http://www.democraticunderground.com/114215969Oh my.
It's only an antibiotic, though, not a mood-altering drug, so the primitives don't get too upset.
progree (2,480 posts) Thu Jan 28, 2016, 01:56 AM
So I go pick up my anti-biotic prescription refill, and its half the expected dosage
This has happened twice in the last three times.
I've had a deep skin infection of my foot (Cellulitis) for a month now. Anyway, I had been taking 500mg of the anti-biotic Cephalexin (Keflex) 3 times daily. So I was surprised to pick up my refill and find it 250mg 3 times daily. I figured the Dr. knew what he was doing, and I took it for a week. But my foot progressed very little during that week (very little reduction in the swelling).
But the next office visit I mentioned that it had been 500mg, and he said something like "how did that happen?" and prescribed 500mg.
Fine. When I was done with that, I asked for a refill by phone. The person from the Dr.'s office who called back an hour later, "Ann", said my prescription has been renewed and sent to the pharmacy. I asked, "is it the same thing as before, 500 mg Cephalexin?" She said yes. Well, she was either lying or too lazy to actually look, because when I went to the pharmacy, a prescription for 250mg was waiting.
On Edit: To be clear, I later checked "mychart" at the clinic's website and found that 250mg was prescribed on the refill. So it wasn't the pharmacy's mistake - they filled the prescription they were sent.
Finally the big question: it could be the same mistake again, or the doctor could have had his reasons for reducing the dose to 250mg. If the latter case, leaving Ann's fib aside, should I be mad that I wasn't informed that my dosage had been cut by half? So that I could appeal the decision? Before showing up at the pharmacy?
Anyway, I'm taking two 250mg pills 3 X daily (i.e. 500mg 3X daily as before)... will call the doctor's office tomorrow.
Should I make a huge stink about the surprise reduction and not being informed until I pick up my prescription at the pharmacy? Am I being naïve and stupid to think that I have the "right" to be informed (or just out of courtesy) when my refill is going to be different than what I had before?
On Edit: just to clarify: the pharmacy didn't get it wrong. The doctor prescribed 250 mg on the refill, I don't know if intentionally or not yet. My question is: what if he did it intentionally (cut the dose in half), shouldn't I be informed?
ANOTHER EDIT, Update 1236 pm CT: It was a mistake, not intentional. See #14 for more. Thanks all for your input, I'm glad to hear that its not common to intentionally switch doses without telling the patient. But as #14 says, I've had bad experiences with that clinic including something similar that was intentional, so I just wanted to be prepared if what I'm experiencing now turned out to be intentional.
progree (2,480 posts) Thu Jan 28, 2016, 02:02 AM
2. The pharmacy wasn't the one making the error
I checked the clinic's website (later) and the Dr. did prescribe 250mg. It was just a refill over the phone.
valerief (50,184 posts) Thu Jan 28, 2016, 02:05 AM
5. Oh, then the doctor needs to say why s/he told you 500 and prescribed 250.
progree (2,480 posts) Thu Jan 28, 2016, 02:07 AM
6. The doctor didn't tell me 500mg. It was an office assistant "Ann" that called me later,
to tell me my refill had been approved and sent to the pharamcy, and who when I asked if it was the same -- 500mg of Cephalexin, said yes (too lazy to check I think, just wanted to get me off the phone)
But yes, I feel strongly that somebody should have told me my refill is 250mg, rather than the 500mg as previously.
And on and on it goes; Ms. Hindenberg, the defrocked warped primitive "Warpy," is at the thread, but not, surprisingly, Big Mo, "mopinko."
Big Mo hasn't been around a while; one wonders if she's perhaps ill.
- - - - - - - - - -
This past Monday morning, circa 3:30 a.m., I was treated in the emergency room at the hospital in the big city, at the conclusion which I was given a bottle of cyclobenzaprine 10 mg, and instructed to take one every six hours.
The physician had no idea who franksolich was, or is; otherwise he wouldn't have bothered.
I gave it one Boy Scout try, cutting one pill in half and taking that, but I didn't like what even that smaller dosage did to my head, so I quit taking them. I still have the bottle (seven-day supply), and trying to figure if I can use it in some way as primitive bait.
