Question: Hi :-). I have a mother who is in advanced-stage CHF. She manages her symptoms pretty well, and is doing an excellent job in slowing the progression of her illness, with the help of numerous medications. However, on occassion, she's prone to having brief episodes that cause mild/moderate angina, spikes in BP, moderate tachycardia, worsened arrhythmia, and so on. While these brief attacks can be very alarming, her cardiologist has informed us that as long as her vitals stay below a certain threshold, and that the acute symptoms steadily improve following the dosing of medication, not to worry too much. His opinion was that it's okay to hold back on consulting emergency care services in those circumstances. Other family members, including myself, have had the time to adjust to what steps may be appropriate in handling her given health issue, or the varying degree of severity in an "attack." Unfortunately, these situations don't always happen while she's accompanied solely by her caregivers. A full-fledged episode may overwhelm, or even frighten those of whom are uninformed of her underlying heart condition. This is where things can go wrong.

This was an issue of hers starting earlier this evening. My mother had a particularly severe episode while visiting an acquaintance. With the woman unaware of how to help, but desperate to do so after witnessing my mom clutch her chest in pain in obvious distress... she reacted in the way she only knew how, to reach in her purse and pull out her anxiey medicine. The woman pulled out a .25mg Xanax pill and rushed it in my mom's mouth. While I felt it to be reckless, I did appreciate the gesture and the showing desire to help. I'm not giving it a second thought. However, I am concerned of what consequences my mother may face from having narcotics in her system.  She sees a pain management doctor once a month, and every month he administers a urinary drug test. I'm worried that the drug may show up on the test. It would be devestating if she were to fail. It would ultimately result in her losing a pain management doctor, and obviously the pain medication that her broken body relies on to function. So my main question is... what is the likelihood or unlikelihood of Xanax even showing up 6 days later in a urine test, after ingesting only  .25mg  total?



Thank you in advance. I hope to hear from you soon.