Tips for Living With Multiple Medications

While everyone wants to live a long, healthy life, the reality for most people is that with age comes medical conditions. Arthritis, heart disease, and Type II Diabetes are just a few of the ailments that a person can develop as he or she ages. This can result in the need for taking multiple medications, often at different times of the day. Some should be taken with meals while others are best on an empty stomach. Keeping the medications and their proper dosages can be a daunting task and the consequences of mistakes can be deadly. There are, however, many ways of tracking and managing different prescriptions. Retirees on special insurance plans may find suitable prescription plans, but managing the actual medication may prove challenging. This article will look at a few helpful tips.

First of all, it is very important that all physicians are aware of all prescriptions a patient has been given. The cardiologist and the Primary Care Physician are at risk of prescribing drugs with adverse reactions if they are not made aware of what the patient is taking. It is up to the patient to provide this information but it something that patients often forget. For this reason, it is also best to use only one pharmacy that keeps a record of all prescriptions. And it is also a good practice to review all medicines at least once a year with both the doctor and the pharmacist to ensure that all prescriptions are compatible. This includes any over-the-counter medications and herbal supplements a patient might be using.

While the above precautions are vital for preventing dangerous drug interactions, there remains the problem of proper dosage. Solutions range from cheap plastic pill dispensers to high tech and expensive. Regardless of the system used, the most important thing is to keep all bottles accurately labeled and in a safe place. Keeping track of doses may require a little ingenuity. One method is to create a schedule that lists all doses. Other people buy the little plastic medicine holders and put their pill in by the day. While expensive, there are special dispensers that send text messages to a third party, such as an adult child, and actually calls the doctor and the adult child if a dose has been missed.

Managing multiple medications can be a challenge for any patient but there are solutions. Nothing replaces vigilance on the part of the patient, but there are many things that can help. Primarily common sense and good communication between doctor, patient, and pharmacist can keep accidents from happening and insurance costs down.