A Dozen Tips About Taking Medicines
1. Read all labels carefully. Of patients with liver damage related to acetaminophen, 25% had taken combination drugs, not realizing how much acetaminophen they were taking.
2. Never, ever take medicine in the dark. You could grab the wrong bottle and take the wrong medicine in the wrong dose.
3. Clarify any instructions about taking medicines with your healthcare provider or pharmacist. Don't assume when your health and safety are at stake!
4. Do not keep bottles of pills that can change your alertness or judgment next to your bed. You could easily overdose because you can forget how much you've taken.
5. Don't buy OTC medicine if the package is damaged; that's the purpose of tamper-evident packaging. Bring it to the pharmacist so it's taken off the shelves.
6. Remember that there is no such thing as a 'childproof cap' or packaging.
7. Never use silverware to measure a teaspoon of liquid medicine. There is no standard size for silverware teaspoons. Ask your favorite nurse to show you how to measure liquid medicine using a syringe.
8. Make sure every healthcare professional prescribing for you knows all the medicines you take---including OTC, herbal remedies and nutritional supplements. If you have had no clinical improvement on the medications you're taking, better to have a talk with your primary care provider about why you're not taking the medicine than have him/her wonder why the medicine is not working.
9. Keep all medicines in their original container, particularly if you are traveling. You never want to wonder what pill you're taking. If in doubt, throw it out.
10. When you choose a new OTC medicine, you are essentially prescribing the medicine for yourself so YOU are responsible for checking possible interactions with food or other medicines you're taking.
11. Compile a list of your medicines (prescription, OTC and herbal) and then compare them on a web site to see if there are interactions among any of the remedies in the group. Three websites to try are drugdigest.org, drugs.com, or drugstore.com.
12. And finally, ask if there are any blood tests you need while taking a prescription drug, either to measure the level of the drug in your blood or to measure the drug's effect on your body. If you need blood tests, do not skip them. They are critical to make sure your dose isn't too high or too low.
