Prevent Drug Disasters By Speaking Up

Q. Some years ago, my mother had surgery and had a very bad reaction to the sedative Versed. The surgeon said she must never get Versed again.
A few years later, she was scheduled for another surgery. There was a NO VERSED message on her record. I insisted on going to the pre-op visit with her. I asked the anesthesiologist what he would give her. You’ve got it—Versed!
I told him that she could not tolerate it and to consult her chart, but he got angry with me. I finally looked him in the eye and told him that if he insisted on using Versed and something bad happened to my mother during surgery, I would come looking for him. I pulled a notebook out of my purse and wrote his name down. That convinced him.
A. The prestigious Institute of Medicine recently issued a report on the widespread problem of medication mistakes. Such errors harm or kill 1.5 million Americans annually.
The report encourages patients and their families to get involved just as you did. You may have upset the anesthesiologist, but you also may have saved your mother’s life. Others should follow your example.
Q. One of your readers complained about Zocor being left in a hot mailbox for hours. I have a question. Aren’t medicines delivered to pharmacies in trucks that can get hot? How can we know if our medicines have been damaged?
A. You have identified a weak link in the drug-supply chain. Manufacturers often ship their products to wholesalers in temperature-controlled trucks. But once the drugs have been delivered, the distributors rarely ship them under such controlled conditions. Medicines may sit in a hot vehicle for hours, and we do not know if this poses a problem.
Q. I am desperate to find something that works against headaches. I have been prescribed at least a dozen different drugs for tension and migraine headaches (Inderal, Neurontin, Depakote, etc). I have also taken OTC pain relievers like Motrin (12 pills a day). Imitrex works, but only for migraines, not for the tension headaches that bother me every single day.
A. Your medications may actually be contributing to your head pain. According to headache expert Joel Saper, MD, if you take pain relievers more than two days a week on a regular basis, you may be experiencing rebound headaches brought on by the medicine. Pain-relieving medications such as Advil, Motrin or Tyelenol, or even narcotics such as Darvocet, can be responsible.
We discussed solutions to drug-induced headaches with Dr. Saper. If you would like to learn more about migraine, tension, sinus and rebound headaches, you may want to listen to this one-hour radio interview on CD. It is available for $16 from the People’s Pharmacy (CD- 572), P. O. Box 52027, Durham, NC 27717-2027 or from www.peoplespharmacy.com.

Q. Nicotine replacement therapies such as Nicorette gum are meant to be used on a temporary basis to help smokers quit. What are the effects of continuing to chew nicotine gum beyond the recommended twelve weeks? (A person I know has been chewing it for years.)
A. It can be hard to give up nicotine, whether in cigarettes or chewing gum. Nicorette gum is fairly safe but can cause side effects such as nausea, indigestion, diarrhea, headache or heart palpitations.
Gradually reducing the amount of Nicorette may ease withdrawal. Using a nicotine patch instead might help.