Re: medicine checking

[Guest guest]

Hi, all,

I am so sorry you had to go through that, . I am absolutely into

trying to make pharmaceutical companies list ingredients. Over the

winter, we went through the same thing with my celiac and dairy-allergic

son, Jake. They prescribed him an antibiotic. An interesting aside:

he had scarlet fever, which is strep that goes into the body, not the

throat. We knew this, because he had a very high fever and very red

cheeks - " slapped cheek " look - and I did some research and his symptoms

pointed to scarlet fever. We rushed him to the emergency room (it was a

Sunday, of course), where we insisted she do a strep culture. She said

it was unnecessary, he has roseola, or some kind of virus and it would

be a waste of time. Roseola? Both my kids had that as infants and

everyone know they get the rash AFTER the fever has gone away. My son

had a 104 fever WITH the rash. We absolutely insisted, saying it's our

right to have him swabbed, and she finally did it, the whole time saying

it was a waste of time. Lo and behold, the kid had scarlet fever/strep.

And my faith in doctors slipped another notch (it's below sea level at

this point LOL).

Anyway (that was a long aside), we asked the pharmacist for a list of

ingredients, and they were downright RUDE to us, saying they've never

had such a request. Well, I take nothing from people, and I absolutely

read them the riot act, saying that there are certain allergens that can

KILL people, and that they were ignorant and needed to educate

themselves. It did no good - they had no list of ingredients, and I

couldn't find any information on-line, and the med company was closed

since it was Sunday. I finally ended up in tears, because I knew Jake

had to take his medicine, yet I didn't want him to have a reaction, so I

called my mother (yup - I'm 30 and still calling mom when I can't handle

things! My husband was going away on business and at the airport and he

almost didn't get on the plane because I was so upset.) Well, good ol'

mom gave me the number for poison control in Southern New England - I

am in Massachusetts - and I called. As I said, it was a Sunday - not

only were they in, but they answered immediately, and looked up the

ingredients while I was on the phone, not on hold! The meds were fine,

thank goodness.

I've since bought an invaluable book called Celiac Sprue - A Guide

Through the Medicine Cabinet. It lists the gluten status of all meds,

and also lists whether or not they have lactose. It is put out by

Stokes Pharmacy, and you can get there through www.stokesrx.com.

But, please keep in mind that if you are in a bind, your local poison

control is always open and more than happy to help out.

So why does bottled water have to list ingredients, but not meds?

*There is something wrong here*. We need to get legislation going that

requires pharmaceutical companies to list ingredients.

Heidi