8/13/2025.

I'm 41. I spent a large portion of my day wondering if my blood pressure medication had been tampered with somehow. Sounds crazy, I know. That's where I'm at today.

My blood pressure has been steadily increasing every day and it's been on a slow slope since I was given a different shaped pill from the pharmacy. Which happens, they use multiple manufacturers to fill prescriptions. I understand that reality and it's normal. Which is why I didn't think about it other than holding a small amount of confused annoyance when I picked it up.

But lately the numbers keep increasing and I feel sick often. Before the diagnosis this was normal life for me. Never quite feeling healthy. Battling what felt like an oncoming virus. I work in a clinic around kids, having exposure to all kinds of everything so that expectation was normal. I wrote it off. And this is why high blood pressure is so tricky. Yet I know what it feels like now.

Anyway, it got me wondering - how would someone know for sure the quality of medicine they are being prescribed? I got scared because once again, this process is something I probably take for granted. Even today, as I thought about all of this because I do feel very ill and that something is wrong with me. I had blurry vision at times. Headaches, dizziness. How would I even explain this suspicion to someone?

It does sound like a conspiracy theory but this is a realistic scenario that could happen to someone. Medical mistakes happen. Manufacturing mistakes happen. I'm a bold person who has lived through multi-million dollar medical adventures and even with all of that experience - I am crushed by the exhaustion I know it would take to get someone to even care and I have access to good doctors, pharmacy and the ability to clearly advocate for myself. And again, I have no way to know for sure - it's just really odd, the data pattern.

Oh I'm sure there are plenty of ways to track down and notice after people are injured/die from these kinds of mistakes but what about active preventative measures? - Taking people's concerns seriously and quicker response times.

It doesn't exist. It needs to exist.