I have patient's come into my office periodically and say, "I took my wife's, husband's, son's, daughter's, etc. medication because this is what I think I have and they had the same thing." Shivers go up my spine.
Here are some tips on medications:
1: Never self diagnose. If you feel you need to make medicine, make an appointment and see the appropriate physician or specialist.
2: Never take medication prescribed for someone else unless you contact your doctor or specialist first. Discussing your medical issue on the phone is better than taking the medication without knowing what the problem may be. Medications work differently on different people. Age, weight, allergies and correct diagnosis must be considered.
3: Purge your medicine box periodically. I recommend that you go through where you store your medications and discard any prescription that is more than six months old. All medications have a shelf life and you don't know how long the medicine in that bottle was sitting on the shelf before it was dispensed to you.
4: Put medicines on a closet shelf. Medications need to be kept in a cool, dark environment. Keeping them in your closet avoids heat and humidity generated in the bathroom.
5: Don't flush medications down the sink or toilet. Medications are being found in ground water. Check with your pharmacy to see if they have a take-back program to dispose of old medications.
6: Crush the drugs and mix them with coffee grounds in a sealed plastic bag. The medications are less likely to get into the water supply and reduces the risk of humans ingesting them.
"The journey of life is taken one step at a time... none of them should be painful." G.M. Barclay, DPM, AACFAS
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