23 April 2008

False Economies

I cancelled my gym membership the other day. Even though it was a local gym, inexpensive and not too far from the house, I just could never seem to manage to get there. I went twice, I think, in January, and hadn't been back since. My financial advisor and life coach pointed out to me that this worked out to about $40 per visit. So maybe not so inexpensive.

So today after work I drove around to gyms near the clinic to explore my options. I figure the biggest reason I haven't been going to the gym is that after working a 15 hour overnight shift and driving an hour home, the last thing I want to do is to delay my arrival home. Or to leave the house once I am there. So my hope is that I can make myself do it more easily on that end of the drive.

Of the four options, there is one literally around the corner from the clinic that I liked relatively well. They also offered a 14 day free trial, so I shall be taking them up on it. The only downside is that their steam room is broken and the new ownership apparently doesn't have a firm timeline for getting it repaired. I can schedule a massage appointment there, though, so I'll likely get over it.

A Little Reminder

If you are on any prescription medications, be sure to check them before you pop them in your mouth. Last week I went to my local pharmacy of choice to pick up a prescription refill - my last refill, in fact, which means I need to schedule a checkup. I have been on Requip for the past year to deal with a particularly bad case of restless legs syndrome in conjunction with periodic limb movement disorder. The medication helps both me and David get a better night's sleep.

Anyway, the legs were particularly bad on Sunday, as they often are after an exhausting night at work, but when I went to crack open the new bottle, I found very unfamiliar-looking pills within. I was quickly able to ascertain that instead of 0.5mg Requip, they had filled my prescription with 0.5mg Risperdal, which is a medication most commonly used for bipolar disorder or schizophrenia. This could have been bad. Very bad.

The pharmacist on duty when I took the pills in today was at least properly mortified and promised to get to the bottom of how that error had occurred (two drugs side-by-side on the counter, pharmacy tech not paying attention, pharmacist not checking behind them - that's the likely sequence of events). When the local pharmacy I used to use made a similar, though somewhat less egregious error, I basically got the brush-off ("I wasn't on that day."), which is why I no longer take my business there.

Anyway, the moral of the story is: Always double check your prescriptions. Pharmacy of choice actually has a description of the tablet printed on a tab on the label and on the information sheet they staple to the bag, which would have clued any non-medical types in had they bothered to read it. But how many people actually read all their labels?

12 comments:

Rabbitch said...

Dude, that could have been bad.

And it's possibly why I'm growing a beard, now.

Anonymous said...

The mix up in prescriptions is really scary! I've had it happen once, can't remember what the wrong med was, but I always check my prescriptions now!

As always, it was great to see you last night :-)

Anonymous said...

Glad you caught the mix-up with the medicines before taking any. That could have been quite the problem. My parents' pharmacy did the same thing with my father's medications. Instead of the cholestrol med and the blood pressure med, he got two different blood pressure meds. My mother raised holy hell, and rightly so. They don't use that pharmacy anymore....

Sheepish Annie said...

You are the second person in as many months to tell me that they've had a mix-up like that with the scrips. And Risperdal is not something with which anyone wants to fool. If you think RLS is bad, you should try a little Tardive Dyskinethsia. Not fun.

Thank heavens you caught it!!!!!

knitnzu said...

I read my labels... or at least skim over them. Not on any regular meds, so I give a quick look at the side effects just in case... but I'd have to read closely to see if it was something besides a generic version of a script. Scary!

knittingboykit said...

I check, too--fortunately, our pharmacy warns us when the generics look different from the ones we are used to--Vic's benazapril varies, as does Jesse's generic ritalin. I also have to lable check to make sure the kid and the dog get the right meds when I'm loading the pill boxes!!

Eileen said...

Glad you caught the problem. Let's hope the guy missing his Risperdal is OK.

Susan in HK said...

Mel, I have a small gym in my apartment building, but Pamela and I finally got a treadmill for ourselves. Somehow having the treadmill right in the apartment instead of having to go to the basement made sense. I figure my breakeven is about two years... I just hope it takes care of the 15 pounds I need to lose!

Susan in HK

Anonymous said...

Maybe some day we will join the modern world and they will start selling us the prescription drugs in original packages from the manufacturer. When I first moved here I was shocked to see them still counting pills in the pharmacies here. In Israel we get most of our drugs in original packs or at least original blisters. I worked for a pharmaceutical company and I really can't understand the way the sell drugs here!

I once asked for a specific make of my thyroid pills and the gave me the wrong one, so I waited until they changed it. When I got home I was really shocked to find a mixture of pills from the two manufacturers in my vial, how many people will notice such a thing?

Christine said...

WOW, thanks for the mention. I try to make sure to recognize pills before popping them into my mouth, but WOW that's scary.

Hang in there with the family crap. Nothing says welcome to the family like Old Testament threats, huh? Don't let it spoil your day. Good luck with figuring out the outfits.

You will both survive. You may go almost insane right up until the moment, but just relax and make sure to enjoy each other and the day and let all the other details float away. Or maybe if you get some pretty little mistake "momma's little helper" pills in a bottle, use those. That works too.

Anonymous said...

I once ended up with birth control pills rather than pain meds. I wasn't too worried about my end, but I pity the poor woman that didn't get her birth control pills.

Jennie said...

Oh, that is disturbing. I'm sure glad you figured it out ahead of time. Wow!