I just received a phone call from Nurse Luanne at Woodland Terrace. She introduced herself and confirmed my identity and then said, “We’re going to be stopping the Ativan and starting her on Haldol.”
I asked her why and she told me that she had talked to Dr. Peele and he had approved Haldol because mom is being very anxious today and they cannot get her to calm down. “She’s roaming up and down the hallways,” she said.
I told her that I was opposed to switching from Ativan to Haldol. Luanne was gracious enough to allow me to explain to her the five-minute, condensed version of mom’s history; then I explained that I would much prefer her to be given Xanax — or even just let me talk to her on the phone for a few minutes — rather than giving her Haldol again, which is just going to knock her out and make her a zombie.
Nurse Luanne said she would call Dr. Peele and ask him if it was okay to give mom Xanax instead of Haldol. I told her to please, please call me before doing anything and she said that that was exactly what she had just done, and that she would call me and let me know what Dr. Peele says.
The entire phone call lasted eight minutes.