strange story

Hi I'm new to the forum. I would like to post what is, at least to me, an interesting story.

I have chronic pain issues myself, ranging from diabetic neuropathy to severe osteomyelitis which led to multiple foot surgeries, some failed and some not.

My landlord and I are fast friends. We live in the same house. He has chronic pain also, resulting partially from a hip replacement eight years ago. For eight years he has had to take 60mg of morphine ER (Kadian®) with Percocet-10® for breakthrough. Different pain meds than I take, but just as strong.

However, we both take Neurontin®, and that brings me to the story. My friend and landlord is not someone who has the propensity to post something like this to a message forum, so I'm doing it.

One Friday night, he discovered he was out his Neurontin®. The doctor would have to be contacted and he would suffer if that was going to take until the next week to happen. I had plenty, so I said I would lend hm some to get him through.

Well, I had recently been put on an antibiotic for prophylaxis against infection in my recently operated-on foot. The generic form of the antibiotic looked exactly like the generic form of Neurontin®. It was in the same size prescription bottle so, naturally, we mixed them up. He ended up taking the generic Cipro® for a couple of days.

Well, by the next afternoon, the pain from his titanium hip had all but completely disappeared, making it impossible not to believe that the problem had been from infection around the hip all along. He had not been given antibiotics for any other reason for those eight years, so he had never had an opportunity to find this out before. A day or later, we had all this figured out. When he stopped taking the antibiotic his pain returned. And when he started it again, the pain disappeared again.

The question is, how will he communicate this to his doctor? The doc will surely ask how he knows antibiotics will help when he asks her for them. Docs don't like to hear about medication sharing, however accidentally, and however un-controlled the meds involved might be... not to mention the fact that it's unlikely the doc would put him on permanent antitbiotic therapy ... isn't it?

Any advice for him? Has anyone heard a similar story ofr had this happen to them?

I'm on antibiotic therapy for chronic Urinary Tract infections. So it is possible.

BUT, I don't think this guy would need permanent antibiotic therapy, I think he would just need a full course or two, until the infection is completely gone. My guess is the reason the pain came back when he stopped the antibiotics is because the infection wasn't completely gone and repopulated.

He can go in and tell his doc that he's experiencing the pain, and ask if its possible there could be an infection in the area, and if that could be causing it, and then the apprepriate tests can be done to determine if there actually is one.

Sharing meds is bad. Even if it's the exact same thing at the exact same dose. Then, the fact that there was a mix up...it's extremely lucky that it was an antibiotic and that he had no allergies to cipro. There really is no way to go about explaining this to a doc that won't get both of you in trouble.

I wish him luck.

Thank you for your kind and well-thought-out replies..

Unfortunately he did contact the after hours doc only to be told that "our policy is not to call in ANY meds after hours." He was told to go to the emergency room, a trip he could not afford.

I hope I didn't come off as too cavalier myself. He really isn't either. He and I both share the understanding of the dangers of any kind of medication sharing. He's definitely back on his gabapentin now and awaiting an appointment with his doc.

Further discussion revealed that now he remembers that when he first had the surgery he was given antibiotics as a prophylactic against developing an infection. And when he came off of them the pain he has had for eight years slowly developed. He will tell his current doctor about this and see if she will test him for infection. He didn't report it to the original surgeon as he was dealing with many other problems--family members becoming ill, new job, etc. He realizes he made mistakes, but it's all in the past.

Thanks again for your replies. If anyone else would care to comment, we look forward to your thoughts.

And thanks for the welcome to the boards!

Actually, on his last Dr visit, he and she both failed to notice that he only had one refill on his Neurontin®. He had since used that one refill. This time, he called it in, failing to see the "Dr. must authorize refills" and, it being a Friday night, the pharmacy called him back, saying he would have to wait until they could get it authorized the following week.

Also, I go to the same doctor group and I myself one time, having run out of my Atenolol®, was told the very same thing--we don't call in meds after hours. Go to the emergency room. Believe me, I don't understand it either. If I had to guess, I would say it has to do with the fact that this clinic deals with a lot of people who have been involved with some funny business or other involving meds, even un-controlled ones. (I have to remember that Ultram® and Soma® are not controlled substances, something I find kind of strange). This is all just a guess, so don't hold me to it.

And yes, both he and his brother have above-normal temp readings. They told me that it was "normal for their family." I doubted it, but who was I to argue? There is no redness as it is a very internal pain and the man is quite large (350 lbs.) But there IS swelling for which the doc was prescribing a water pill. She just called it edema associated with his obesity.

It's important, I guess, to remember that this is all based on the empirical evidence of his taking an antibiotic and his pain going away. Neither he nor I are doctors, and he can only await hid doctor's opinion in the end.

Anyway, I hope I answered your questions sufficiently. Thank you for your time!!!