Coyans in the Czech Republic

Medicinal Mayhem

Last night we had an exciting experience with czech pharmaceuticals. Krista had recently renewed her prescription for verapamil, the medication she must take to keep her heart's electrical signals in balance. Because she has been getting sick quite often this winter with colds and flu, she finally decided to go to the doctor Monday morning. As is very common here, he prescribed her with a 7-day antibiotic regimen. On Monday night, she noticed her feet were a bit swollen, and just thought she was putting on weight. Tuesday it seemed a bit worse, and last night her feet started to look like angry puffy red pillows. I researched the two medications and found a webpage describing how they cannot be taken together, as the antibiotic makes the heart medication much more powerful. So basically she was overdosing on her heart medication, causing her blood vessels to relax, which meant all the blood was pooling in her feet and didn't have sufficient pressure to pump up to her head. She became really dizzy, so I put her on the couch and raised her grapefuit-esque feet with some pillows. We considered taking her to the hospital, but since any visit to the emergency room typically results in a 5-day or longer stay in the hospital, we decided to see if the couch treatment helped. Fortunately, after about an hour and some foot and leg massage, things began to sort themselves out and today her feet and ankles look more human than vegetable.