Prescription Oxy Mistake

I had a surgery to repair a torn labrum in my shoulder. When being discharged, the nurse misread the doctor’s notes and filled out the prescription doses at double the quantity and frequency for the pain medication that I was supposed to take. I was informed that if I was going to run out by the weekend, to call and fill it before Friday.

When I called to get it refilled, they informed me that dosage was in error and instructed me to immediately begin weening off of the OxyContin. Within hours of missing my next dosage I had already began feeling sick. I felt itchy all over… the kind of itch that feels like you need to take your skin off to get to. I was on the pills for 4 days and went through 9 days of withdrawal. I have had multiple procedures performed since, where similar medications were recommended, and I have declined to accept any of it. That could have turned out very different for me, despite all good intentions. It doesn’t take long to get its claws into you. When Josh spoke in Texas about “running from the sickness and not towards the high,” I immediately was brought back to those moments. Such true words.