I was working at a community pharmacy last Thursday, heading into the July 4th holiday weekend, when one of the customers that came in to pick up his prescription asked if “one of the pharmacists that gives shots” could please help him out with his injection of blood thinner.
He was picking up a refill of enoxaparin, also called Lovenox, for blood clots in his legs and his lungs. As I prepped his stomach for the shot, he told me that this was the second time that he had to buy this expensive prescription. A week ago, he’d noticed a cramp in his right leg that wouldn’t let up and when he went to the doctor, they did an ultrasound and found several clots in his right leg. Then they did a chest CT which also found clots in his lungs.
His doctor gave him 3 prescriptions: one for injections (enoxaparin, also called Lovenox) one for tablets of a blood thinner called warfarin, and the other for lab work: blood tests every day until his blood test was high enough so he could stop taking the shots. He then explained how he faithfully went to his doctor’s office to get his blood tested every day, from Wednesday to Saturday morning.
The call he got on Saturday wasn’t from his regular doctor. She was out of town over the weekend so another doctor, one he didn’t know, called him back on Saturday afternoon and told him that his level was now too high and he was to stop both the enoxaparin shots and the warfarin pills, and come back to the office for another blood test in 4 days.
As I gave him his shot, put a band-aid on it and dropped the syringe in the plastic container we kept for “sharps”, he added, “At the time I knew it didn’t seem quite right, but I didn’t feel like I could ask the doctor about it. Then when I went back in on Tuesday, my test was way too low and I had to start all over again. Not speaking up cost me over $400 in extra tests and more of these expensive shots.”
I agree with him.
If you don’t understand WHY you are being asked to take –or to NOT take-a particular medicine, please, please, please…SPEAK UP!
Being willing to be a “squeaky wheel”…to ASK if something doesn’t seem right or make sense to you will go a long way to help you take medicine safely.
