I know that this forum is supposed to be for nurses and health care professionals, and I am neither, but I hope that my message will not be deleted.
I am the mother of an RN who is an addict. Well, I used to be her mother. I haven't seen her or talked to her for two years, since I decided that I would no longer keep her secret, no longer be her enabler. She has changed her phone number and called the police to escort us, her family, off of her property. We will be arrested for trespassing if we go back to her home.
She admitted her RX drug abuse to me in July 2010. She had been shooting drugs into her body (I assume from one of the two hospitals where she was an ER nurse), taking other pills for which she had no prescriptions, and abusing the prescriptions she did have. She was addicted. To make matters worse, her husband is also an ER RN and works in one of the ER's with her, often on the same shift.
She was crying, very ashamed and scared. At that time, my grandson, her only child, was almost 3 years old. She cried that she was a horrible mother and wife, and that she was out of control and afraid that her husband would find her "stuff." That is when she explained that she was also using intravenous drugs. She kept crying that her husband would leave her if he found out and that he would take her baby with him.
She promised me that she would quit. She said had been doing it because she was so depressed that she had been trying to conceive for over a year and had been unsuccessful. I agreed to help her however I could. She never did quit. We, family, confronted her husband. He would not do anything to help her. She was viscious, nothing like the daughter I knew or woman he had married. I don't know what his problem is, only that he is part OF the problem.
Two years ago, when she left my grandson in the sun so long that he suffered deep, blistering, bleeding wounds, I called CPS and reported her. I sent them pictures of my poor grandson's burns. They initiated an investigation. My doing this was the end of my relationship with my daughter - and my sweet, precious grandson. I have paid the price for trying to protect my grandson, and so has he. We loved each other so much. Words cannot express my pain. I must leave it at that.
Once, she was caught at one of the hospitals where she worked, given a drug test and sent home. They said that they had been suspecting her and watching her for some time. When the drug test came back dirty, the hospital never learned of it. The third-party testing doctor called my daughter first to ask why she tested positive for XXX. She explained that she was taking prescribed medication for a recent wisdom tooth removal. He excused the dirty urine test and reported back to the hospital that she "passed." Of course, the third-party doctor didn't know that her tooth removal had occured over a month earlier, and that those drugs had been long gone. She went right back to work. I know all of these details and more because she told me.
A concerned family member contacted the second hospital where my daughter works in the ER with her RN husband. The hospital called me, and I spilled my guts and lots of tears. I begged her to get my daughter some help. She promised me that she would. If she had, I would assume that my daughter would be in a TPAPN program, which she apparently is not. Wouldn't her license appear as having been disciplined according to the Texas Board of Nursing website? I thought that her RN husband has sworn an oath to report known drug abuse of fellow nurses to BON. But, does that not include one's wife? I feel that, because husband had a PA "friend" of his write some of her prescriptions, I doubt that he will ever report her for fear of going down with her.
The odds are that she continues to take drugs from wherever she gets them. I do not claim to have knowledge of that she is doing that now, but I know that she would have had to have professional help to quit.
I have proof of texts and emails discussing her drug abuse. I have police reports. I know that I will never be allowed to see my grandson again, so I don't see that I have anything to lose anymore. I miss him and worry for him every day and pray to God to please keep him safe. I want to know that I don't have to worry about him like that so much every day. I swear, it is killing me.
It has been two years. What should I do? Just let it go? Thank you in advance for any wisdom that you can share with me. Bless you.
