Could my 54 year old husband have had his drink spiked tonight

[MadKitty]

Just that really. He went for drinks after work with a colleague. We don’t drink much in general, maybe a couple of units a month. I picked him up from the station at 11pm, all the other passengers left and I could see on my phone that he was still on the platform. Called him and he was barely coherent. Saw him staggering down the platform holding onto a railing.

After 10 mins he gets in the car, he’s soiled himself, grey and uncommunicative. Talking weird and not making sense. Walked in the house and literally dropped to the floor. I know, I know….. you’re thinking he’s been on a bender. He’s had less than a bottle of wine, maybe 3 glasses from what I’m gathering. This is the opposite of who he is and how he drinks.

Nearly 3 hours later he’s still lying on the floor with his head in a bowl. He’s so confused and unlike him. 111 tell me he’s just drunk. I’m hoping in the next hour I can get him standing so I can get him in the shower. He said this came on suddenly during the 20 min train journey. Could this be spiking?

Anyone around who might have some insight?

Have you taken him to A&E, OP? The 'this came on suddenly during the train journey' suggests it's more than just drink... Could be a stroke or other medical event.

This is nonsense! Is depressingly common.

I know someone who’s son was brought home in a similar state and it transpired that he’d had a brain haemorrhage with tragic consequences.

Poor man, he will be so upset when he's feeling straight again. I hope he's okay whatever happened. Could it be possible he's given into peer pressure and had a line etc? Whatever it is please be kind to him if and I mean IF it's something he's done as I highly doubt he'll do it again. If it's something sinister like spiking act fast re CCTV while it's still available. Hope all ends well x

My partner came home after heavily drinking and been out for a meal with work! And let me tell you I was like you’ve drank to much, but then he went grey and green, and couldn’t stop being sick which is something I’ve never seen. Turns out they all got food poisoning it was really bad!

A&E...this sounds like a medical issue. Alcohol or drink spiking are not the only two options

How is he this morning @MadKitty

If he still has his wallet and laptop etc then I’d think it’s unlikely he’s been spiked but not impossible.
You know him best and will know if he looked and seemed plastered, or whether something else is going on in his body. Hope he’s either improving at home, or he’s at the hospital now.

I’d have taken him to a&e.

people on Mumsnet seem to think that everyone who drinks is just getting black out drunk. I was spiked at uni, I wasn’t the “typical” target and it’s only because my mates stuck with me that I got home safely. I have drunk far more than I did on that night and can perfectly remember every detail. But that night, I had three drinks and cannot remember a single thing. It’s like a black hole in my memory for about 16 hours. It’s really quite scary.

How all is ok this morning

Bloody hell I hope you went to A&E. It’s beyond me why you’d just be posting on MN and saying you’ll see?! Grey pallor, collapsing and uncommunicative……….sounds potentially serious to me.

@AmericaIsSoAwesome - a line of coke wouldn’t have this effect.

Agree that it’s concerning and I would also be pushing for an ambulance or driving him there myself if they won’t send one.

I would also say though, many people do massively underestimate the amount they’ve drunk when they ARE drunk. My DH does this - ‘but I’ve only had 2 pints!’ and I know I’ve done similar. Is it possible to contact his colleagues and see if it really was just 3 glasses of wine?

My exH was like this one night and he’d had a stroke. Please don’t wait

I was spiked 20 years ago.

I was lucky I had vigilant friends. I was at a house party and a man there offered me a bottle of beer but said the bottle opener was in the fridge so took it out of view to open it.

I’d been at a club but had been busy dancing and not drinking much except a couple of weak alcopops. The beer was my 3rd or 4th drink across several hours and the previous drinks should have metabolised from dancing and eating a burger and chips.

After a few sips I felt woozy and could hardly stand, I felt so disoriented I nearly walked into a pond outside. The man who offered me the beer offered to take me to a room upstairs to lie down but my friends looked after me.

I was completely unconscious in the taxi home but my friends woke my parents and I was taken to bed, there is absolutely no way I’d have got the train home.
I woke up with no memory and was sacked from my job for not going to work because my boss assumed I was hungover, I worked with the man who spiked me who felt guilty and told his friend which got back to me. I have no idea what I was spiked with but I got my job back when my employers found out the true story.

I agree this sounds like a medical emergency. Either that or someone who doesn’t drink and who has 3, 250ml glasses of 14% red wine on an empty stomach might just be drunk without realising how potent it is. That’s a whole bottle of wine and you could easily get drunk from it.

The incontinence and being gray is worrying, I think I’d be heading to A&E in a taxi if they won’t send an ambulance.

I hope your husband is ok

I hope you went to A&E too. Your dh’s symptoms are def not from just drinking too much. I’ve seen mr DH plastered a few times over our 30 years together most likely he’d throw up and just go to sleep afterwards (although now he doesn’t drink much). I’d be the same - feel lousy but always coherent and be able to walk etc.

Drink spiking is so rare it’s pretty much an urban myth.

This is ridiculously untrue. I know loads of people that have been spiked unfortunately, including me. It was assumed I was drunk when I tried to get help after losing my friends but I was still on my first drink.

When I was spiked over 20yrs ago, I could have fitted these symptoms.
but agree it could also be a sudden medical issue.
i hope your DH is doing ok and you got further medical
checke if needed.
a family member also died from alcohol intoxication so even if this was just drink related, i wouldn't underestimate the potential risk for him.

That sounds so scary OP. How is he now?

Well I would get him checked out medically, with those symptoms I would not be thinking it was ‘just alcohol’. He sounds very sick. Hope he is ok x

I hope OP’s DH is now OK.

The quote above is idiotic. My drink was spiked when I was in my twenties and I believe I was raped as a
result. It was rarer in the 90s when this happened but not unknown.

More recently. My daughter and her friend both drank from my daughter’s glass in a bar, her drink had been spiked. My daughter’s friend was a medical student, now a doctor and realised what was happening and managed to get them away. They did not report it until later and I think 90% of the time it goes unreported.

Tricky one. Is there any chance he’s just had far too much to drink? If he’s not normally a drinker, has his body overreacted to it?

That said, if you get him checked at A+E, they are either going to find something and get him sorted, or you’ll walk out of there wanting to kill him if it’s simply him in a drunken state. It’s not the end of the world if it’s the latter and it will put your mind at rest (and you can give him down the banks when he is back to normal!)

I hope he is ok.

‘Give him down the banks’?

As a non-drinker he's had more than he can cope with. Hangover this morning, all fine tomorrow.

How is he now?