Just ONE of my many pharmacy nightmares, . . . One oral med that I take requires 4 pills taken at the same time each day to meet my dosage needs. That is 120 pills for a 30 day supply and 360 pills for a 90 day supply. The pills are generic and the pharmacy sometimes changes the manufacturer so they are not always exactly the same size but similar in appearance. I set my pills up in a weekly container as a safeguard. If it says Wednesday and the slot has no pills, then I took them. No need to guess, did I or didnât I? I also keep a daily log and write the time I take my meds each day, a 2nd safety. I never have to worry if I took my meds or not or fear taking them twice. I set the pills up every Sunday for the week.
One day as I was taking the set of 4 pills, I noticed that one of the four seemed a tiny bit smaller than the other three. Looked the same in all other aspects, (color, shape, etc.) except just a tiny bit smaller. Knowing that the same generic med from a different manufacturer is a tiny bit smaller than another, I looked at the code on the pill. I went to my computer and looked up the code. YIKES !!! NOT the same med. How did a different drug that was never prescribed to me in the same bottles as my meds? And was this just one or how many?
I dumped ALL the pills from the bottles remaining in my 360 quantity and found over 43 pills that were NOT my prescription. How many had I swallowed on previous days without notice? How long have I been taking a medicine that was NOT prescribed for me, and NOT getting the medicine that I needed?
What if on any given day, 4 of the wrong pills, happened to be in the same slot, and no size difference was noted.
The next morning I went to the pharmacy and had a LONG discussion with the manager of the pharmacy. (I also informed my doc.) The manager said it would be investigated and apologized. I was given the correct pills to replace the 43 wrong ones that remained.
After that incident, I asked to have any and all my medications dispensed to me in the manufacturers packaging and not be dispensed by the pharmacy into their containers. That was not always possible since many medications are supplied to the drug store in 500 quantity packaging.
In setting up my pills this past Sunday, one pill that I take is much larger than previous refills but it is one that is in the manufacturerâs packaging. The pharmacy changed suppliers and it is a generic from a different company.
Donât assume that your pharmacy has filled your prescriptions properly. Take time to check them. They make mistakes. In fact, they make more mistakes than I ever realized. I have used every different pharmacy in my area. NONE are infallible.
If you have a computer, look up the code to be sure you were given the correct medicine and that everything in the bottle is the same.