taste of medication

[socoamaretto]

i was wondering if anyone had experience themselves or w/ patients having reported a medication having tasted a certain way?

what do oral potassium chloride and kayexalate taste like, for example?

[Here.I.Stand, BSN, RN]

My son was on digoxin as a baby; it was lime flavored and He. Hated. It!!!!

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

I think liquid Kayexalate liquid is quite sweet, because it is suspended in sorbitol. Potassium chloride is sometimes used as a salt substitute and it has, in my opinion an awful, bitter, metallic taste.

I take metformin, and it has no taste to me, but I think it has diminished my sense of taste (nothing tastes as good as I remember).

And many a patient gets a salty taste in their mouths with saline flushes.

[CelticGoddess, BSN, RN]

Prednisone is horrible, no matter how fast you swallow, you get the taste, and it lingers. And lingers and lingers. Liquid decadron isn't that fab either. Clindamycin can cause a bitter taste in the mouth (and it doesn't matter the route). The worst I have ever had was the KCl tabs. Again, no matter how fast you swallow, you get the taste and they are horse pills.

On a different note, Synthroid has a sweet taste.

[OlivetheRN, ADN, BSN, RN]

Having had the oral contrast for CT, both the barium based stuff and the stuff we give ER patients, it's nasty. Berry and fruit punch flavored my hind end.

[dream'n, BSN, RN]

Prednisone is horrible, no matter how fast you swallow, you get the taste, and it lingers. And lingers and lingers. Liquid decadron isn't that fab either. Clindamycin can cause a bitter taste in the mouth (and it doesn't matter the route). The worst I have ever had was the KCl tabs. Again, no matter how fast you swallow, you get the taste and they are horse pills.

On a different note, Synthroid has a sweet taste.

Liquid potassium smells so orangy good, but every patient I've ever had says that it is awful and bitter tasting. I agree that Prednisone is icky, it made everything I ate taste like crap.

[It's like a Vit C]

When you drink kayexelate it's like drinking artificial sweetener that was made into a syrup and colored orange. It is noticeably sweet but doesn't taste that bad. The little cups of potassium liquid are the worst thing that I have ever tried. They are very very very bitter and it's overwhelmingly horrible. In my opinion, they should only be given if you can bypass the mouth like through a PEG tube. The little powder packs that you mix in water aren't much better as they are salty as all he!!. It's like dipping an orange in salt and then drinking it. I always told my patients that if you have to take PO potassium then the pill is the best. Even though it's huge, it's the only thing that is somewhat palatable. Another bad PO med is liquid vanco. Terrible stuff but if you mix it with about 30cc of apple juice it completely masks the taste.

[Meriwhen, ASN, BSN, MSN, RN]

I was told by a patient that SL Suboxone tablets tasted like an orange. Didn't stop them from taking it :)

[quiltynurse56, LPN, LVN]

I take potassium chloride in pill form. I find that if I don't swallow it right away that it starts dissolving and is grainy. At this point, I usually spit it out. I can't really describe the taste though on the bitter side.

[Davey Do]

i was wondering if anyone had experience themselves or w/ patients having reported a medication having tasted a certain way?

Well, not medicine, but...

[Hygiene Queen]

Oops. Duplicate post.

[Hygiene Queen]

Sublingual Saphris is made to taste like cherry. Some patients like it.

Levothyroxine is generally sweet, but Sandoz brand is flavorless, puffs out on your tongue.

Zinc is horrendous, as is (as most of us know) aspirin.

I find antibiotics generally nasty and cringe when my geros chew them.

My mother tells me hydralazine is gross. I've never heard anyone else complain about it.

Years ago, I worked with an aide who accidentally, in a rush, put Preparation H on a resident's dentures, instead of adhesive. Both tubes were generics and in similar tubes. The resident complained for days and days, so I know that tastes bad, lol 😂

[AvaRose]

Having had the oral contrast for CT, both the barium based stuff and the stuff we give ER patients, it's nasty. Berry and fruit punch flavored my hind end.

The contrast does smell nice though. From personal experience Lisinopril/HCTZ tastes like a horrid combo of bitter and sweet if you can't swallow the tablet fast enough and it starts to melt on your tongue or down the back of your throat. They say the coating is meant to dissolve later in the digestive process but that is a total lie. I have to take a huge sip of something, preferably not water, and then toss the tablet in and swallow immediately to not taste it.