Kevin Since National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day 2025 has come and gone, having fallen on March 24th, I decided to make this into a public service announcement instead of a celebratory post. I feel like this is an important issue we need to talk about beyond that one day out of the year and forget about the remaining 364 days, or 365 days on a leap year.
Before I go any further, I wanna make it clear that I’m no doctor. I only grew up around ppl in the healthcare industry, and I only work around doctors at my summer job. In other words, closeness to doctors and healthcare providers doth not a doctor make.
As I said in my site disclaimer, I’m not a doctor, nor do I play one on TV. Shyt, I’m not even on TV at all, for that matter. As such, I encourage you to always consult your healthcare provider when it comes to medical stuff, including adverse drug events and side effects. If that provider won’t listen or makes it clear they don’t give a rat’s ass when push comes to shove, then seek out a second opinion, or even a 3rd if that’s what it takes.
Adverse drug events can vary from minor annoyances to something life-threatening, or worse. At the same time, this is something that isn’t always talked about. On one hand, I can understand why it isn’t, cuz many ppl don’t like to bring up their personal business to others, whether they’re randos or acquaintances. I don’t.
I saw this on the National Today website, and wanted to write a post about it, but that fell through. The more I thought about it, the more I realized this needed its own post beyond the official observance day. This is also something that hits very close to home for me, and sad to say, it’s now been more than one time.
The first time I experienced an adverse drug event, it was back in college. Looking back, it was a medication I shouldn’t have ever been on in the first place. Long story short, it ruined my grades and my job, almost cost me my life, and the agency I was dealing w/ at the time didn’t care. They stonewalled me when I tried to speak up about the life-threatening side effects this medication was causing for me, starting from the 2nd day into it, and told me that it was all “normal,” to “stick w/ it, it gets better.”
Spoiler alert: it didn’t. It never once got better, until I quit the medication on my own, despite their insistence (and my mom’s insistence too) that I stay on it. I lasted 2 1/2 months of suffering in silence on it, and the fallout continued even after I quit the whole mess. As a result of this whole disaster, I lost my job at the time, which had opportunities for promotion and advancement.
This could’ve ended so much worse, and for some out there, it probably has. I hate to say this, but it soured me from doctors for a long time. The two I saw in the months that followed that whole disaster after I moved on from that agency sucked the one time I dealt w/ them, and they both blamed me for what happened. One even tried to put me back on the medication that got me into this whole mess in the first place, even going so far as to guilt trip me into it.
I never went back, and went out of my way to avoid that place like the plague ever since. I hope like hell that this provider’s turned over a new leaf since then, if for no other reason than for the sake of their patients.
I may have been 21 at the time, but if they were to give me a new prescription for that medication, it would be going into that shredder bin I saw in the hallway.
Knowing what I know now, I never even needed that medication in the first place. It was one I could live w/o, same as this new medication that my new provider prescribed for me to take on as-needed basis. The side effects on this one were immediate, and I already knew after one pill that I was done. I drew that line. The side effects dragged on for days after the first pill, did fuck-all for my range of motion, and made the pain even worse than it usually is.
I went to the pharmacy that weekend, and asked if this gets better. Even if it somehow got better, it didn’t matter. I need to be able to live, and seriously, who fuckin lives like that? I was fully prepared for the pharmacist to laugh me outta there and tell me to go pound sand, but not in those specific words. I made peace w/ that as an eventuality on the bus ride there.
However, they took me by surprise, since the pharmacist took this seriously.
I honestly thought I’d never live to see the day someone would actually care and take it seriously, let alone care enough to put a note in my file to prevent future prescriptions of this stuff from coming in. Then again, what I was dealing w/ the last time a medication treated me so bad wasn’t normal, and neither was the place or the circumstances.
I count my blessings, since this could’ve ended so much worse. For many, it has, according to this post from the Texas A&M School of Engineering Medicine, who states that adverse drug events are the 4th leading cause of death in the U.S., and that it’s wholly preventable w/ the right checks and balances, according to Dr. Sara Rogers, a professor at the School of Engineering Medicine, and also an advocate for National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day.
This same post goes on to mention how the risks of adverse drug events happening increase w/ the amount of medications someone takes, also known as polypharmacy. However, if this isn’t the case, then this is ruled out.
Dosage mistakes, little to no patient education, and also not considering possible genetic variations that mean we process medication and react to it differently compared to others.
To play devil’s advocate, we may not be aware of any genetic differences or allergies to a medication, until we basically fuck around and find out. Nobody could’ve known that I’d react this bad to either of the medications, but the responses I got were like night and day. That being said, ppl at Texas A&M Health have created a dashboard designed to notify prescribers of potentially risky medications based off of a patient’s history, and do so in real time.
I feel like this needs to be an industry standard, ASAP, along w/ the School of Engineering Medicine’s goal of creating a culture of safety surrounding medications, as well as moving on from blaming us as patients when things go wrong, in favor of a systemic solution.
I could go on and on about this. But what can we do as patients when it comes to medication side effects? One thing I’ve seen many ppl at my summer job doing is coming in w/ lists of medications they’re taking, including over-the-counter stuff, prescription stuff, and supplements. Sometimes they’re typed out, other times they’re written on the backs of old papers, or random notepads. I’ve mainly seen this in those over a certain age, but I feel like this is something we all need to do, regardless of age.
I’ll be writing down my medications and keeping the list in a safe place, and also keeping a copy of it on my computer just to be on the safe side.
Just as importantly, say something when you start getting even the slightest feeling that there’s some shyt amiss. Take note of it, and let your provider know about this. If that provider won’t listen to you, or worse yet, they get an attitude w/ you about it, then that’s your sign to get your medical records, and look into a second opinion.
No provider worth their salt will act like that, nor will it even occur to them. Over to you, readers. Have you heard of National Adverse Drug Event Awareness Day? I haven’t, until March 26th, and I was today years old. Is this something that hits close to home for you for whatever reason? Or are you just passionate about it? Both ring true for me, but I’d love to hear your thoughts and takeaways, so drop it all like it’s hot, and let’s talk.
