Last week I decided to try a new pharmacy, a small business instead of a big chain. I thought since I was paying out of pocket for the medicine that I might as well support this local store.
I take Lexapro, which is a little round white pill that is scored in the middle. When I picked up my medicine, which had my name and correct medicine labeled on the bottle, I was given white, oval pills. I didn’t think much of it. It was a new pharmacy and I thought perhaps they received the pills from a different wholesaler.
I began taking the mystery pill on Wednesday, not thinking twice about it. Thursday I began to feel dizzy. By Friday I was so dizzy that I ended up in urgent care. Diagnosis? Vertigo due to a viral inner ear infection. The doctor could not actually see into my inner ear-for that I would have needed a CT scan, but since I was paying out of pocket, I declined. I felt terrified, I had never felt this dizzy in my whole life. I also started to experience other symptoms; an increase in anxiety and tingling in my hands and feet. It did not even occur to me that I could be taking the wrong pill.
I felt out of sorts, just didn’t feel normal that whole week, until I was out to dinner while visiting my sister in Florida, a week and a half after I had started the new pill. It finally dawned on me that that could be the source of my problems. We looked it up online when we got back to her place, and it turned out I was taking Lipitor, the cholesterol drug, for that time.
I was frightened but also relieved that I was not going crazy or had something more serious.
I got in touch with the pharmacist who was more than apologetic, offering to make it up to me in several ways. I still am not sure if I will continue to get my medicine there. Some of you may be shocked that I am even considering it.
The reality is, mistakes are made, whether big pharmacies or small. But my first thought was that I wouldn’t sue, knowing that this pharmacist, the owner, is a fellow believer (It’s my understanding to not bring fellow believers to court when disputes can be settled outside of it, 1 Corinthians 6:5-7). I suffered some discomfort, but all in all, I will be okay. This decision is not meant to make others feel less 'holy' or shamed for what they would do, I am simply stating my decision.
What would you do if your pharmacy swapped the wrong medicine? Has this ever happened to you, and what came of it?
Showing posts with label Medicine. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Medicine. Show all posts
Anxiety about Anxiety Medicine.
Today is Touchy Topic Tuesday! (And welcome to my new blog design, courtesy of Funky Faith Designs! )
I want to tell you a story about a girl. This girl thought anxiety medications were bad. She said they were being pushed by greedy pharmaceutical sales people and prescribed by doctors who were cozy with drug companies. She thought they were for people who were weak-minded, looking for excuses and shortcuts to fix their problems. She liked to judge people who took them, without knowing their situation in full. That is, until she herself suffered a disabling nervous breakdown and was put in a psych ward.
I’m sure you guessed by now that this girl is me.
When I first started taking medicine four years ago, I felt guilty about it. It went against everything I learned and everything I believed, and I felt weak and like I had somehow failed.
But there are a few things I learned in the years since I began the medicine:
1) Sometimes you need to just get stable to get help.
The medicines were meant to help regulate chemicals in the brain so that you are able to function in a normal capacity again, even if for just a time. A counselor once wisely told me that my ailment didn’t mean it was a life sentence.
2) The brain is a physical organ.
Unfortunately modern science has not yet discovered how to regularly test the chemical levels in the brains for people seeking mental health treatment. Therefore, psychiatrists seem to be taking a stab in the dark as to which anxiety or depression medicine would best work for that patient, but one thing is for sure: the brain can suffer dysfunction just like any other organ. As I always say, anything that can go wrong in the body, probably does in someone. Considering we live in the age of anxiety, it is certainly more prevalent to find people suffering these ailments, and we are more open to talk about it. But just like someone suffering high blood pressure or high cholesterol needs to take a daily pill, so do people who are not efficiently regulating chemicals.
3) Doctors do at times overmedicate.
Yeah, we all know the doctor who gave out the vicodin like it was candy. I still believe in some conspiracy because our health system is profitable, and where profit is to be made, there is greed. However, I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water.
4) Counseling is effective at rewiring the brain.
Getting to the root of the issue is priority. Why am I having this anxiety, and how do I cope when faced with it? Counseling operates to help an individual learn these coping skills that are lacking, and sometimes train the brain to rewire itself so that medicine is no longer needed. This is my hope for my own brain some day.
What is your take on anxiety and depression medications?
I’m sure you guessed by now that this girl is me.
When I first started taking medicine four years ago, I felt guilty about it. It went against everything I learned and everything I believed, and I felt weak and like I had somehow failed.
But there are a few things I learned in the years since I began the medicine:
1) Sometimes you need to just get stable to get help.
The medicines were meant to help regulate chemicals in the brain so that you are able to function in a normal capacity again, even if for just a time. A counselor once wisely told me that my ailment didn’t mean it was a life sentence.
2) The brain is a physical organ.
Unfortunately modern science has not yet discovered how to regularly test the chemical levels in the brains for people seeking mental health treatment. Therefore, psychiatrists seem to be taking a stab in the dark as to which anxiety or depression medicine would best work for that patient, but one thing is for sure: the brain can suffer dysfunction just like any other organ. As I always say, anything that can go wrong in the body, probably does in someone. Considering we live in the age of anxiety, it is certainly more prevalent to find people suffering these ailments, and we are more open to talk about it. But just like someone suffering high blood pressure or high cholesterol needs to take a daily pill, so do people who are not efficiently regulating chemicals.
3) Doctors do at times overmedicate.
Yeah, we all know the doctor who gave out the vicodin like it was candy. I still believe in some conspiracy because our health system is profitable, and where profit is to be made, there is greed. However, I don’t think we should throw the baby out with the bath water.
4) Counseling is effective at rewiring the brain.
Getting to the root of the issue is priority. Why am I having this anxiety, and how do I cope when faced with it? Counseling operates to help an individual learn these coping skills that are lacking, and sometimes train the brain to rewire itself so that medicine is no longer needed. This is my hope for my own brain some day.
What is your take on anxiety and depression medications?
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