I was 14 when I was finally given a diagnosis for the birth defect on my right foot, and I have had two corrective surgeries on this foot. Many years ago, in my mid 20’s, I had just started seeing a popular, well-respected podiatrist within the healthcare system I worked for. He had started me on Celebrex for some of the pain I was experiencing in my tendon, and my pharmacy filled it without comment or question the first time.

Over the next month, I began feeling increasingly unwell and was having unexplained onsets of respiratory and other symptoms. As I recall, I went to refill the prescription, and the pharmacist on shift that day was flagged over to chat with me. He told me that he had noticed when filling it that I was listed as being allergic to Sulphas, that whoever filled this never should have let me walk out with it the first time, and that it was not recommended for people allergic to Sulphas to take Celebrex because the chemicals are similar enough they can cause reactions.

I immediately stopped taking the medication and the unexplained onset of symptoms resolved over a few days. I made an appointment with that podiatrist. You know, I have a lot of allergies…when my environmental allergens were recently tested, the nurse involved joked that I needed to start wearing a hazmat suit. So, I understand it’s hard for providers to keep all of that list straight and it’s not something I get judgy about. I wasn’t upset, I wasn’t looking for blood, I just needed a different option that was safer for me personally. And, I was genuinely thankful I didn’t have a worse reaction. Some of my medication reactions have been spectacular in a bad way.

When I explained the situation to this podiatrist, he looked at me and said, “I know your body better than you do. You keep taking that medication.” And he was dead serious, which he made clear with his reiterations to continue taking Celebrex when I told him I didn’t think it was in the best interest of my health to do so.

I never went back to him. I had an allergist around the same time he put me on some medications that I certainly didn’t know were contraindicated to be used together and it caused an interaction. This particular allergist, I had picked him because he was listed in Phoenix Mag’s annual list of top doctors, the ones other doctors recommend. And I’m sure he is a great doctor despite what happened.

After that, I started checking every single medication any doctor prescribes me. Often this doesn’t go over well at first with the providers involved, but I know I have found the kind of provider I want to work with long term when they are able to look past their own feelings of pride in their academic accomplishments and see me as a person, can recognize that I’ve been through a lot and I’m not doing it to be insulting or malicious.

Every single person on planet earth will make a mistake (I’ve certainly made my share) and in health care, those mistakes can kill. Possibly if you’ve had even one of these types of situations happen to you, you might start to adopt a stronger position of advocacy for your own health outcomes.

And, whenever necessary, you’ll do that for your children too in whatever capacity is called for. And it won’t be malicious then either- it will be what you have to do as a parent.