A Scare. Learn from my mistake, and read the label

[tellner]

I thought I was a little confused in my postings today. I just found out why. A prescription drug I've been taking for years just went generic. The new pills have twice the dosage of the old ones. I didn't read the label on the new bottle and got twice what I should have.

There isn't going to be any lasting trouble, but it was a rough day.

Please folks, always read the directions for any medication you take.

 

[Archangel M]

Well that explains whay I was agreeing with most of your posts lately.

:boing1:

Seriously though....be careful.

 

[Bruno@MT]

Since it is a prescription drug, didn't your doc tell you to change the dose when he changed the prescription?

 

[RandomPhantom700]

Since it is a prescription drug, didn't your doc tell you to change the dose when he changed the prescription?

This is speculation only, but it might have been a pharmacy-only switch to the generic. Tellner's doc may or may not have been aware of the change.

 

[Carol]

But a switch to different dosing amount? I can't have my 100mcg med med switched from 2 50 mcg tabs to 4 25 mcg tabs without the doctor's OK.

Mistakes can happen though. Recently a colleague of mine fell ill with some kind of infection. His first day back in the office, he ended up taking 10x the amount of antibiotic that he should have. We had to call an ambulance for him he got so sick. Poor guy was feeling miserable, and accidentaly made himself way worse. (He's fine now).

 

[nerdette_007]

I was a pharmacy technician before nursing school, and as I recall...

It's legal to substitute a generic without permission unless the doctor has specified not to beforehand- and actually, a lot of insurance companies have mandatory generic substitution (terrible sentence structure, but I'm on my first cup of coffee here). What we can't do is change your dose. So say you're taking 5mg brand name a day, and a 2.5 mg generic comes out. We can up you to 2 pills a day, because the dosage hasn't changed. But we can't say, "What the hell, give her the 4mg instead, she won't notice".

When I worked retail, millions of years ago, we counseled patients anytime we changed their drug, because who reads the label? Someone from your pharmacy should have alerted you to any changes.

 

[jks9199]

I thought I was a little confused in my postings today. I just found out why. A prescription drug I've been taking for years just went generic. The new pills have twice the dosage of the old ones. I didn't read the label on the new bottle and got twice what I should have.

There isn't going to be any lasting trouble, but it was a rough day.

Please folks, always read the directions for any medication you take.

Are you certain that it's still the right med? As others have noted, usually there's some paperwork involved in changing dosage. At the very least, the pharmacist should have made sure you were aware of the change. Imagine if someone's dosage of warfarin, for example, were doubled...

 

[shesulsa]

Agreed all-around.

Tellner, have a chat with your pharmacist first, then call your doctor. Make them talk to each other. There's no way this should have happened without someone warning you.

Take care - and thank you for the advice - good precaution to take!

 

[crushing]

Excellent advice! Glad you will be alright. Well, as alright as you can get anyway. ;-)