Re: Not Too Off Topic (O/T)

[Guest guest]

, I don't know why you thought this was off

topic at all. We all need this information and this

warning.

Everyone, I don't care who they are can make a

mistake sometimes. Thanks for keeping us on our

toes.

Maggie

AlabamaSee what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.

[Guest guest]

Thank goodness you noticed! I have always looked at my meds to make

sure they are what they are suppose to be BUT when it comes to a new

prescription we dont know unless we research it on the web and I

dont do that.So after this story I believe I should do that now just

as well.

Did you talk with the pharmicist about this major mix up?Gosh- what

would have happened if she did take it and it could have interacted

with something else she was on or anything!

Yeah- dont ever think twice about posting an off topic on here- we

need to post things like this and anything else we feel we need

to.We are a family on here and thats the way it should be,if someone

doesnt want to read it then they need NOT to click on it.

Thanks for sharing and I am glad you all caught it before she took

it.Thanks for bringing my awareness back up again.

Hope things go well for her tomorrow.

Tonia

>

>

> My wife has suffered from GERD for the last 11 years, 24/7. It

doesn't

> matter what she eats or drinks. 6 years ago she had the operation

for it

> (Nissen Fundoplication). With my Heller Myotomy, we are a

> gastroenterologist's dream couple. Regardless of the operation,

she

> still has been thru most of the PPI's at one time or another.

Prilosec,

> Propulsid, Prevacid, Asiphex, plus Gaviscon, Mylanta, etc. to

name most

> of them, until they stop working. Many of the members of this

Board

> have taken these drugs at one time or another.

>

> Now for the reason I am writing.

>

> When the Prevacid recently stopped working, our pharmacist friend

> provided us a week's supply of Zegerid until she got to see the

doctor

> (tomorrow). When the Zegerid (omeprazole/sodium bicarbonate) was

about

> to run out, I called the doctor's office for them to call the

local CVS

> to continue her on that prescription.

>

> I picked up the new prescription last night, and right before she

was

> about to take the pill this morning, she noticed that it was a

different

> size, and the name was different. No problem, often a generic

version

> of a pill has a similar sounding name, but the size of the pill

> disturbed her enough to ask me about it. Never questioning her

> instincts and never failing an opportunity to go online, I checked

on

> the drug.

>

> Instead of being called Zegerid, it was called Zerit,

>

> This is what I read about it. It wasn't until the last paragraph

below

> that I realized we were seconds away from a possible disaster

happening.

>

> " Lactic acidosis and severe liver problems, including fatal cases,

have

> been reported with the use of reverse transcriptase inhibitors,

such as

> Zerit, alone or in combination. Contact your doctor immediately if

you

> experience nausea, vomiting, or unusual or unexpected stomach

> discomfort; weakness and tiredness; shortness of breath; weakness

in the

> arms and legs; yellowing of the skin

<http://www.drugs.com/zerit.html#>

> or eyes; or pain in the upper stomach area. These may be early

symptoms

> of lactic acidosis or liver problems. • Serious cases of

> pancreatitis (inflammation <http://www.drugs.com/zerit.html#> of

the

> pancreas) have been reported with the use of Zerit. Notify your

doctor

> immediately if you develop symptoms of pancreatitis including

nausea,

> vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain. • Avoid alcohol while

taking

> Zerit. Alcohol may increase the risk of damage to the pancreas

> <http://www.drugs.com/zerit.html#> and/or liver. • The most

> common side effect from Zerit therapy is peripheral neuropathy,

which

> may cause loss of feeling, numbness, tingling, or pain in a part

of the

> body. Approximately 20% of patients taking Zerit will experience

> peripheral neuropathy. Contact your doctor if you experience any of

> these side effects <http://www.drugs.com/zerit.html#> . •

> Follow your doctor's instructions with respect to high-risk

activities

> such as unprotected sex <http://www.drugs.com/zerit.html#> and the

> sharing of needles. Zerit is not a cure for HIV or AIDS, and you

can

> still transmit the virus to others during therapy with this

medication. "

>

> My wife was a swallow away from taking a drug prescribed for

people who

> are HIV positive, because somebody at the drug store thought they

heard

> " Zerit, " when the caller said " Zegerid " !

