Tricks, Treats and Pain PIlls...

When we built our house, I was in love with the floor plan because it had a big open living area with a nice big kitchen. It was perfect for holding all of my kitchen crap and left plenty of room for me to acquire more. 

The linen closet wasn't so fancy, which was fine...we just needed it to hold some towels and what extra sheets and blankets we had at that time which were mostly crib sheets and baby blankets. 

The weird and interesting thing about having "extra space" as many of you may know or have experienced, is that if you don't fill the empty space with useful things, you will fill it with crap. 

I "officially" have two junk drawers...and "unofficially" have another one that's supposed to be for potholders... So, if you are looking for toenail clippers, fishing line, yellow ribbon, clothespins, broken pens, old batteries, door stops, thumb tacks or bills I don't want to pay, you are sure to find it in one of the three drawers. 

Now, if you're looking for flooring tiles, picture frames that I bought on sale, a nursing pillow, an old Halloween Bucket or a fabric tote full of old medications, you will definitely find these in the linen closet.

I fully advocate for a good junk drawer or a junk closet...sometimes, being organized is exhausting (I believe that's the purpose served by Monica Geller's junk closet); but part of responsible parenting is ensuring that nothing you have in any of those places is easily accessible to the children living in the home. You see, I completely forgot about the pink fabric tote full of old medications in the linen closet.

Halloween that year was on a Friday, C2 had been suspended from school that day (I don't remember what for) but I do remember that it was his 2nd or 3rd time that year (and for crying out loud, it was only October). C1 and I decided that an appropriate punishment would be for our son NOT to go trick or treating. Maybe that seems like a harsh punishment for a child...but our son was 11 at the time and we couldn't justify rewarding the negative behavior. 

Because we were tied up in the excitement of taking our little man G1, who at the time was 2 out for his first "real" trick or treating adventure, we opted to leave our son at home, with a cell phone while we took the baby out around the neighborhood. 

We had everything that we believed could be a danger to a depressed 11 year old locked up in our pantry, like the obvious medications, knives, scissors... We hadn't given any thought to the extra crap in the linen closet (who analyzes their junk drawers)??

Of course C2 was angry with us...Halloween is fun for kids and the candy is fabulous. What we didn't know is that while we were trying to instill good morals and be responsible parents, our son was plotting a way to "punish us" for "punishing him" (totally self destructive)...while we were gone for about 45 minutes, C2 had gone through the random spaces of the house and found the medications in the junk section of the linen closet, had taken the pills out of the container, wrapped them in toilet paper and hid them in his room. 

Halloween night went by without incident; we came home, raided the little one's chocolate and put the kids to bed. 

On Saturday, C2 didn't want to get out of bed...we chalked it up to him being lazy (which is normal behavior for that age group) but because of his behaviors that week at school, he was now obligated to complete some extra household chores. At this point, absolutely nothing was suspicious or really very different...we wanted our son to do his chores and our son didn't want to.

C1 and I both shared the same strong feelings that no matter how much our son wanted to lay around and sleep, we needed to hold him accountable, keep him moving and make sure he finished his chores.

Sunday was similar, except that we had to go to church. our son didn't want to get ready (which was normal), was literally falling asleep as he was putting on his socks and shoes and was dozing off through Sacrament service. The suspicion started setting in... He wasn't running a fever, so we didn't think he was sick...something was very wrong.

We thought briefly that he could have taken pills, but then remembered that we had everything locked up in our pantry...and there is no way C2 could have gotten to it....NEVER thinking about the damn linen closet. We again received the same strong feelings that we had to keep our son up and moving.

It was Sunday night when we found out what he had been up to...I don't remember exactly how we found out, my memory is foggy...but I do remember  seeing a cardboard toilet paper roll stuffed full of toilet paper with the pills wrapped inside. They were pain pills from a surgery I had had years before and never finished.

At the age of 11, in C2's attempt to "emotionally manipulate" me and his father by punishing us for his punishment, he damn near killed himself. He was taking enough pills at one time in multiple iterations throughout the day that should have slowed his heart to the point that it eventually stopped...

The Psychiatrist said that because C1 and I followed our gut to make him stay awake and move, his physical activity increased his heart rate and helped sweat the drugs out of his system (thus combating the effects of the drugs).

So here's my point...

1. Be vigilant; even if your child doesn't suffer from depression, make sure that all medications are kept out of sight and under lock and key (never out of mind). 
2. If you don't finish a medication, get rid of it...take advantage of the bags at the pharmacies where you can send in your old medications for proper disposal. 
3. Go with your gut!! In our case, it saved our son's life...this story could have ended very differently. 
4. Take an appropriate inventory on your junk drawers or random spaces for your extra crap.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, NEVER EVER think for one second that this couldn't happen to you.