Granson has had his second surgury. They took the external fixator out of the arm, and has placed a rod inside the arm to support the hand... He isnt doing too bad, but we are having some issues...
The doctors prescribed hydrocodone as a pain medication for the first surgury and the second.... The hydrocodone makes him really really constipated, so we tried to find alternatives. After the first surgury, since the fixator was on the outside of the arm, he had a splint and we were able to take the splint off and use arnica oil. (we took dried arnica and let it sit in jojoba oil for a few months) This seemed to help extremely well, and so we didnt use the hydrocodone very much... This time, he has a cast on, and we cant put oil on him yet, so we are having to use the hydrocodone more, maybe once a day or so... constipation is being controlled by cod liver oil, prunes and smoothmove tea when we get desparate. But we have noticed that when he takes the hydrocodone, that he gets all hot and his face gets flushed... and sweat just drips off him... Ok, so I admit it took me a long while to say hey...we have a problem... But we have noticed that he has been waking up in the middle of the night and sometimes during naps in an uncontrollable screaming cry... (unconsoleable be a better word?) to the point where I dont think he hears us. Last night I literally had to put him in a sitting position and talk very loudly to get him to calm down... we arent yelling at him, like punishing him type loudly.. its more a concern, can you hear me type thing.. We have never had these problems before, this child doesnt watch scary cartoons or movies or anything like that... Chitty Chitty bang bang use to be his favorite movie until he saw the child catcher on there and then he would run away from the tv crying... there was even an spca commercial that would make him cry... so we are very cautious of what he watches....
so can this be a reaction to the hydrocodone, or maybe from the meds they used to put him to sleep during the surgury... he keeps talking about a scary man... last night he was saying bad man, bad man.. Could it be possible that he woke up during surgury and saw the people in the operating room and keeps dreaming about it now?????

Is he to young to use the bach rescue remedy on????
thanks for the help everyone, I sure do appreciate it.

Hi justme, sorry to hear the little guy is having such problems, he's been through so much already.

I don't know anything about the medication, but just went on webmd, hallucinations and nightmares are less common side-effects of the drug.

I haven't had any good results to report with Bach's Rescue Remedy, but they do have an alcohol-free product for children. I hope you can help him with this, if I come across anything that is beneficial, I'll post.

__________________
"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~Immanual Kant~

Thank you very much K2C... I am going to have to keep that sight! Hmm we had noticed today that it looked like his platelettes might be low, something that we battle constantly with... Only to find that low platelettes is also a side effect of this med.... wow... Guess we need to do some checking from now on before he takes any meds..thanks again

Hydrocodone could cause night terrors... and I don't know how you could alleviate that except by stopping the med. Did they cut bone on him? If they did symphytum 200c potency will eliminate the pain. I have used this so many times with bone pain and it always works. search for an on line homeopathic pharmacy. It will also speed healing so I never recommend it until the bone is set.

After childbirth I had night terrors from percosets.

and of course if this works the constipation is a thing of the past. If tendons were cut or ligaments, ruta 200c is called for. You can give both at the same time, alternate them. give symphytum everytime pain starts to return.

__________________

Thanks Arrow for the info... They did not cut bone, but Im not sure about tendons and ligaments... From what I understand, they made a cut on the back of the hand at the wrist area, and then somehow slide a metal rod down the length of his arm into the inside of the arm... Not sure how they could do this without damaging nerves or muscles or such, but supposedly missed all that. They then put a hard cast on him, so we cant even check for infection..We did notice today, that at some point there was alot of bleeding after the surgury, becuase the gauze inside the cast has soaked in dried blood... which I would think would cause infection problems wouldnt it?? Anyhow, we stopped the hydrocodone...yesterday afternoon was his last dose. He will tell us it hurts, but it seems if we rub his fingers or sometimes just lift his arm up, that he is ok...Today I have been taking the arnica oil and rubbing the parts of his fingers that I can reach, and even let him rub some of the oil on the part of the hand in the cast that he can reach, so it seems to still be helping... Can i give him the homeopathic arnica for pain? Anyhow, its been over 24 hours since the med... he had a heck of a night last night, and then didnt take a nap today.. which according to the web md could have been because of the med... so hopefully he will let us all get a good night sleep tonight... good night all...sweet dreams, and thank you

If arnica oil works for pain there is a good possibility that oral homeopathic arnica will work. I would try a 30c potency. And I would still try the other remedies I mentioned.

A good remedy for acute fear is Aconite in 30c. Most of these remedies in 30c potency you should be able to get at Whole foods or other healthstores.. 200c most likely by mailorder. Aren't you near Houston or Austin? There is a lot of homoepathy going on there. Seems there should be somewhere to get higher potency. In symphytum 30c could work, it just takes more frequent application and I have found 200c for better pain control because it needs to be given less.

He has been though a lot of shock and trauma. Perhaps after the hydrocodone is cleared out he will act better ad the actual drugs from surgery could still be having an effect to. Sometimes it takes a few weeks for all that to clear out.. If not you can be assured that shock and trauma is the cause. If you have Bach Flower Remedy I would not hesitate to try that and give frequently. Hylands Calms Forte is another idea. Have you tried holding and singing?

If the terrors continue for much longer all I can think of if a more complete homeoapthic analysis. I can think of a number of remedies for this type of situation but is hard to select one sitting on this side of the computer.

Some people really like Traumeel by Heel. It comes in tablets as well as creame... but I never saw that is did anything for me or my kids... but they sure sell it like crazy so it must work for some.

You could try chammomile (sp?) tea.