medication errors with family members

Zookeeper3 · Sep 20, 2009

If you saw my mom's medicine cabinet... let alone her pantry your stomach would turn. She insists that meds that are "expired" are the pharmacutical companies way of getting you to purchase more. Lets not talk about the soy sauce or crisco that are 10 years old.

Off the lighter side of things, Each "ex." situation is different..... I have no way of knowing your relationship with the mom and the boyfriend. Perhaps it may better be left for the two of them to work it out and you can help teach the boyfriend about being diligent with the kids meds and reading lables? The medicine labels would have the doctors instructions clearly printed about administration, so I"m unsure how a doctors note will help.

Gosh love 'em, some people just think... an inhaler is an inhaler and meds never expire. :banghead:

RNHuskyFan · Sep 20, 2009

Once, many moons ago, before I was a nurse, Albuterol for neb treatments was packaged in a brown bottle for my asthma. My son, 15 months at the time, was being treated for an ear infection and the MD prescribed ear drops in the same type of brown bottle. I mistaken the albuterol for the ear drops and instilled albuterol in his ear. I found out then how quickly the ear absorbs drugs. My son was wired for sound and you could almost see his heart pounding. When I realized my mistake I was in a panic and called the MD right away. Fortunately there were not any serious effects and it quickly wore off, but it was a lesson I would never forget. Scary stuff!!!!!

KTSNurse2b · Sep 20, 2009

Am I wrong with this information-I was told by a doctor that except for a few select meds, the majority of meds do not truly expire despite the fact that they have an expiration date. This doc told me that the authorities basically felt like the consumer would not respond well to something like meds not having an expiration date when they were so used to them on food, so they put them on. I was actually just told this very recently, and have had a hard time really believing it, since I've read countless times about the importance of paying attention to med expiration dates and popular articles that have said you may not get hurt from expired meds, but they won't work as well.

talaxandra · Sep 20, 2009

While I'd be concerned about the dosage difference, expiration dates are generally less significant than you'd think. Here's an interesting article on the topic, from Medscape:

First, the expiration date, required by law in the United States, beginning in 1979, specifies only the date the manufacturer guarantees the full potency and safety of the drug -- it does not mean how long the drug is actually "good" or safe to use. Second, medical authorities uniformly say it is safe to take drugs past their expiration date -- no matter how "expired" the drugs purportedly are. Except for possibly the rarest of exceptions, you won't get hurt and you certainly won't get killed. A contested example of a rare exception is a case of renal tubular damage purportedly caused by expired tetracycline (reported by G. W. Frimpter and colleagues in JAMA, 1963;184:111). This outcome (disputed by other scientists) was supposedly caused by a chemical transformation of the active ingredient. Third, studies show that expired drugs may lose some of their potency over time, from as little as 5% or less to 50% or more (though usually much less than the latter). Even 10 years after the "expiration date," most drugs have a good deal of their original potency. So wisdom dictates that if your life does depend on an expired drug, and you must have 100% or so of its original strength, you should probably toss it and get a refill, in accordance with the cliché, "better safe than sorry." If your life does not depend on an expired drug -- such as that for headache, hay fever, or menstrual cramps -- take it and see what happens.

rngolfer53 · Sep 20, 2009

I live with my boyfriend and his 3 kids. One of the kids has asthma; his mom gave us his Flovent which I was faithfully giving him each night as she instructed. When the dad and I went to pick up the refill I noticed the dose was 44mcg and the inhaler she gave us was 110mcg. I had only given him a few doses becuase I pulled the canister out to see the exp date and it was over 6 years old! After I learned it was expired I did not give him any doses.
Turns out she gave us one of her expired inhalers she had lying around her truck. I was just sick over the fact that I had given a few doses of an expired inhaler and the wrong dose. I have since told her all orders from the Doctor for this child must be seen in writing since I refuse to take a verbal order from her.
Has anyone else had this happen?

I have to be careful myself on my albuterol inhaler. My asthma is usually well-controlled, and I end up throwing out barely-used inhalers r/t expiration. I've learned not to buy the "Costco-size" Ibuprofin bottles for the same reason.

