he prescribed oxycodone.  He prescribed a 1/2 tsp every four hours to take for 5 days as needed.  75 mL of stuff.  An adult dose is 5 mL, we had 15 adult doses.  I was hesitant to fill the prescription as drugs scare me no matter what and anything that starts with “oxy” scares me even more and elicits bad feelings from my past with Ben. 

In that this wasn’t my eye and I didn’t know how much pain he may actually be in, I didn’t know what to do.  I decided to fill the prescription, not give it to him and have it just in case (and then I was going to dump it out to avoid any temptations with anyone).  The best news of the night came when the pharmacy said they didn’t have any in.  Fine by me, that is a sign not to get it and leave it at that. 

We came home and gave him Motrin.  One dose.  He fell asleep, slept through the night, and woke up and told me he forgot he even hurt his eye.  Now, I totally appreciate the dr.’s concerns and wanting Owen to be pain free BUT he did not even hesitate to prescribe that to me.  If I had been a drug addict, it would have been a very exciting dr.’s visit.  Not only that, but the prescription allowed us to take as needed for 5 days, despite the dr. telling me that within 24 hours he should really be all better.  5 days of pain medicine without blinking an eye.  I appreciate his willingness to keep my son out of pain, but it got me thinking what a sad state we are in. 

I now have kids crying, husband yelling at kids and it is entirely too late for the rant that is in my head. 

To put it simply, the use of medicine (any and all) has spun out of control. 

And I will leave it at that to save my kids from my husband deciding he needs to medicate them to sleep.