Mistakes Happen

*Note: This is a serious post. If you'd like puppies and comedy, please wait for an upcoming post or look at the adorable puppy about two posts down*

Unfortunately, they seem to always target me.

Now, I make my fair share of mistakes, but rarely (if ever) do I have someone's life on the line. However, what I've noticed over the past year or so, is that people have a tendency to mess up with me... with my life on the line.

Today's example?

I picked up a prescription for Prograf (my main immunosuppressant) about a week ago. I take 2.5 mg of this stuff twice a day. The script I was picking up was for the .5 mg caps that I take along with the 1 mgs caps. Together, they make the 2.5. This time, though, the caps were tabs. They seemed to be the right size, though, so I thought, 'Huh, guess Prograf just changed the shape of their tabs. Weird, but ok, I guess?' I get my bloodwork this week and my Prograf number is way down. That's when it hits me - my .5's aren't Prograf. I race off to the Duane Reade and it turns out that some pharmacist had given me a DIABETES medication instead! No joke! No wonder I felt super tired. My blood sugar was way low and I wasn't taking enough Prograf!

Fortunately, after about 2 hours, I got my Prograf, but still. It's scary to think how much worse this could have been, and it's also scary to think about how bad it was (7 days on a lowered dose is not good for the kidney. We just have to hope that my level wasn't always 3.9 and had only gotten there yesterday).

And please don't give me the, "doctors/pharmacists/nurses are people, too!" bit. I know they are, but that doesn't give them the right to be irresponsible. And the fact that in the year that I've been dealing seriously with them they've messed up considerably and frequently, putting my health at risk, is troubling. People make mistakes. I just wish they woud stop making them on me.

I've said this before, and I'll say it again: I don't want to be the sad part at the end of a Scrubs episode. I'm nobody's "learning experience." I don't want to be the subject of JD's voice-over.