I Learned the Hard Way

I got to thinking after I did my post yesterday about Lexie's attempted suicide. Lexie was a freshman in HS and so I let her keep a bottle of Tylenol in her room so when she needed it she could use it. Lexie knew how many to take and usually told me if she was going to take some. I really wasn't concerned about it. Then I found out the dangers of taking to much Tylenol.

Lexie took like 20 or so Tylenol one night. The next morning I got a call from the school that she wasn't feeling to good and that she admitted to taking a lot of Tylenol. She was rushed to the ER in an ambulance and the hospital was very concerned. Dumbie me, I still wasn't aware of the damage the Tylenol was doing. I figured most of it was probably out of her system by now. I didn't realize that Tylenol overdoses may not affect you for the first day or even two days, but by day three you can drop dead or have irreversible liver damage. Lexie was lucky that her friend told the teacher what she had done and that her school acted immediately. She had to take some really nasty medicine for about 3 days to absorb the Tylenol that was in her system. We were very fortunate that she lived and that her liver wasn't affected.

Acetaminophen affects the liver, which processes Acetaminophen and removes it from the bloodstream. When too much Acetaminophen is taken, it overloads the liver's ability to handle the drug. In the process, it creates a toxin that kills the liver, and a person can die several days later.

What makes Acetaminophen so horribly dangerous, for children, is the difference between a "dose" and a fatal "overdose" is so small. According to some medical reports, twice the normal dose will result in liver damage. Some estimates say as many as 56,000 people end up in the emergency room every year due to overdose.

If you think your child or someone else may have taken a Tylenol overdose, call your poison control center or emergency room immediately.


I just want everyone to be aware that a drug that most of us consider safe and that we use so often on ourselves and our children can be a silent killer. Please always check the dosage chart before giving medications to your children and don't increase the dosage amount. It is for your own safety!
I don't know.......maybe everyone else knew about the dangers of Tylenol, but I didn't. Please use over the counter drugs as directed!!!

Also, many teens take over the counter cough medicines to get high. I found this out when Lexie was in the hospital.