One of the things that grately concerns me an in some ways is a pet peeve of mine, and always has been, is the relaxed and almost detached way that some physicians prescribe medications. No I am not physician bashing. It is simply a concern that for which I hope that everyone who has, and is taking  prescribed medications will consider.

Let me begin by saying that I have one of the best primary care doctors in the area! He challenges me, and I challenge him right back but not in the adversarial sense.  But in the sense that he is responsible for my health care treatment plan. I, as a patient and consumer have a responsibility to follow his prescribed plan but only to the extent that it does not further endanger my life. Since becoming a person with a disability I am even more vigilant in knowing about the medications that are prescribed to me. In the past I have been given at least 4 different medications that after beginning I refused to take. Out of those four prescribed medicines, three ended up on the recall, or cease prescribing list. They had to be pulled from the market. One of them was the muscle relaxer, Soma.

I hate any medication that makes me feel like a zombie anyway. I've learned recently that some of my daily medicines that I continued to take after reading over the side effects, deeming them safe enough, and also after you know, considering  the benefits they were to provide my medical care treatment , may also need replacing. They cause lots bloating, and weight gain, and may not necessarily be compatible with other meds or supplements that I would like to take.

If there is more than one doctor prescibing medications for you then you really have to do your home work . You have to remind them each visit of what your 're already on. Hey, they are extremely busy and very human, and sometimes they forget!! I;ve also learned that you have to be extremely vigilant in keeping up with the correct dosages you are supposed to be getting. Sometimes there is a dissconnect with the presciption itself, and what the doctor believes he has written in he chart and in turn sent to the pharmacy.  I learned this the hard way by taking twice as much bp medication that I needed for months before I caught it. It didn't kill me but it made me pay closer attention to the dosage amount. Now I always question cokor and shape of pill, dosage, and I verify this with what my doctor has on his chart when I have office visits.  

One thing I learned from being hospitalized for a very bad bronchial infection, is that you should always take your regular meds. to the hospital with you. Because sometimes they do not have the appropriate dosage or equivalent for you, or it takes sometimes up to a day for the meds to come up from the pharmacy. Don't just take them let the nurses know you have them. It keeps me from making a bad situation worse.

There is a site I use regularly to check for medication interactions, or contraindications, along with the advice of my pharmacist who is an excellent resource for this very important information.  My doctor is good for this also, but there are times whne he has to pull out his blackberry as well. The pharmacist job is to know this information. The site I beleive, is very helpful, if you also self medicate with supplements, and especially to check your meds to see if they are possibly causing an interaction with each other. Sometimes, certain medications  will cause you to feel worse than you alreay feel if you're having a problem, then its time to ask your doctor for something new if this possible. Don't be shy about it, it's only your health. 

The site address is;  

 http://www.aarp.org/health/conditions/articles/goldstandard.html

Hopefully, this will be helpful infromation to everyone. It was for me.

Blueberrypi

Tags: Drug Interactions Dosages

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