Drug Addict Caught Red-Handed Stealing My Daughter's Morphine!

Just when you thought it was safe to read my blog something else happens. I can hardly believe it myself.

Long story short - we caught one of Jessica's home health aide stealing Jessica's morphine while one duty! Not only was she stealing it but she was DRINKING IT AND FALLING ASLEEP! What the hell would have happened to Jess if she had a crisis and her crazy aide was drugged out and not able to help her? Pardon my language but I'm quite upset. I start fuming every time I think about it. The morphine not only helps Jessica with her pain but it is what is keeping her lungs from bleeding and it's keeping her from dying right now. I keep getting flash-backs of those horrible months when Jessica was having lung bleeds frequently. I would sit with her in her room almost 24/7. She would start coughing up blood at any time. She would gasp for air and cry... looking at me with her big eyes full of fear. At night she would cry - no, wail - "I'm not ready to die!". The doctors all told us that there was nothing more they could do (after a series of tests) and a hospice team came to our home. They were the ones who recommended Lorazapam for the anxiety and morphine for the pain. Nobody knew that the morphine would help prevent the lung bleeds but it has! It is her lifeline! Jessica has only had two or three significant lung bleeds in the last 2 years! We are so very thankful for that. We rely on the morphine to keep Jessica's lungs stable and to help relieve the pain. How dare that girl steal that from my daughter for her own addiction?

We caught her on video tape Thursday. I called the nursing agency and got her butt fired. I also called the cops and gave them a copy of our video tape as proof and I wrote a report of my suspicions of this gal and logged the morphine usage all week. We may have to go to court. What's interesting is that she could be arrested on two misdemeanors and not felonies as Karl and his other cop buddies thought. I'm not sure when the police are going to arrest her. The officer that came and took our report and evidence called back and told us that he is handing the case over to a detective. We have copies of the video tape, my report and the case number.

My sweet, innocent daughter has no idea what has been going on. She would be devastated if she knew that anybody was taking her medicine. She is so innocent that she can't imagine anybody doing anything bad... well, except that "bad guys" who daddy takes to jail and are more imaginary than real to her. We haven't even told our sons what happened. No use them getting upset and feeling violated like Karl and I do.

Thursday evening I watched the video only up until the aide committed the crime. By the way, she took 25+ cc all at one time. The most we ever give Jessica is 5 cc. The aide is skinnier than Jessica so it's not like she has a lot of weight to help absorb the drug! She really was blasted out of her mind - while both Karl and I were gone. At least Brandon (13) and Austin (11) were home. So after getting home from work Karl decides to watch the rest of the tape to see if there are any other incidences (there's not). As he was watching it he says, "A crime IS being committed! THOSE BOYS ARE EATING US OUT OF HOUSE AND HOME!" hahaha! The rest of the tape shows Brandon and Austin going into the kitchen multiple times and getting food to eat. I knew it!

Here's the report I typed up and gave to the police officer when he came on Friday: (I've changed the name to protect the guilty... we'll just call her Miss Demeanor - lol)

Monday, April 30, 2007
I think someone has been getting into the morphine. I usually order one bottle that holds 500cc. I don't usually have to get a refill until more than 30 days later. Last time the pharmacy was 10 ccs short so we received 490ccs. I poured about 80 cc into a smaller morphine bottle - I take that bottle with me when I take Jess out somewhere just in case she needs a little bit. So that was around 90ccs less in that bottle than usual. We ran out of morphine sooner than normal. I thought about it and decided that it was because of the morphine I had taken from the bottle although it still seemed like I should have had more. I dismissed it and called the doctor’s office. The doctor has to hand write the prescription each time since it's a controlled substance. The doctor’s office told me that it was a little early to be ordering again; I told them what had happened and why we were ordering a little early. They said OK but that Jessica's primary care doctor was leaving the area and I need to get her into someone else ASAP because doctors don't like to write narcotics for other doctors.

The other day I noticed that the bottle was about half gone. I thought... gee, I don't think it should be gone that fast... I wonder if Karl accidentally spilled it and forgot to tell me about it. I usually give Jess her meds but sometimes Karl will give it to her when I'm gone and I was gone a couple of times during medicine time recently. So I just kind of filed that info in the back of my brain.

Today when I was getting Jessica's morphine ready I noticed that we only had 100 ccs left! Out of 500 ccs we had only 100 left. I checked the bottle and sure enough, it has only been 10 days since I filled it. How could we have used 400 cc in 10 days?

I started doing the figures.

Jessica usually gets 5 ccs at 9:00pm, 5 cc at 10:00pm and between 2.5cc – 5 cc at 1 or 2am (if needed). So at the most, Jessica gets 15 cc a night. On rare occasions she will need 2.5cc – 5 cc during the day. In order for Jessica to have used 400 cc in 10 days, she would have had to take 40 cc a day. That’s much more than her normal 10 – 20 (max). I know full well that she has only had 10 cc most days. So she most likely has only taken 100cc – 140cc in 10 days. So where did the other 260cc or more go?

