Empower the people with medical knowledge! - Page 2

I had a great aunt who would "forget" to tell doctors what other specialists prescribed at one point she was on albuterol, Proventil, Ventolin, Inderal and propanolol. This was before Rx plans cross checked prescriptions when filled as she filled each doctor's scripts at a different pharmacy.

She stills suffers from chronic polypharmacy,which is most likely going to ultimately be her demise.

we nurses encountered these types of patients more often that we care to, however, we just go right along with the program as we grin and bare it

LOVE it!!!

Why is it that some pts think 'the more meds, the better'. Like it's some kind of badge of honor!!! My aunt and my mother (sisters) would compare their meds like "I take inderal 40 mg twice" and the other would quote "well, I take inderal 20 mg three times". "I take insulin 30 units in the AM and 10 units in the PM" and the other would quote "I take 55 unnits in the AM". On and on. Like they were trying to win a p!$$ing contest. I would get so frustated !!

And don't talk about GENERIC drugs. Is it any wonder that our healthcare system is going broke!!!

I loved how years ago, my elderly relatives would self diagnose and then try to explain to me what they had. Pronouncing the actual disease so poorly and with a heavy southern accent that it ended up sounding like a word totally different than the one that was suppose to be said. You know they were reading this and pronouncing it the best the could....
sigh...

your post reminded me the time i worked in the south and some of my patients would say "i have sweet blood" (diabetes) after learning the south culture i fell in love with it, and their southern accent therefore, i'll say i'm fixing to leave, bye ya'll

Once I had the father of the baby say that since her water broke maybe the swelling in her feet would get better. lol

A large portion of our patients have "Double Ammonia"

While visiting my grandmother in Puerto Rico she asked me to come to the doctor with her, so being the loving grandson I am, I went. There the doctor informs her that her hemoglobin A1C is still elevated despite being on metformin 500mg BID. To my horror my grandma states "Oh, 500mg is a lot so I cut the pill in half and take it once a day, I don't understand why you give me such a big dose when I only take 20mg of lisinopril".

The doctor just starred at her and at this point my mouth hit the floor. I just do not know what was going through her mind... To this day she insists that she can eat all the rice and bread in the world and it won't affect her blood glucose. I see a foot amputation in her future -__-

I think most of the patients who tend to have this 'condition' are the older ones. It's psychological, more than anything. They say that as you get older, you get more scared about dying and death. That's why most of the elderly tend to think too much about their sickness, even if it's just a simple UTI.