I've gotta vent too...

[horseshowmom]

First some background.

For the last several months (even a year), DD-19 has been having lightheaded spells. They seemed to be getting more frequent. We had been told that it was probably because her blood pressure tends to run low (upper 90's over upper 50's) and that she needed to get up slower, etc.

A little less than two weeks ago she collapsed while interviewing our local pharmacist (a pharmacy school assignment). When she "came to", she started vomiting. After seeing doctors, wearing a heart monitor, and having an echocardiogram, we found that her heart rate was running up to 160 and "sticking" (her normal rate is 45-55) even while she was asleep.

She was sent to a cardiorhythm specialist Friday who said that her blood pressure was dropping from time to time and causing her heart to beat faster and faster to try to get oxygen out. The faster it beats, the less time for the chambers to fill up, the less blood/oxygen sent out, and so it beats even faster.

The "fix" for this was to put her on a prescription to raise her blood pressure. We picked it up Friday afternoon, and she started it Saturday morning. It didn't go well. She was still lightheaded and very nauseated. I researched it (the name of the drug listed on the bottle) on the internet and found that nausea was a side effect.

She's still having trouble today, so I called the pharmacist to see if I needed to call the doctor. This pharmacist owns the pharmacy but wasn't personally there on Friday. When I explained everything to him, he asked me to hold for a minute. He was gone a long time (he had recognized a problem as he listened to my story). When he came back, he apologized profusely and told me that they had given my DD the WRONG medication.

After all we had been through, I just couldn't believe it. I had let her drive herself to school today, because "the medicine" was supposed to keep her from collapsing again. He was really angry at his staff and very apologetic (he's known DD since she was a baby). He said that two people are supposed to check every prescription, and he wants to see the bottle to see whose initials are on it.

I told DD to learn a very important lesson from this since she's going to be a pharmacist...

(I'm sorry this was so long, I'm just flabbergasted after all we've been through over the last couple of weeks.)

 

[piglet too]

I am glad that the mistake was caught! Hopefully your DD will be feeling better real soon. This has got to be a scary time for her (and you), I know it would be for me.

 

[horseshowmom]

Thank you, it has been. All last week I drove her back and forth to school and to doctor's appointments and tried to work nights. Her college is a hour away, and her doctors are a hour away too.

We finally thought we'd see some improvement and then found out she had the wrong meds. I felt sorry for our pharmacist. He was very, very upset (rightfully so, of course), but I know accidents do happen.

Maybe now things will start to get better. We sure hope so, cause we've all been half scared to death.

 

[Bbgrizzle]

Wow, that's scary! Hope your DD is on the road to recovery and that she feels better very soon!

 

[Disney Doll]

Well, thank God you caught it early.

And you're really nice to be so understanding.

 

[MoniqueU]

Wow what an awful lot to go through. I can't imagine. I hope the RIGHT med helps your daughter out and that she continues to get better. Hang in there.

 

[horseshowmom]

Thanks to everybody for the good wishes. DisneyDoll, I try to remind myself that I make mistakes too, and I really hope others understand when I do, so the least I can do is extend the courtesy to others. Also, there attitude made all of the difference in the world. If they had brushed it off, I would have been mad, but they took full responsibility for it. Fortunately, it wasn't life threatening, but it's scary to realize that it could have been.

DD just came in from switching the meds (they waited for her to get there instead of closing), and she says that there is a very mad pharmacist in town this afternoon, and some very nervous employees - you have to feel sorry for them ).