Bizarre occurrence

[Guest guest]

Hi everyone

I wonder if any of you can shed light on something that has happened to some

medicine I dispensed.

On 14th December I sent some medicine to a patient who was going away for

Christmas and didn't want to run out.

Last week she phoned me and said she had just started taking it but it tasted

really bitter so she wondered if it had gone off.

So I checked through her Rx and my tracking system and checked the individual

herbs I had used (all same batches sitting on shelf still - thank goodness for

Christmas!).

Nothing tasted strange at all.

I sent her small amount as replacement and asked her to compare tastes. I got

her to send the bitter one back to me and it came with a note. See below.

I need to explain my dispensing process so you can see how I am baffled.

Usually, I use 200 ml bottles so patients get 2 x 200 mls each appt. (5mls tds)

For postal medicines I do the same thing but with plastic.

I dispense into a jug and decant from there into the two bottles - so the

mixture in the two bottles is the same.

For postal meds, I always make up a Rx, label it, write out invoice, address

envelope etc - basically see the whole process through from beginning to end for

each patient - so there can be no possibility of mixing up different patients

medicines.

On 14th dec this was in fact the only medicine I had to put in the post that

day.

I made it up according to my usual process.

Patient received 2 bottles that had come from same jug. She phoned me when

opened first bottle and said it was bitter.

I tasted it and undoubtedly it tastes of wormwood - not something that is in her

Rx.

What is bizarre is that she didn't return the 2nd bottle but included a note

saying she had since tried 2nd bottle (hadn't thought of that before) but found

it tasted fine.

So, how can 2 bottles of medicine dispensed at same time, from same stock, into

same jug and then decanted, taste different?

Any ideas?