Medicine Accident

[LB21]

I bought a pack of pills today, that said "plant-based active substance", so I thought they'd be vegan, but only after taking them, I found out they had gelantine in them.
I've been vegan for a few years, and this is really getting to me, since this means I "ate" an animal, and feel really bad & guilty now.

I feel like a murderer and don't know if I'm allowed to even call myself vegan anymore.

 

[Brian W]

If you didn't know, you are not to blame. Go easy on yourself.

 

[silva]

I bought a pack of pills today, that said "plant-based active substance", so I thought they'd be vegan, but only after taking them, I found out they had gelantine in them.
I've been vegan for a few years, and this is really getting to me, since this means I "ate" an animal, and feel really bad & guilty now.

I feel like a murderer and don't know if I'm allowed to even call myself vegan anymore.

You are okay! If you haven't changed your beliefs, and how you choose to live, you are vegan.
You're vegan for the animals, right? Honestly, no animal is concerned by your mistake. They aren't concerned with how badly you feel. They ARE concerned with what you do tomorrow, and the next.....
When you feel you screw up do something to counter it-- write the company and let them know you how you feel about their product and how it's labeled. Let them know you will not buy them and will choose a vegan alternative

Now, things like medication are not always available plant based, or without animal testing. Sometimes we need things urgently and don't have time to even check. Vegan is avoiding animal exploitation as much as possible & practical. Don't ever put your own health second - do what you need to do, then get back on track

Please give yourself some allowances. I was pretty obsessive when I first became vegan and the obsessing was not good for me, and I came to understand I wasn't doing animals any good by being stressed over things of little matter.

 

[Connie]

I bought a pack of pills today, that said "plant-based active substance", so I thought they'd be vegan, but only after taking them, I found out they had gelantine in them.
I've been vegan for a few years, and this is really getting to me, since this means I "ate" an animal, and feel really bad & guilty now.

I feel like a murderer and don't know if I'm allowed to even call myself vegan anymore.

Life is a learning curve. Don't beat yourself up over it, but instead learn from it and promise to yourself to try to remember to check in future.

Your bigger issue and much more of a morale problem is how you address medicine from a doctor. Lactose monohydrate is a very common tablet (or inhaler) filler (I'm anaphylactic to dairy protein and actually can't have tablets or inhalers with it in else I go into anaphylactic shock) and exceptionally hard to avoid in any country. Not to mention the fact that medication is often in capsule form and there is no way of knowing if it is a gelatin capsule or not.

When I was in ICU 5 years ago, there wasn't actually a single vegan liquid feed they could tube feed me and I spent 6 days needing to be tube fed. I find that far more appalling than a minor slip up

 

[Tom L.]

Hi, @LB21 -

I'm sorry about what happened. But as you said, the label seemed to suggest your medicine had nothing made from animals. At least animals aren't killed specifically to make gelatine- so if you were going to make a mistake, this was probably the most harmless mistake you could have made!

 

[Lou]

When I was in ICU 5 years ago, there wasn't actually a single vegan liquid feed they could tube feed me and I spent 6 days needing to be tube fed. I find that far more appalling than a minor slip up

That is weird. I had to have a G-Tube just 3 years ago. there were several manufactures of vegan formula. I think one of them was from Nestle.

anyway I bet even in Australia there are some.

I wasn't in a hospital but I also made my own formula when at first my formula didn't get delivered on time.

also when it comes down to life or death - you pretty much can get a waiver for non vegan products.
Its still good to have a choice. and I always ask. but when it comes to my health or life, I don't worry too much about it.

 

[David3]

I bought a pack of pills today, that said "plant-based active substance", so I thought they'd be vegan, but only after taking them, I found out they had gelantine in them.
I've been vegan for a few years, and this is really getting to me, since this means I "ate" an animal, and feel really bad & guilty now.

I feel like a murderer and don't know if I'm allowed to even call myself vegan anymore.

.
Even the largest gelatin capsules only weigh 158 mg (about one-sixth of the gram): Empty Capsules Sizes Chart | Capsuline . No big deal.

 

[Lou]

.
No big deal.

Rule to live by: don't sweat the small stuff

 

[Connie]

also when it comes down to life or death - you pretty much can get a waiver for non vegan products.

Not everyone is vegan by choice. My choice was vegetarian from the age of 11. 10 years later I developed a severe allergy to cows dairy, which later became all dairy (cows, goats, sheep's etc). I'm vegan as a result. Bees have enough problems not to need more. I won't cover eggs here.

When dairy is (potentially) fatal to you, there is no option. If you take it to the example everyone knows, even in ICU feeding nuts to someone with a nut allergy isn't an option, so for me, there being no vegan option was a major problem. I'm allergic to dairy protein, not intolerant to dairy sugar (lactose). So being told there was no feed without dairy in it whilst in ICU was not what I needed to hear after regaining consciousness.

Its still good to have a choice. and I always ask. but when it comes to my health or life, I don't worry too much about it.

The same applies to an awful lot of my medication. I have to ignore the gelatin in capsules, but I can't ignore tablets, capsules or inhaled medication containing dairy (in the form of lactose monohydrate). My allergy is to dairy protein which frequently contaminates this very common tablet filler, so meds with it in are literally have of Russian roulette. (I've had anaphylactic shock to a generic antihistamine tablet whilst in hospital before now.) Depending on how well the product has been cleaned in the lab, controls if I'll go into anaphylactic shock taking the medication.

 

[Lou]

Not everyone is vegan by choice.

Well, I hate to quibble but the concept of veganism does require choice. its a decision. just because you can't drink milk doesn't mean you can't wear leather or buy cosmetics tested on animals.

There is something called the vegan diet. or maybe more correct: a strict vegetarian diet. but to eat a strict vegetarian diet also means not eating eggs.

So being told there was no feed without dairy in it whilst in ICU was not what I needed to hear after regaining consciousness.

Again, not that I don't believe you but I'm sure that is wrong. Even in Australia.

I was on a G-tube for months. three or maybe four years ago. There were several vegan options for me. And at first before the first shipment arrived I was making it myself. Also not ideal but almost any store bought smoothie or meal replacement could be put into a food pump.

The same applies to an awful lot of my medication. ....Depending on how well the product has been cleaned in the lab, controls if I'll go into anaphylactic shock taking the medication.

Wow. that is serious. The OP was talking about guilt. not severe allergy reactions.