Still, I'll take the waste rather than have reason to use the meds often, and count myself blessed. :chuckle

A funny thing did happen w/a very sweet LOL Pt one morning (I do home calls for hospice). I was called pre-dawn for N&V last 6 hours. For some reason the Pt had only Pepto-Bismal on her med orders for N&V, and no standing orders, either. :banghead: I figured there was little hope of it being effective, but you have to try before waking the doc to get new orders, eh?. The Pepto in the house expired in 2004. From the looks of the bottle, it hadn't been out of the cabinet into the light since then either. :eek:

When I was an EMT, a guy wondered why his 3-years-expired nitro tablets didn't resolve his CP. :banghead:

Takes all kinds.

sharpeimom · Sep 20, 2009

on the lighter side of meds expiration:

my dad went fishing with the same bunch of guys every year for the week of the 4th of july. they'd go to long point in canada, stay in the same cottages, take turns cooking the only things they each knew how to prepare, year after year after year ... inevitably each cook would cut or burn himself -- either cooking or while cleaning the catch. out would come the infamous bottle of iodine so a drop could be applied to the latest indignity. problem was the bottle was so old, the contents had evaporated until the remaining iodine was about triple strength. :eek: by day, these men were surgeons, an ob/gyn, an opthamologist, and an attorney and an attorney/physician (the one i'll have to admit i'm related to) and should have known better but used it anyway. the ones who have died all have another cause on their death certificates but... yikes! ... as one wife said once, how do we know for sure?

scary!

my great aunt ruth was 80 when i was born and died when i was a senior in college. her husband was 10 years older and died when i was six. she kept meds on a deep shelf in the linen cupboard in the upstairs hall. when i was about 20, we were visiting her and i got a headache and she sent me upstairs for some asa. the bottle had expired ten years before! :no: i looked through her stash and found all of uncle frank's meds plus vicks in a blue glass bottle with a crystal-like stopper. knowing that i'd hear about it later, i cleaned the meds shelf and tossed things i'd never heard of before that hadn't seen the light of day for decades. :bugeyes: before we left, my mom bought asa, pepto, bandaids, bactine, cotton balls, etc. amazing she survived that stash! :icon_hug:

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

Ruby Vee, BSN · Sep 20, 2009

i live with my boyfriend and his 3 kids. one of the kids has asthma; his mom gave us his flovent which i was faithfully giving him each night as she instructed. when the dad and i went to pick up the refill i noticed the dose was 44mcg and the inhaler she gave us was 110mcg. i had only given him a few doses becuase i pulled the canister out to see the exp date and it was over 6 years old! after i learned it was expired i did not give him any doses.
turns out she gave us one of her expired inhalers she had lying around her truck. i was just sick over the fact that i had given a few doses of an expired inhaler and the wrong dose. i have since told her all orders from the doctor for this child must be seen in writing since i refuse to take a verbal order from her.
has anyone else had this happen?

i think you need to also think about your relationship with your boyfriend's children's mother. assuming that you and your boyfriend are in each other's lives for awhile, this woman is going to be a part of your life as well. it's in everyone's best interests if you get along with her, and "refusing to take a verbal order" from her isn't the best way to get along. perhaps your boyfriend, not you should be in charge of his children's medications.

Batman24 · Sep 20, 2009

i think you need to also think about your relationship with your boyfriend's children's mother. assuming that you and your boyfriend are in each other's lives for awhile, this woman is going to be a part of your life as well. it's in everyone's best interests if you get along with her, and "refusing to take a verbal order" from her isn't the best way to get along. perhaps your boyfriend, not you should be in charge of his children's medications.

excellent advice. your boyfriend should be dealing with the mother of his children not you. it isn't your place and could lead to very bad feelings where they need not exist.

talaxandra · Sep 20, 2009

When I was an EMT, a guy wondered why his 3-years-expired nitro tablets didn't resolve his CP.

Yeah, I'd definitely make an exception for nitro!

sharpeimom · Sep 20, 2009

my uncle carried the same nitro tablets (using prn) and when they didn't work and my aunt insisted he go to the er, he was given fresh ones but they didn't relieve his pain, and shortly thereafter, had a fatal mi, while still in the er area but after having been treated. to this day, my aunt tells people the _____ gave him nitro so fresh that it "blew his heart up." all attempts to dissuade her of the idea have failed miserably.

sharpeimom:paw::paw:

talaxandra · Sep 20, 2009

There's only so much you can do when someone has a picture in their heads. Sorry to hear about your uncle, sharpei, though I do like the idea of GTN blowing someone up