Robert Celt
New Member
I consider myself to be very lucky. At age 61, the only prescription med I take is for high cholesterol and probably if I lost 50 pounds and stayed away from sweets, I wouldn't need it. Most of my contemporaries take 3-4 different meds and many have some serious illnesses. This leaves the door open for horrible drug interaction tragedies. I credit my good health to a lifetime of cannabis use. Yup. Since age 18. I've sampled it on 3 different continents and I'm "old school," so it is pipes, joints and bongs...not that I am at all unwilling to try all the new methods out there. Vapes, tinctures, oils, and edibles, oh my.
Through writing this blog, I have had the honor of meeting and become friends with hundreds of cannabis activists. One such young man is Jordan Prince of Wichita, Kansas. I met him when I wrote my blog post about Shona Banda. Her story is appalling. Please share it and raise awareness about this travesty of justice. Jordan works tirelessly to help people; typically those who have been unjustly arrested or jailed for using medicinal cannabis. However, the story I am about to relate is about a prescription medication interaction nightmare that Jordan shared with me.
In 2009, things for Becki Conway and her family were insanely busy. She lived in Michigan with her husband and 5 kids, including 2 year old twins, and they were just about to embark on a new adventure, opening a pizza restaurant. However, circumstances were such that she was feeling overwhelmed by her life, feeling anxious and out of control. She asked the doctor, for whom she worked at an urgent care facility, for some help and he wrote her a prescription for 2 medications; Lamictal and Depakote. Taking those medications together was the beginning of a life-threatening ordeal for Becki from which she will never entirely recover and which changed her life, forever.
After she started taking them, she felt immediately better. About 2 weeks later, she started to feel unwell with flu-like symptoms of a sore throat, dry cough and sinus irritation. But, then something really weird happened. She started getting chest pains followed by red, itchy eyes and a scalding rash with red spots all over her face and neck with sores in her mouth and throat. It was so severe that she was hospitalized where things only worsened. Her entire body blistered and she described the sensation as burning from the inside out. The rash covered her eyelids with blisters and attacked the lining of her lungs. The drug interaction had precipitated something called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) which went undiagnosed as she got worse and worse.
They were primarily treating her for the chest pain, putting her through several unnecessary tests which showed nothing wrong with her heart. Despite telling several medical staff that she was taking the 2 medications, no connection was made to an interaction. She was discharged from the hospital, given Benadryl and sent home. She continued to get worse, to the point where she was extremely alarmed when she saw herself in the mirror. In desperation, she went to the clinic where she worked and was examined by a doctor who realized that Becki had SJS. But the doctor never imagined that the rash would become so severe. She gave her a steroid shot and sent her home. Becki took a nap and when she woke up, she was even worse. She called the doctor back who told her to go immediately to the ER. Had she been immediately sent to a burn unit when she went to the hospital the first time, she probably would not have suffered such lasting injuries.
She was readmitted to the hospital where her condition continued to get worse and worse. By the end of the 10th day, 70% of Becki's skin had blistered or peeled off in sheets. She couldn't see, couldn't swallow, couldn't stop coughing and she was struggling to breathe. She was in so much pain, she could barely communicate. She looked like she had been set on fire. Her wounds were so gruesome that she didn't want her children to come visit her.
At the insistence of one of the nurses who had treated other patients with SJS, Becki was finally sent to an intensive care burn unit, where she was given round the clock care in an attempt to save her life. Many victims die from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome due to infections. It was touch and go for Becki.
The disease continued to wreak havoc on her eyes and she ended up having several surgeries in an attempt to save her eyesight. Her eyes were stitched shut for a couple of weeks so that she could heal. Her tear ducts were completely destroyed. She did survive, but her recovery has taken months and she is legally blind, with the ability to see only shadows and light in one eye. She has recurrent eye pain from nerve damage, and a chronic cough caused by her lung damage. The family had to move to Florida where the climate is better for her.
The very sad part of this story is that all of this could have easily been avoided. This was a "perfect storm" for disaster. There are so many medications on the market that it is difficult for doctors to keep up with all the bad interactions. There are so many red flag warnings on medications that doctors simply ignore them as do the pharmacists. The prescribing doctor ignored the warnings as did the pharmacist who filled the prescription even though there is plenty of documentation that these 2 drugs together can cause and have caused rashes and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. This poor woman's life is now a living hell. She filed a lawsuit against the doctor and his health system and they settled. The doctor has vowed never to prescribe the 2 drugs together. Here's the kicker...the pharmacist said he wouldn't have a problem filling the same order again.
I would venture to guess that if Becki Conway would have used cannabis to deal with her anxiety...oh, wait, in Michigan, anxiety isn't one of the very few qualifying conditions, so she can't get a medical cannabis card. But, she can get lots and lots of these very pretty prescription meds...
