I used to take a medicine that is a mild pain reliever and it worked so well for me. With EDS, pain is a constant battle and anything that works is a blessing.
About a year and a half ago, I began having miserable side effects to my medicine. I had been taking it for 2 years prior to that without any complaint even of expected and common adverse effects associated with it. One day I took my usual 2 or 3 pills (well within the normal dosing limits) and my sinuses closed and I became extremely drowsy. It was on the same day as a dear friend's wedding and happened to be when my boyfriend had family staying with us for the wedding. I was so miserable that day. I recall driving and thinking that something had gone awfully wrong because I could not keep my eyelids open. I feared the fatigue associated with EDS and my demanding work schedule, combined with stress had gotten the best of me. I took my medicine again the next day and the same thing happened. I didn't yet associate anything with the medication, thinking only that I had overextended myself. It may sound odd that I made no connection at that point, but I did take it because I was having pain and I thought perhaps my own pain and fatigue were just worsening. I can remember thinking how awfully I felt and looked and that I hated that other people saw me in that situation.
I did, after a few doses, make the connection to the medication. Since it is possible that the medication can cause dizziness and drowsiness, I decided it must just be from the med even though I had not had these symptoms before.
Recently, a year after discontinuing the medication, I cleaned out the medicine cabinet as part of my pre-move house cleaning. I came across my medicine and thought, 'Why do I still have this? There's no way I can take this anymore.' Since it used to work so well, prior to any of this, I decided to look up the med by the markings to see if there had been any issues reported with that particular med and manufacturer.
The medication turned out to be a completely different med- TRAZODONE. -Which is definitely not what was prescribed to me. Trazodone is an anti-depressant that is sometimes used as a sleep aide. One can imagine the consequences that could have occurred from taking a few of them and getting behind the wheel of a car.
How does this kind of mistake happen?
Well, pharmacies do make mistakes. They do have a rate of error that is to be expected. With baby-boomers getting older and taking more medications, the retail pharmacy industry is growing. If there is an expected and unavoidable rate of medication errors that will occur, errors will happen to same part of the population. The key is to catch the errors before any adverse events happen.
How do we as consumers avoid medication errors happening to us?
- If your prescription is new for you, open the bottle at the pharmacy and have the pharmacist check it before you leave. If you have had it filled before, check it against the old bottle for the dose and instructions and check the pills against each other to make sure they have the same markings and appearance. Some pharmacies will put a written notification on the bottle or the materials given to you to notify you when the markings or appearance have changed, but not all of them do.
- If you can wait, fill your prescription after the first week of the month. Why? Social security checks go out on the first of the month. Many people have to wait for these checks to come in to fill their prescriptions. With the surge of business, errors increase during this time.
- Don't be in a rush at the pharmacy. Checking the pills will ensure against human error and errors that may occur outside of the pharmacy like the Opana pills that were found in bottles of Excedrin.
In my case, the name and appearance of the pills were similar. The only way to tell was, of course, the crazy side effects and the markings.
I have since been able to get back on the right medication and gain some pain relief. Things are getting back on track, but I did suffer unnecessary setback for the year that I went off of it.
It is essential to understand that the medical field itself and the people who carry out services to us are fallible. Often times we would like to place blame when the focus ought to be on how to avoid and anticipate mistakes that most certainly will occur.