>

> We all hear stories about somebody else being a wrong

prescription.

> Today we were the " somebody else. " Moral of the story:

>

> " Never assume, and always question, " whether its a drug therapy,

a

> diagnosis, anything. Ultimately we have to live with somebody

else's

> mistake.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

My grandson was given an antibiotic (Zithromycin) yesterday thinking it

was perfectly fine by the pediatrician, but it turns out it is not ok for

patients with mitochondrial disease and 20 minutes after taking it he became

very lethargic and he passed out. It apparently takes away your energy which is

the major problem he struggles with. He's all right now, but it was frightening.

In his case it was the right medicine for what they were treating him for

(pneumonia), but not the right medication for him. When my daughter talked to

the geneticist today, the first thing he asked was, " was it Zithromycin " ? He

isn't supposed to take it but nobody ever told her and the pediatrician didn't

know either.

I hope we don't have any more surprises....I don't think we can take any more!

Mitochondrial disease is a rare disease also, so it's difficult to find a doctor

who knows much about it and she can't take him to the geneticist every time he

needs to be seen by a doctor, but my daughter is beginning to think that maybe

she does need to because it can be life threatening for him if he is given the

wrong medication.

Sandi

-------------- Original message ----------------------

From: LunaIam2@...

> , I don't know why you thought this was off

> topic at all. We all need this information and this

> warning.

>

> Everyone, I don't care who they are can make a

> mistake sometimes. Thanks for keeping us on our

> toes.

>

> Maggie

> Alabama

>

>

>

> ************************************** See what's new at http://www.aol.com

, I don't know why you thought this was off

topic at all. We all need this information and this

warning.

Everyone, I don't care who they are can make a

mistake sometimes. Thanks for keeping us on our

toes.

Maggie

AlabamaSee what's new at AOL.com and Make AOL Your Homepage.

[Guest guest]

I have a similar story. Except I wasn't so lucky.

When I was at the beginning of the process of being diagnosed for A

the doctor wanted to do a " rule out " of acid so gave me a

prescription for nexium. It cost a lot so I asked for a generic.

The only marks on the alleged generic tablet were numbers.

The directions said to take 1 pill each morning on an empty stomach,

so I did, each day for 29 days. For unknown reason I did not take

that last pill.

I got the prescription refilled, but lo & behold the pills were

totally different from the first bottle. I went home and got the

bottle and the 1 pill. I showed it to the pharmacist and said, why

is this different from the refill, what is this? He looked at the

tablet but had to go to the back room to identify it. He came back

out and said, " You should not have this pill in this bottle, " it is

dangerous, you may get then mixed up " . I said you gave me 30 of

those pills in that bottle and I have taken one pill every morning.

He started laughing, and then said, I'm sorry I shouldn't laugh, this

is an ambien (a heavy duty sleeping pill).

He went in the back again and came out and said, " I see how this

happened, the containers for nexium and ambien are next to each

other. "

I took 1 ambien every morning and drove to work and tried to work.

During that time I even drove a van full of high schoolers to a

church camp 200 miles away into San Francisco. One morning I drove

into a pillar in the parking garage at work because I couldn't get my

arms moving fast enough. It was a very weird month, my wife thought

I was losing my mind.

So, from then on, every time I get a prescription filled I call the

HEAD pharmacist over to independently identify the pill (unless the

name is on the pill)

Dave

>

> , I don't know why you thought this was off

> topic at all. We all need this information and this

> warning.

>

> Everyone, I don't care who they are can make a

> mistake sometimes. Thanks for keeping us on our

> toes.

