When someone STEALS your medication.

[redhen]

My pharmacy is shady! We have been short on the kids meds before... now we count them everytime.. and last week they gave us someone elses meds! good thing we checked the bottle good when we got home! And when we brought them back..they had our meds in someone elses bag...

scary stuff..
Also..ya never know...its proven that docs and nurses are the WORST for abusing patient narcs...
Actually, Nurses cant even be fired for it! (because its such a big problem..) the company the nurse is working for HAS to provide the nurse rehab options etc...
We had a nurse in the nursing home that was stealing all the patients percocets..(she was doing something sneaky and somehow ordering extra meds..or something..).she finally got busted one night when the pharmacy delivered them early one day..and another shift nurse got them instead of her...

 

[redstars]

Make sure that you tear the labels off the bottles when they are empty and you are throwing
them out. People will see what you are taking in your trash and break in your house to get it. Addicts will
do anything to get a fix.

 

[Birch Run Farm]

It's been an eye opener. I live alone so no family or children involved. A neighbor who has not been here in the house told me she had a pharmacy short her narcotic scripts. Mine was a one time 20 day supply, no refill. I'll make the pharm count them in front of me if I ever have to get any again.

I can picture the face of the surgeon's office person if I call to say someone stole my narcs and I need more.

Yeah, right.

I should have been smarter, that's for sure.

 

[iranonymous]

I too take a great deal of medications daily.I count them and often catch aqshortage of 1-3.To be missing that many in a small prescription isn't possible.Addiction knows no bounds these days.My physician told me not to tell anyone what meds I get or some people kill for them! Can you just imagine???
Call your physician and explain what happened.They will give you an additional prescritpion.Make sure it doesn't happen again or you will be labelded as an abuser by physician.
You cannot leave your meds out for all to see.I bought a very mundane looking end table with 2 big drawers and keep mine in there.Easier to organize and hide them and if need be, lock! I understand your caution now but please don't let it jaundice you from everyone.Live is tough all by yourself.

 

[MagsC]

Sigh. After surgery my mother had oxycotin.
One day she went to the cupboard to get it and it was just GONE.
We know who took it but cant prove it and its such a sad feeling and not being able to trust.

So I certainly feel your pain.

 

[TriciaHowe]

My dad had his Oxycontin stolen by me brothers girlfriend a couple of years ago. He has cancer and neuropathy caused by chemo and needed those pills. I hate thieves

 

[Dar]

what you need to do is contact the PT, and blood draw nurses office and any other professional you have had in the house, home care nurses that have been helping you with bathing... everybody.

Explain that you are not accusing anyone... because there are way to many to investigate.. but you have had 8 pills "missing" dont say stolen because that word tends to get their backs up but you just thought they may want to know... they will chart this information because if the same PT for example had had the same remark over and over it may warrant an internal investigation. Also explain to the manager that there have been co-workers and neighbors in the house to so it could have been any number of people.
anything strange should always be reported.

I work as a home care nurse..and we have had many nurses take meds and it was 1 pill today.. 2 tomorrow... or 1 from each patient... well if i go to 10 people today and 10 people tomorrow by next week i can go on vacation again...

 

[jeaucamom]

My pharmacy has made several errors, so don't rule out that they were just never there to start with. Pharmacists are people and make mistakes too, and of course there are the bad ones.

As a nurse, I actually turned in a friend for stealing narcotics from patients on our floor. She did rehab, came back and did it again... HER FIRST DAY BACK!.... she lost her job and license and will never practice again.

I agree, you should definitely alert the agencies these people work for and let them know you have pills missing. Tell them upfront that you dont' know how it happened but you wanted to report it. The agencies need to know that info!!

 

[AhBee01]

I would also call the pharmacy. They also need to know in case it was them. I have been shorted and called only to find out they gave me what they had, and the rest will be in, in a few days. No one told me, and forget to place the sticker on the bottle, informing me of the short. I would report it as well, and like everyone else said say they are missing.

 

[SarahBeth9394]

I was at my hubby's house one day back years ago when we were both teenagers and I just about fell over at what his grandma did. First the background. My sil who at the time was 16 had a real bad tooth problem. It was all infected and she was in severe pain. So she was prescribed some antibiotics and codeine for pain. She had to go through the whole round of antibiotics before the dentist could work on her teeth. She had it for about 2 days when grandma came over. My mil must have told grandma what was going on they used to talk daily. Grandma was at the house a total of 10 minutes. She used the bathroom then walked into the kitchen (my sil and I were in there), opened the cupboard, grabbed the bottle of codeine, said "oh you have codeine", opened it up and dumped over half the bottle in a zippy bag and exclaimed "oh you don't need it" to my sil. Then she left. I stood there with my jaw bouncing off the floor and smacking me back on the way up. My sil stood there in shock. My sil told my mil but the pills were not returned. Had it been my house the lady never would have made it to the door.