Prescription med refills: a cautionary tale

[pollymacchili]

Good morning ladies. How much we benefit from reading each others posts! This support community is a vital part of my treatment and healing for sure! Thank you all.

So to give little back: ladies check and double check your refilled prescriptions! Learn from my mistake! The story: In addition to my oral chemo regimen (Kisqali and Letrasol) I take other meds: among them three for hypertension (high blood pressure)...been taking blood pressure meds for years! Dosing is as follows: two (2) 180 mg diltiazem capsules daily (for a total daily dose of 360 mg) (big blue dudes) plus one (1) 25 mg hydrochlothiazide (little orange dude) and one (1) lorsartan 50 mg (little white dude). Due to a recent manufacturer's recall, the losartan has been changed to a different manufacture and is now a little green dude! So in early Feb 2019, when I piked up my refill for diltiazem, I did notice that the capsule was now a blue and white dude, so I glanced at the bottle and saw it was indeed diltiiazem and went on my merry way..taking two (2) of these dudes a day as per usual, plus the other hypertension meds and my oral chemo. Assumed the "new color for the diltiazem capsule" was like the losartan...a different color from a different supplier/manufacturer! My bad!

Well: when I called yesterday to refill, the pharmacist said "'You're not due yet...you still should have over half of your capsules on hand; how many are you taking?" I replied, "2 capsules daily in the am, as usual..been doing that for years! " You all have probably already done the math and figured out I have been taking A DOUBLE DOSE : i.e two (2) 360 mg capsules per day or a total of 720 mg daily, not a total of 360 mg. daily! I guess I had a case of chemo fog or took a brief trip into lala land...even though I checked the bottle, I did not read the whole thing carefully...obviously! Yikes! Fortunately, no bad side effects: during the 30 days I was inadvertently taking a double dose, I happened to have an echocardiogram and a stress test (for some slight edema a in lower legs and to evaluate a possible Kisqali side effect) and several other opportunities to have my bp checked and although it was a often a little low, not low enough to cause alarm or indicate further followup!

So the story ends well...but , ladies, please, stay out of "lala land" and check and double check your meds...and/or have a trotted person do a back-up check...our meds are our life savers but only if we take 'em as prescribed!