Oops!

[Philip B]

After I got home on Monday afternoon. I started counting meds. The doc on duty gave me three perscriptions before we left on Sunday. After thinking about this for a day or so I realized I had no BP medicitation. The docs in the hospital had worked pretty hard to find a BP drug I wasn't allergic to.

A quick call to my cardiologist's office revealed that I was missing more than one perscription. Evidently, Sunday coverage of the ICU and all of the review that should occur with dismissal isn't exactly fine-tuned. Maybe it's not a great idea to be released on the weekend.

-Philip

 

[hensylee]

omg! After all that expensive care at the hospital and now they are going to kill you at home! That should give us a heads up. Thanks for posting this and ALL members headed for the hospital need to read it!

 

[Phyllis]

Thanks for the "heads up", Philip- another reason to be diligent about the dis-pension of meds- not only the right pills, but the right # of them!

 

[sue943]

What is the practice in the US? Do they give you a bag with enough drugs to last a few days? When I have been in hospitalI have always been discharged with a supply of medication and a letter to my GP telling him what medication I am on so he can write future prescriptions. I believe that is standard practice in UK.

Scary to find yourself without some.

 

[Marguerite53]

Thank goodness you were on top of things. I remember (and this was a Sunday dismissal) getting lots of papers to read, and lots of instructions verbally....the effort of which I thought was ridiculous because I was still so out of it! They did send home a complete 3 ring binder..... I also noticed that they had not included my "favorite" BP med in the mix of instructions. So I called my cardio and started taking it again anyway.

That is unusual that you are allergic to so many BP meds. (I'm the same way, but with antibiotics). A co-worker of my husband's just rushed to the ER with a swollen up tongue. THey decided that it was an allergic reaction to his BP meds and he'd been on that same med for 5 years!!! I'm very suspcious of that....I wonder, since the labels often say that any allergies you are prone to have may be heightened by the use of this drug......was it just this ferocious pollen season and an inherent sensitivity suddenly triggered?

Keep up the good detective work!! I suspect that's worse than when I first got my first ever BP med dispensed at the pharmacy....I walked out and looked at the pills and they seemed so much larger. I went back in, and in fact they had given me the wrong dose of the med!!!! Triple the strength!! And then they didn't even apologize. I was mad for days! And that did not even happen when they were busy OR on a weekend!

Best wishes for continuing success! Marguerite

 

[ruth]

Good catch Phillip!

It's the sad truth that even when we are still out of it (at least I was upon dismissal, a Sunday), that mistakes are made. It's not the first or the last time. I was given verbal instructions as well as a binder about post op heart care that was so heavy we teased it was over my lifting restrictions!

As for here in the US, Sue, I for one was given paper prescriptions to go home with, my husband and I used the drive thru pharmacy to fill them. They said the hospital had a pharmacy but I wanted to leave so bad we just high-tailed it home. Unfortunately, being a Sunday, not much was open.

I'm glad you got it figured out and thanks for posting here as a reminder to all that ultimately we have to trust ourselves for our meds & care.

Regards,
Ruth

 

[Nan]

Yikes! Good thing you caught that! And a good alert to the rest of us. Thanks!