I got to thinking about it. We have a fairly new home health aide who’s been with us a few months. She works here on Mon, Thur and Sat. What's interesting is that I don't remember how much morphine was in the bottle on Sunday but apparently when I saw it today (Monday) it shocked me how low we were - almost as if there was a big difference between last night and today. The new girl, Miss Demeanor, worked today. I started remembering that several times Miss Demeanor has been so sleepy while at work that she could hardly keep her eyes open. In fact, she has fallen asleep. I have woken her up and she has claimed to only be resting, not sleeping.

I start a morhpine log:

Monday night: April 30:
morphine level at exactly 100cc

May 1, 2007 (Tuesday)
Karl and I set up a hidden camera after discussing it at length. I am very worried that more morphine will go missing and Jessica will be out. We have an appointment with a new primary care doctor on Thursday. I hope I am able to get a new prescription for morphine without any problems. I’m not sure if I will have to explain why Jess needs more morphine again so soon. We decide to only video tape during the time that Miss Demeanor is here since we don’t suspect any of the other aides. A different aide works today so we don’t record the video. I check on the morphine numerous times. No morphine goes missing.

Morphine log:
Gave Jessica 5cc at 9:00pm
Gave Jessica 5 cc at 10:00pm
Morphine level at 90cc

May 2, 2007 (Wednesday)
Miss Demeanor does not work today so we do not record on video. I check the morphine numerous times throughout the day. No morphine goes missing.

Morphine log:
Gave Jessica 5cc at 9:00pm
Gave Jessica 5 cc at 10:00pm
Gave Jessica 2.5 cc at 2:00am
Morphine at about 77.50cc

May 3, 2007 (Thursday)
I take Jessica to see her new primary care doctor. Miss Demeanor is scheduled to work at 2:30pm. Karl starts the video recorder at about that time. Jessica and I get home at 2:54 and Miss Demeanor arrives at the same time.

On the video it shows that I make a phone call at 3:05. I call the pharmacy to see if they have enough morphine to fill the new prescription that the doctor had just written for me. The pharmacy asks what strength it is so I take out the white morphine bottle and read from it to the pharmacy. You can clearly see where I put the morphine bottle into the cupboard (the middle shelf) and it is a white bottle – the ONLY white bottle on that shelf. I then leave to go run errands and tell Jessica and Miss Demeanor that I will be gone for a few hours.

I came home after Miss Demeanor had left. I looked into the cupboard and the morphine bottle had been moved. I checked the morphine level right away and it was at about 50cc. I just stood there in shock! About 25 cc was missing! So I turned off the video tape recorder and took the player into my bedroom to see what had transpired.

Here is what I found:

At 3:49 Miss Demeanor turns off the lights in the kitchen. She then looks around, reaches into the cupboard and picks up the morphine bottle…. looks at it and puts it back. She then walks over to where the dining table light switch is and turns off the light over the dining table and looks into that room as she passes in front of the video camera. She comes back into the kitchen a few minutes later and at 3:52 prepares some food for Jessica.

At 3:53 after getting out some paper towels and placing the food into the microwave, Miss Demeanor takes the morphine out of the cupboard and pours it into something. She takes it into the hallway and lifts her arm and tilts her head back as she is walking away as if she is drinking it. (We have medicine cups that hold up to 30cc. We suspect that Miss Demeanor used that to pour the morphine into)

Later tonight Jessica tells me that she hopes that Miss Demeanor made it home ok. I ask her what she means by that and she said that Miss Demeanor’s eyes were bothering her. I asked her if Miss Demeanor was rubbing her eyes and Jessica says no. I asked her what Miss Demeanor was doing with her eyes and she shows me that her eyes are closed. Jessica tells me that Miss Demeanor said that her contacts are bothering her and she is keeping them wet by keeping her eyes closed. I asked Jessica if Miss Demeanor fell asleep and she said yes. Jessica started talking about her favorite show, Avatar. She said that Avatar comes on at 4:30. I asked her if Miss Demeanor was asleep when Avatar was on and she said yes. I tried to find out how long Miss Demeanor was asleep and Jessica didn’t know.

As you can see I have been so worried all week about the morphine. What if too much disappears and I can't get more for Jessica? What if the new doctor won't prescribe it for her so soon? What if the pharmacy won't fill it again so soon or if the insurance company won't cover it? What if Jess has to go through withdrawal and ends up in too much pain without it or the lung bleeds start again? What if we don't catch her (Miss Demeanor) in the act and we have to keep letting her come back into our house knowing she is most likely the one taking it? What if she finds the video camera? (Karl did an awesome job setting it up though!) Or worse... what if it is one of our own children taking it?

Other stresses have been what if we don't like the new primary care doctor? Fortunately he seems to be pretty good. We'll just have to see how he handles a crisis. I've also had to get ready for a CM workshop that I host and I haven't been feeling well. (Did I mention that we had the concrete poured for my craft room this week too?) And of course my sons have had scouts, school, reports, work, oldest son not putting the oil into the pick-up (that he uses) and it was dry, and a zillion other stresses that most households with 4 kids deal with on a daily basis.... including the teasing and crying and yelling. (that was for you, Mel) lol

Pray that my family and I are able to have a peaceful week!