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: MMJ Use Would Have Prevented This Prescription Drugs Interaction Nightmare
Author: Leslie Kahn
Contact: Soapbox Momma
Photo Credit: Bigstock
Website: Soapbox Momma
Through writing this blog, I have had the honor of meeting and become friends with hundreds of cannabis activists. One such young man is Jordan Prince of Wichita, Kansas. I met him when I wrote my blog post about Shona Banda. Her story is appalling. Please share it and raise awareness about this travesty of justice. Jordan works tirelessly to help people; typically those who have been unjustly arrested or jailed for using medicinal cannabis. However, the story I am about to relate is about a prescription medication interaction nightmare that Jordan shared with me.
In 2009, things for Becki Conway and her family were insanely busy. She lived in Michigan with her husband and 5 kids, including 2 year old twins, and they were just about to embark on a new adventure, opening a pizza restaurant. However, circumstances were such that she was feeling overwhelmed by her life, feeling anxious and out of control. She asked the doctor, for whom she worked at an urgent care facility, for some help and he wrote her a prescription for 2 medications; Lamictal and Depakote. Taking those medications together was the beginning of a life-threatening ordeal for Becki from which she will never entirely recover and which changed her life, forever.
After she started taking them, she felt immediately better. About 2 weeks later, she started to feel unwell with flu-like symptoms of a sore throat, dry cough and sinus irritation. But, then something really weird happened. She started getting chest pains followed by red, itchy eyes and a scalding rash with red spots all over her face and neck with sores in her mouth and throat. It was so severe that she was hospitalized where things only worsened. Her entire body blistered and she described the sensation as burning from the inside out. The rash covered her eyelids with blisters and attacked the lining of her lungs. The drug interaction had precipitated something called Stevens-Johnson Syndrome (SJS) which went undiagnosed as she got worse and worse.
They were primarily treating her for the chest pain, putting her through several unnecessary tests which showed nothing wrong with her heart. Despite telling several medical staff that she was taking the 2 medications, no connection was made to an interaction. She was discharged from the hospital, given Benadryl and sent home. She continued to get worse, to the point where she was extremely alarmed when she saw herself in the mirror. In desperation, she went to the clinic where she worked and was examined by a doctor who realized that Becki had SJS. But the doctor never imagined that the rash would become so severe. She gave her a steroid shot and sent her home. Becki took a nap and when she woke up, she was even worse. She called the doctor back who told her to go immediately to the ER. Had she been immediately sent to a burn unit when she went to the hospital the first time, she probably would not have suffered such lasting injuries.
She was readmitted to the hospital where her condition continued to get worse and worse. By the end of the 10th day, 70% of Becki's skin had blistered or peeled off in sheets. She couldn't see, couldn't swallow, couldn't stop coughing and she was struggling to breathe. She was in so much pain, she could barely communicate. She looked like she had been set on fire. Her wounds were so gruesome that she didn't want her children to come visit her.
At the insistence of one of the nurses who had treated other patients with SJS, Becki was finally sent to an intensive care burn unit, where she was given round the clock care in an attempt to save her life. Many victims die from Stevens-Johnson Syndrome due to infections. It was touch and go for Becki.
The disease continued to wreak havoc on her eyes and she ended up having several surgeries in an attempt to save her eyesight. Her eyes were stitched shut for a couple of weeks so that she could heal. Her tear ducts were completely destroyed. She did survive, but her recovery has taken months and she is legally blind, with the ability to see only shadows and light in one eye. She has recurrent eye pain from nerve damage, and a chronic cough caused by her lung damage. The family had to move to Florida where the climate is better for her.
The very sad part of this story is that all of this could have easily been avoided. This was a "perfect storm" for disaster. There are so many medications on the market that it is difficult for doctors to keep up with all the bad interactions. There are so many red flag warnings on medications that doctors simply ignore them as do the pharmacists. The prescribing doctor ignored the warnings as did the pharmacist who filled the prescription even though there is plenty of documentation that these 2 drugs together can cause and have caused rashes and Stevens-Johnson Syndrome. This poor woman's life is now a living hell. She filed a lawsuit against the doctor and his health system and they settled. The doctor has vowed never to prescribe the 2 drugs together. Here's the kicker...the pharmacist said he wouldn't have a problem filling the same order again.
I would venture to guess that if Becki Conway would have used cannabis to deal with her anxiety...oh, wait, in Michigan, anxiety isn't one of the very few qualifying conditions, so she can't get a medical cannabis card. But, she can get lots and lots of these very pretty prescription meds...
News Moderator: Robert Celt 420 MAGAZINE ®
Full Article: MMJ Use Would Have Prevented This Prescription Drugs Interaction Nightmare
Author: Leslie Kahn
Contact: Soapbox Momma
Photo Credit: Bigstock
Website: Soapbox Momma
