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I'm so angry.
I am so angry and frustrated right now. My little man has had a bit of a rough go of it this fall/winter with illness. Both my kiddos have had a respiratory virus for the past few weeks and then last weekend Brody started waking at night and acting fussier with a worse cough and I took him to urgent care Sunday suspecting an ear infection. I was right.
The doctor prescribed ammoxicillan. I didn't feel like he was the most professional doctor in the world and when he went to to write the prescription he was sort of narrating to me while he did it and was complaining about how he hates to convert from pounds to kilograms and that always gets confusing. He had his cell phone out to use the caluculator on it to do the conversions and it probably took him a good 5 minutes which I thought was weird but I just wanted to get home and get my little guy his meds so I took it with a grain of salt.
My husband picking up the prescription and we read through the directions and the label on the bottle like we always do and starting Sunday morning gave him his meds twice a day. It kind of felt like the dose was a lot but my kids are rarely on meds (E has had one ear infection in her life and this is B's second) so I really don't have a lot to compare to.
Two of my good friends yesterday happened to have kiddos that got diagnosed with double ear infections so I asked them each what the dosage was for their kids. I guess the Mommy instinct in me just felt like something was wrong. The other two chidren (1 weighs about 6 pounds more than B, one about 5 pounds less) are on doses of 7 ml/2x a day and 4 ml/2x a day respectively. My son was prescribed-and has been taking- 12.5 ml/2x a day.
I called our pedi (Adam) and he confirmed that the dosage was incorrect and he had been taking almost 2.5 times the correct dose. I am so angry. And so sad for my little guy. And feeling like a horrible Mom for not knowing better. He has been taking this for 6 days straight already 
Re: I'm so angry.
That is so frustrating! When you take your child to a doctor you would hope they would at least realize who they are writing a script for. Did adam write you a new one?
These would be my questions if you have not already asked: What are the side effects of taking too much? Should he be rechecked, not only for his ears, but also for any said side effects?
What urgant care did you take him to? I need to make note to be cautious if we ever have to visit. I'm so sorry this happened to Brody, that is hard on the child and mom!
Don't blame yourself! Honestly, it is great that you caught it when you did, especially with what little experience you had w/ antibiotics. It isn't your job to know the dosage, it is the doctor's, and you can't be faulted for trusting him. It is very unfortunate that your story is definitely pretty common. Urgent cares are notoriously horrible for children. It definitely takes time and experience (and they have little of either) to get the right medicine and the right dose. Adam very frequently has to correct dosages, and even more frequently the actual drug Rx. Many adult drugs work poorly for kids, and visa versa. We were actually both surprised you didn't just get handed a z-pack, as that seems to be the drug of choice for all urgent cares (and rarely is the right choice for a kid).
and not to point fingers, but we were surprised this wasn't caught by the phamacist as well. for brody's age that number should have stuck out as highly unusual. I'd hope they'd give an extra look when it wasn't a pediatrician prescribing too.
i can totally understand why you are upset, just don't blame yourself at all. A good lesson from this for you or anyone else, is to always call your pedi after an urgent care visit, and before filling the rx to verify the treatment. urgent cares can be nice to get a set of eyes on something when the clinic is closed, but it is good to run their diagnosis past your pedi to be sure everything sounds right too. plus it is always good to have in your medical charts when you are on an antibiotic, in case you have a reaction and want it documented.
feel free to call the clinic at any time if you have concerns w/ side effects from over dosage. i really think he'll be totally fine. adam would have mentioned if he was worried (he tends to be overly cautious). its just a good thing you caught it when you did and that it wasn't a more serious drug.
Thanks girls. I appreciate your advice/thoughts. I definitely agree that it was both the fault of the doctor AND the pharmacist and am surprised that it wasn't caught at the pharmacy. I think I just am feeling guilty because I just *knew* something was off and had that Mommy intution feeling and wish I would have looked into it sooner. Obviously if I had a kiddo that had numerous ear infections that high dosage would have immediately stood out but B's only ear infection he needed Rocephin shots so I really had nothing to compare to. But I could have looked it up online or like you said, Jaime, I should have called the clinic to verify. In hindsight that was very stupid of me not to do. I think I tend to err on the side of not wanting to "bother" the clinic, especially during off hours, and I need to probably get over that a bit and realize that if I have a concern, they are there for that.
For those that were asking, it was the Urbandale Family Physicians walk in clinic that we visited. We actually went there because previously we have been less than thrilled at Mercy West so wanted to try a new place. I am notoriously skeptical of urgent care facilities and avoid them like the plague and I guess my experience and those you all have mentioned verify my concerns.
As far as side effects of an overdose, like Jaime said, it seems as though ammox is a pretty "harmless" drug and while the amount prescribed was WAY to high for my little man, the worst thing he probably experienced is an irritated GI tract and probably a pretty upset tummy. This would account for the fussiness and diarrhea he has had this week. Adam did point out though, that had Brody been an immuno compromised child, this could have- and would have- sent him into kidney or liver failure so it had the potential to be very serious which just makes me sick. I shudder to think of the consequences had it been a drug that has smaller room for error.
Thanks for listening to my vent. For the record, I called the urgent care clinic this morning and got the direct number to the clinic administrator and plan to file a complaint as well at the pharmacy. I just think it is important that this particular physician as well as the pharmacist are made aware of the situation in the hopes that perhaps more caution is exerted in the future.
Reasons like this are why we always try Walnut Creek peds first. They are an after hours clinic, but only staff pediatricians.
I'm so glad that B is okay and it wasn't a more serious reaction. I'd definitely be filing complaints with the office as well as the pharmacy.