Prescription Mix Up

I'm a heart patient. No, I don't have a handicapped tag. I don't need one. The doctor says I have atrail fibrillation and weakening heart muscles. Without medication, my heart rate is usually between 150 to 160 beats a minute when at rest.With the proper medication it is basically normal and my activity is normal.

I guess I have had atrail fib longer than I have been aware of it. When my heart races, I don't feel it. But I do get out of breath quickly and must rest.

During the past week I have been dead tired. I told my wife last night that I felt like I had done 8 hours of hard labor and went to bed at 8:30 pm. The only thing I did before going to bed was to drive to Grenada and back without incident. I have been experiencing shortness of breath lately after just minor physical exertion.

I'm on six medications a day. One for cholesterol, one for high blood pressure, one to help thin my blood and prevent clots, one for depression, one to help control the heart beat and make it stronger and the last, a beta blocker that does a bunch of things but for me it is the main medication to slow the heart beat and relax the blood vessels.

I've learned I can usually get by a week or so without most of the medications, but a few days without the beta blocker and I'm a sorry assed wimp. Without it my get up and go sits down and quits.

I found out this morning that I had put the wrong medication in one of my pill bottles. Apparently for the last seven or eight days, I have omitted the beta blocker. Aha! My get up and go went on vacation.

How can that happen? Well I mail order my drugs through Tricare. They come in huge bottles with a three month supply at a time. So I pour them into smaller plastic containers to make it easier to carry. Some of the bottles have another name on them, i.e. Lanoxin is now Digoxin, Coreg is now Carvedilol, Zestril is now Lisinopril, Wellburtin SR is now Budeprion SR and Coumidin is Warfarin. I know what each one is and have the ones I take twice a day or at night well marked.

The small plastic containers carry the brand name and I now use the generic. So, I screwed up thinking I had run out of Lisinopril when the small bottle was really for Carvedilol(the beta blocker). I ordered another prescription of Lisinopril and found I have a six month supply of Carvedilol.

I know all this is boring, but now I am taking the proper medications in the proper dosage at the right times. My heart beat should slow down over the next three days and I will be back to normal.