Watch Your Meds!!!

 I don't care what's wrong with you - you need to be your own doctor in reading up on the meds prescribed for you because 9 times out of 10 your physician won't have time or take time to do it for you.

Sorry, but it's a fact of life and if it isn't stopped at the pharmacy, you may wind up taking something that's got some bad interactions with your other meds or may affect you adversely in that you might be allergic to its ingredients.

You are the captain of your own ship, the "USS Body", and if you don't know how to navigate her "waters" she just might sink out from under you. (How's that for metaphorical speech? 😃 )

As I generally do, I'll use myself as an example, and this has nothing to do with my cancer or dementia, but with pain.

My VA nurse practitioner felt I might benefit from a drug called "Neurontin" or "Gabapentin" as it's known generically. It is used to treat nerve pain - in my case, Sciatica - from my back down my leg. Okay, so I started taking it in its prescribed dosage.

Not long after, I began noticing a generalized weakness in getting around. 

"Well", I thought. "You're 70, what did you expect?"

Then the shortness of breath began, and that began to interfere with everything else: Taking a shower seemed like an 8 hour a day job, and taking the trash couldn't be done without resting halfway. My oxygen saturation began to drop below 95% into the high 80's, and I thought, "Damn! What's going on? Am I dying or what??? You're a non-smoker - no way should you have a saturation level of 88%!"

My doctors at CTCA were puzzled as well and began looking at my heart and lungs, but those were okay. All my labs came back fairly normal, so what was it?

It was me. I was having an adverse reaction to the medication. That is what I found out when I began to read.

There it was - the second one down - "Drowsiness and Weakness" (along with a host of other side effects).

I'm not blaming anyone. The stuff worked, it just made me weak and dizzy. In short, it was not an "acceptable side effect".

So we stopped the Gabapentin/Neurontin and I opted for some radiological surgery on my back which has helped with right-sided sciatica. We'll do the left side next, and I should be pain-free afterward.

Moral of the story: Inform and educate yourself as to your medications and what they're supposed to do! Don't depend on your doctor or pharmacist to know everything. If they don't know you have a propensity for adverse effects, you have to help them out.

I hope this anecdote has helped you in some way and thank you for taking the time to read it.

Remember to support Alzheimer's Research by helping to raise funds with  the "Walk To End Alzheimer's"

Thanks

Bill