Liver Update

I am home from my appointment finally. Can I just go ahead and doc this day as a complete waste of time? and gas? and money? and worry? Yes? Okay.

My regular doctor is out on medical leave. All of his nurses and the other doctor are aware that the liver  function is elevated and we're not sure why, but we've been doing monthly blood draws since September to monitor it.

I've been on several different medications for something I haven't talked about with you all, (see, I don't blog about EVERYTHING!), but these particular medications are known for messing with the liver. After fooling around with these various medications, and not having any results, I mentioned to the doctor that I would like to try to get back on the original medication one more time. The original medication made me have migraines after 2-3 days so I stopped taking them, but there is a liquid form available, so I asked to try that. We agreed that we could see how my body liked the new medication, but if it made it worse, I would have to stop because my liver is bad enough without this added medication.

If you remember, on Friday I got a very nice letter telling me I needed to call ASAP because my liver was BAD BAD BAD. We'd run some tests at the last appointment, but normally they just say "stable, still monitoring, see you soon, " etc. So, today is my appointment and the doctor tells me everything is stable, the Hep panels and whatever other panels they ran all came back negative and normal, but the liver function was still very high and she wanted to move forward with an ultrasound. Apparently, her nurses didn't realize we were monitoring so the HIGH HIGH HIGH liver function warranted a nice letter WITH YELLOW HIGHLITER ACCENTS! and BOLD PRINT! So, she told me she would be in touch with the appointment information.

And suddenly, all was calm again medically. You know, until we get the ultrasound and bloodwork. I'm stable. Stable is better than worse. I'll take it.

And then, NYEBoy asked if I got his note. Note? What note? Oh, the note on the fridge about dropping (and busting) a (glass) bottle of my (liquid) medicine? "Yeah, I got it. I'll call Costco to find out what I need to do about getting the replacement bottle."

I decided to call Costco on the way home. As I was driving and talking to the pharmacist, him and I both realize I have been taking the wrong dosage. My bottle says to take two tablespoons twice a day. Apparently it's supposed to say two teaspoons twice a day.

"Teaspoons, tablespoons, the T, it all sounds the same, you know what I mean?" he timidly asked me. He said hang on a minute while he looked up something else, but I heard him start to mumble over and over again "oh my gosh this is not good, not good." When he got back on the phone he asked if I had felt sick or anything like that. He told me I should be okay, but when I mentioned my liver issues I told him I was going to speak to my doctor. He kept telling me he was sorry. He told me he put the order for my refill, and I told him I'd come by tomorrow and pick it up.

While I was writing this post, I decided to go up there and speak to someone because I wasn't exactly sure what dosage (at that point) I was supposed to be taking and I was trying to find out how much medicine I had over taken as far as money we had lost. NYEBoy was adamant that we were not paying for any medication they wrongly over-prescribed me. By the pharmacists calculations they only owed me one bottle. So that bottle, plus my original refill has been ordered and I will be picking it up tomorrow.

I haven't spoken to my doctor yet, I think she had left when I called them, but my nurse has me scheduled to come back in next week for bloodwork. The bloodwork we discussed at today's appointment was taken right before I started this medication, so coupled with the other monthly checks, we at least have a baseline and we'll know what it's done so far, and how much worse it gets.

I'm really mad about this and it's completely irresponsible for the pharmacist to over-dose like this. I don't want the pharmacist to get in trouble, but what if it had been another medication? What if I was a child? What has it done to my already fragile liver? Now I have to make an unnecessary trip (one hour each way!) appointment for bloodwork, and who KNOWS how much damage it's done and how often I am going to have to keep monitoring it.

Another local pharmacist I spoke with told me I was taking 50% more than the maximum amount for adults per day and that they normally under-dose when someone is having liver problems. Not cool Costco, not cool.

I really just want a break from medical problems. Aren't I over due?