do youcheck your drugs? | Arthritis Information

 

When you pick up you drugs do you check them or trust the drug store or the doc.? do you take the right amount? the right one?  I take care of over 40 different ones, counting my husbands. well I was just reading the bottle till I to started notice stuff. today the one I picked up said 2 a day the old one said 1 a day/ wouldn,t that be inportent to let someone know?  I call in lipitor 3 weeks ago, I went back to get it 4 times and told they were waiting on doc. insurance would't no longer cover it. today as I put my last one in pill box I called again, a little mad, thye said doc. wouldn;t call them back, so i called doc. gusse what they called in a replacement pill on the 3th. and it was picked up with my other meds. so I been taking double.gusse it didn't killed me I'm still here.  My doc.was writing out a predication  the other day and he made out my manogram for my husband, I took it back to nurse and we all had a big laugh.  a few  month ago I made out alist of meds for a new dr. he looked at it and said that3 of them was same drug, just different names ( like the lipitor).  when I first started taking my cancer drug, I had the same med from two different docs. One said to take 2 every 4 hrs. the other said 3 every 6to8 hrs. they were different size pills.  if you don't die 1 way they;ll get u another.  the chemo I'm taking for cancer is shuting down my kidneys, something going to get you.

i check them to see what each one costs and what dosage...i had a new drug this time so i read the inserts in the parking lot.I always check my medications, including looking up pictures of the tablets to be sure there's not a mixup (it's been known to happen).  I also do this for my husband and my parents, since none of them seem to get how potentially serious these screwups can be. I always check my drugs before I leave the counter at the drugstore.  I make sure that I get the exact drug that was requested.  Once I'm home I count the prescriptions to make sure that I've received the exact number that was requested.  I was given someone else's heart meds last summer and I was shorted on one of my Rxs several times.  Always, always check the prescription bottles before you leave the drugstore and count your pills when you get home.  It could save your life.  LindyHi Rusty: I am a checker. I check (and sometimes ever double check) each medication with the pharmacist. I then check once again when I get home against what I have been taking. Then, as I have many Rx filled as generics, I check once more in PDR to verify that the medication is precisely what was prescribed.

My motto is better safe than sorry. If the instructions have been changed, as in your case from one/day to two/day I would want to know why. Asking questions about what we are prescribed and how we are to take it are, at least to me, imperative.

I would most certainly phone my physician and ask WHY.

Best wishes. Shug
hmmm maybe i ought to check more closelyYears ago they mixed up my  medicine putting them in the wrong bottles. I always check now. I was taking two pills every four hours for pain and some other pills for the runs. I got over the runs very quickly but still had very bad pain.I'm pretty good about checking and both my pharm and my Aetna RX Home Delivery inserts are very informative. They tell you if the med has changed in shape or color since the last time it was filled and they also always give you the description of what it is suppose to look like every time. I came home one time with another person's script for the same RX, but the dosing instructions were different, that's when I noticed.  As it was for a pain killer and they could take twice as much as me at shorter intervals, I was tempted to switch doctors :)

I'm proud of all of you. I too check, but then every nurse is taught to always check 3 times. I extend that to myself too. I'm so glad to read you all are too. By now, many of you have earned your medical or pharmacy or nursing degree. Being a patient with a chronic illness is very educational... a school we never registered for and for a career we never wanted!

CathyMarie

I check. I even called the pharmacy at one point because the ambien I came home with was a purple pill - all the others had been smaller white pills. Luckily they were both the same med, just different distributors (generic). You really gotta keep your eye open when it comes to meds, definitely.I am also a checker.  I had a mix up on MTX when I was taking it in the pill form.  I was taking 10 2.5mg pills once a week.  They gave me something... don't know what... but not MTX.  Thank goodness I check them out when I came home!  Really scary! 

Always CHECK AND COUNT!
I complained to my Pharmacist a few months ago when I was having my daiy meds done up in tear off bags. ( I was on 18 a day at that stage with my  RA and BP meds and others)