>

> Maggie

> Alabama

>

>

>

> ************************************** See what's new at

http://www.aol.com

>

[Guest guest]

Sandi wrote:

.... it is not ok for patients with mitochondrial disease ...

Hi, Sandi.

You can Google for "mitochondrial" with "contraindicated" and this will

give you a hits on things that may be contraindicated by a

mitochondrial diseases. Another good thing to do is Google the name of

any medication you are given and "contraindicated" to see what

conditions are to be avoided with that medication. As an example of

what can be done, searching for "achalasia contraindicated" will inform

you that Anticholinergics, Bisphosphonates, Alendronate, Fosamax, Flavoxate,

Norgesic, Robinul Injection, Biperiden, Donnatal, Urelle Oral, Stretta

procedure, scuba diving, and more are contraindicated for patients with

achalasia.

notan

[Guest guest]

wrote:

> ... He looked at the

> tablet but had to go to the back room to identify it. ...

One other way to check pills is to search for their images on Google

Image search.

Here is an image of the Nexium they probably meant to give you (not the

purple pill one may expect):

http://www.kmhk.kmu.edu.tw/medhome/Intra_med/med_o/search/images/n/Nexium2.jpg

Here is an image of the Ambien you got.

http://blog.wired.com/biotech/images/ambien.jpg

It is easy to see how these kind of mistakes can be made. My insurance

provides a mail order pharmacy which is much less expensive than buying

locally. I don't see a pharmacist so I am glad you have given me these

things to think about. I will try to remember to compare the last pill

in the bottle with those in a new one.

notan

[Guest guest]

Yep you are right, that is the ambien I toom, the 10MG one

> > ... He looked at the

> > tablet but had to go to the back room to identify it. ...

>

> One other way to check pills is to search for their images on

Google

> Image search.

>

> Here is an image of the Nexium they probably meant to give you

(not the

> purple pill one may expect):

>

http://www.kmhk.kmu.edu.tw/medhome/Intra_med/med_o/search/images/n/Ne

xium2.jpg

>

> Here is an image of the Ambien you got.

> http://blog.wired.com/biotech/images/ambien.jpg

>

> It is easy to see how these kind of mistakes can be made. My

insurance

> provides a mail order pharmacy which is much less expensive than

buying

> locally. I don't see a pharmacist so I am glad you have given me

these

> things to think about. I will try to remember to compare the last

pill

> in the bottle with those in a new one.

>

> notan

>

[Guest guest]

Thank you notan,

I searched both ways with not much success. I also searched for specific

mitochondrial diseases, i.e., L CHAD and MCAD for which there were some

contraindications listed, but not much. It may be that there is just still too

little known about the diseases but also there are so many different types of

mito disease. They are still trying to figure out what type has, and

possibly we will never know, but in general we know what diet is good for him

and that he needs L Carnitine & CoQ10, and we now know that when he has a fever

or infection, he shouldn't have any immunizations as this is what caused the

liver failure a few months past.

They are in the process of hopefully ruling out mtDNA Depletion Syndrome which

is inherited from the mothers side. So even if the results are negative and we

never find out what is wrong (because insurance doesn't want to pay for the

testing), at least we have ruled out the worst case scenario, but the more

knowledge we have, the better for .

Sandi

-------------- Original message ----------------------

From: notan ostrich <notan_ostrich@...>

Sandi wrote:

.... it is not ok for patients with mitochondrial disease ...

Hi, Sandi.

You can Google for "mitochondrial" with "contraindicated" and this will

give you a hits on things that may be contraindicated by a

mitochondrial diseases. Another good thing to do is Google the name of

any medication you are given and "contraindicated" to see what

conditions are to be avoided with that medication. As an example of

what can be done, searching for "achalasia contraindicated" will inform

you that Anticholinergics, Bisphosphonates, Alendronate, Fosamax, Flavoxate,

Norgesic, Robinul Injection, Biperiden, Donnatal, Urelle Oral, Stretta

procedure, scuba diving, and more are contraindicated for patients with

achalasia.

notan