Pharmacy Mistakes....
 

My ex-wife is a Pharmacist for a local company. I used to hear all kinds of horror stories about mistakes from techs filling the wrong doses or wrong drugs. Even though the label is correct, what's inside is wrong.

Now, my wifes medical system has made all kinds of cutbacks and are forcing the remaining staff to pick up the stack. It's rush rush rush, and we all know what happens when things get rushed in the medical field.

On 2 separate occasions I have had my BP medication filled from the hospital pharmacy. 50mgs of Toprol XL turned out to be 100mgs of Tolprol XL. Their answer to the first mistake was to break them in half. The second time it happened, Sonya went ape shit on their ass. Then when my Neurontin was refilled, they gave me a 90 day supply instead of a 30 day supply. I'm good with that. I was taking 3 100mg tabs before bed. So the pharmacy took it upon themselves to give me 300mg tabs instead of the 100mg tabs. I blame myself for this one because I didn't check the tab. So out of habit I was taking 3 tabs. I went from 300mgs to 900 mgs without knowing it, until it was time to get the refill.

Sonya called my surgeons office for a refill on my Valium. They moved me from 2mgs to 5 mgs. So, the PA calls it in. Sonya gets home and I take one and in about 30 minutes, I'm out like a light. That night I take another one. Well right after I take it, I wonder why these are blue when my last ones were Orange. So I look at the pill it's got some numbers on one side and it says "10" on the other side. So I look it up and sure as heck they have given me 10mgs instead of 5mgs. Now, I have already taken all my BP meds, pain meds and sleep meds and now I have 10mgs of valium instead of 5. Not only was my wife upset, but scarred to death. She made sure she woke me up every couple of hours just to make sure I was OK.

We call the Pharmacy. They say oops and they'll handle it. I am only 1 patient. I wonder how many times this happens not just in that Pharmacy but in Pharmacies throughout. The attitude is what has be baffled. Now granted, I can snap these in half. But that not the point. How many times to they have to mess up before someone dies or serious damage is done?

This is crazy........

I used to use a small private pharmacy but they were bought our by Walgreens. As he put it, they made me an offer I couldn't refuse.

I fax in my monthly renewal with specific instructions, i.e. if there's a generic it's usually cheaper to buy 100 without insurance than a 30 day copay. On any deviation I use large bold type. They haven't gotten one right yet.

My husband recieved a prescription but the doctor's office gave him a month's worth of samples. He gave the script to Walgreens but told them he wouldn't need it for a month. Supposedly they put it on hold but instead, lost it as they did one of mine.

I assume some errors are made because of overwork and personel shortages -some are nothing but incompetence.

re errors
 

Marty,
Because I travel to get to my PM's office I've learned to check all scripts before I leave and then because WC pays for my back related scripts but not my neck/migraine I check scripts there at the pharmacy.

I don't count the pills but I make sure what was ordered is what I receive.

In the good old days when I worked as a nurse we had to prepare many medicines and account for all of them before everything went unit dose.

I don't even know what system is utilized now but one thing I know is as you stated there are plenty of mistakes made so as best one can check your scripts before leaving your doc's office and your meds before leaving the pharmacy.

BTW, did the increase in Neurontin help you out significantly??

I didn't feel a difference with the increase. My nerve pain was never that aweful bad. Just some slight burning in the back and Glutes and it got worse after the Doctor hit the nerve with the pin while doing a nerve block injection. As of right now, I am not taking any Neurontin. I want to see how I can do without it now the the surgery is complete. The only burning I am getting now is in upper calf and lower hammy on the inside. But this only happens while my legs are fully extended as I am doing some toe raises. So I feel it's more muscle than anything.

I'm not really sold on the neurontin, nor have I ever been. From some of the doses that I see some patients on, 300 or even 900mgs is not a lot compared to some.

300 Neurontin a day is not very high. I usually took 900/day and only occasionally took 1200. My pain doc wanted to ramp me up to 3600, but I could hardly tolerate the brain fog on 900. We don't call if Morontin for nothing!

When I think of pharmacist mistakes, I am always reminded about the pharmacist who was convicted of cutting cancer meds..... very expensive meds that he would cut 6 ways and sell 6, only buying 1. (It would not give me heartburn if he was tortured to death!)

All the best,

Mark

I remember that story! Horrible.

Marty: Do you think that you are too far gone for Cymbalta re: nerve pain. The one problem is that it diminishes performance but there's ways around this. It helps me..

Chow, ans

Hi Ans

I am about to ask my doc to prescrbe me a small amount of Cymbalta for weight loss, and for nerve pain as I take Pregablin and have put on alot of weight but when I tried to come off it, the heel and buttock pain reminded me I would rather be fat tha in pain! Is it ok at low levels for weight loss? I am interested in you saying it lowers performace what do you mean by this? Thanks marion

Sorry Marty to side-track (boy I'm glad Randy Couture didn't get killed in the ring! And I always root for Silva 'tho he almost got beat by Luter while being pounded on the ground!).

Marion: I mean that for me in doses > 25 mg/day, it diminishes my sexual desire and performance - merely the most important thing to this teen's ego (actually in 50s). I hear Viagra can help women as well as men. Btw, I find it excellent for depression and anxiety. Good luck! Best, Allan

The Cymbalta worked wonders for me to lose weight as it entirely killed my appetite. I had to force myself to eat as it took away my desire to. It also made me incredibly sleepy. I was yawning all of the time. It does work good for pain management though, as does the Lyrica. I thought Lyrica was a wonder drug. It tends to act a little more centrally rather than globally like Neurontin.

Life goes better with good drugs. :D

Terry Newton

Marty, this is a great topic.

I'm on 60mg daily of Cymbalta for the neuropathic indications. I think it is helping--it is hard to say with everything else I am on.

It does decrease libido / reduce sexual function as almost all SSNIs and SSRIs demonstrate this well-known side effect.

Decreased appetite is a side effect. However, if you look at the study data regarding cymbalta, the majority of those that lost weight only lost a few pounds from baseline.