Medikal Fizikder

Often times you get sick and need the attention of a doctor for a something to cure it. Usually it’s nothing more than an antibiotic, but once you go to the pharmacy and fill it you forget completely about what it is you are taking. Do you know why a doctor gave you that particular drug? Do you even remember what it is called? It doesn’t seem important because you trust that your doctor knows what they are doing but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t reasons to be concerned and double check your medication.

First thing is that a doctor sees close to 15 to 20 patients on a typical office day. If the office is a rather busy office he is seeing much more. They always have a system in place to be organized but he is dealing with a multitude of things including conditions that are taking his attention due to the severity of it and then he’s dealing with calls from pharmacies, drug reps, and hospitals all looking for a bit of his time. Often times he hears of your condition then writes the script for the medication several minutes later. You would like to think that the doctor has been diligent in making sure he has gotten it right but that doesn’t mean he has. It’s a fact that doctors make mistakes too. That’s why knowing the names of the drugs you are being prescribed is so important. A simple conversation with your doctor can help clear up matters.

Start by asking him the brand name of the medication he’s prescribing and then write it down along with the generic name. Then ask why he prescribing the drug? What are the reasons why he chose this drug over any other drug? This isn’t just for safety purposes but it’s also for the peace of mind in knowing your doctor is on the same page with how you are feeling and what you might think it wrong. Your body is your most vital asset, so make sure you do your best to monitor what goes into it.

It’s clear that when it comes to your personal health there is no one you trust more than your doctor. They have the knowledge, the training, and the familiarity with you to make sure they are always giving you the best treatment available. So when you go in for something as simple as a respiratory infection or some sort of bacterial virus and the doctor gives you a prescription you often pay the prescription no mind because there is no way that your doctor made a mistake. So assuming that he didn’t make a mistake, what is to say that the pharmacy didn’t?

We take pharmacies to be on top of their game but that isn’t always the case. Pharmacies are dealing with a lot of things at once so it begs the question, why aren’t you watching your pharmacy more? When you drop off your prescription there is always a system in place to verify that your medication will be filled correctly but that doesn’t mean it will. There are a number of factors that can account for mistakes.

Pharmacies get rather busy. Some stores fill over 600 scripts a day and in the middle of that they are answering questions for patients, dealing with customer service issues, talking to doctors offices, dealing with the insurance companies, and then still taking in inventory and speaking with drug reps. It’s not right when accidents happen but it certainly understandable. There is nothing worse than a pharmacist who is busy. Things get messed up.

Other times it’s a simple err in judgment. Your doctor might write something down but then the pharmacist thinks they read something different. The miscommunication can occur in the drug itself or the strength, quantity, or directions. There is more than a few reasons why you can have a pharmacy mix up when it comes down to handwriting. If the pharmacist thinks they don’t understand they will call the office but sometimes they think they read it right and they don’t. So next time you go into your pharmacy make sure you are watching closely.

How can you make sure you are getting the right medication from your pharmacy? We want to believe that pharmacies never make mistakes but if you have watched the news or talked to some of the people around you you will find that people who work in pharmacies make mistakes all the time. Sometimes, and most of the time, they are minor errors like spelling or perhaps a miscount in the pill quantity, but occasionally they are bigger errors that can result in dispensing harmful medication to people who can suffer fatal outcomes if not caught early enough. So how do you assure that your medication is one of the medication that is filled correctly.

Before you even arrive at the pharmacy make sure you speak with the doctor about the brand and the generic name of the drug they are putting you on. Ask why they are putting you on it and what is it for. If you can do that and write it down then you are way ahead of the game. Once you have taken care of that it is on to the pharmacy. Once you get there review the prescription with them. Ask them simply what does it say as far as the drug and see if what they are reading matches up with what you have. If it doesn’t then you may have to politely ask them to speak with your doctor. The pharmacist cannot take your word for it. They must be clear with the doctor themselves.

Once you have come back to pick up your medication make sure you take a moment to take a look at the pill bottle. Too many times people pick up medication and don’t spend the five seconds it takes to look at the bottle. Just a simple double check to make sure that there was nothing that got mixed up during the filling or labeling process will do you a world of good. If there is then bring it to the attention of the pharmacist and they will be more than happy to correct it.

When you leave the doctor’s and head to your local pharmacy with a prescription you are under the assumption that what you have been given is exactly right in treating your condition. That’s because it’s given to you by a doctor you trust and so you never feel the need to question him. But do you even know what he’s writing down? Do you know what it is your are taking and what it is supposed to treat? Maybe you don’t feel the need to know because you believe that trust is enough to see it through but it never hurts to have a list of a few antibiotics in your head to know what they do and how they treat you.

Azithromycin – This is called the Z-Pak. It is one of the more popular drugs on the market. It is considered a macrolide. You will often see this prescribed to you if you have a respiratory tract infection. While it can be given for a genital infection as well as a gastrointestinal tract infection, but it is most commonly prescribed when you get flu like symptoms. The upside to Azithromycin is that there is very little side effects and not a whole lot of allergic reaction. However, they do advise taking the food on an empty stomach as it is not a drug that settles well.

Cephalexin – This one is usually written as Keflex and it is considered a Cephalosporin. This is a pretty common antibiotic. The range for cephalosporins are pretty big. Keflex can be used to treat a variety of things from pneumonia, staph infections, tonsillitis, bronchitis, and even the sexual transmitted infection known as gonorrhea. The only issue is that this drug is closely linked to the penicillin family an that could be potentially harmful to someone who has an allergic reaction to penicillin drugs. The side effect with this is the same as with most medications. There is a slight risk of issues with the stomach but beyond that there is nothing that would propose any danger to a patient on this medication.

If you’re a middle aged person then you have probably been to the doctor at least a dozen times in your life for routine check ups and to treat those symptoms that make you feel a little “under the wheather.” In all the time you have been receiving medications you have probably received medication that is classified as a cephalosporin. This might not mean anything to you but this class of drugs is one of the most important drug classes in the world and it has been around forever.

Cephalosporin’s were first discovered in 1948 by an Italian scientist. He noticed that certain cultures were good in treating the condition typhoid fever. However it was not good enough for use as an antibiotic until years later. Since then it has become one of the more popular drugs in the world.

So how does a cephalosporin work? They disrupt the synthesis of peptidoglycan in the layer of bacterial cell walls. The peptidoglycan is a very important layer when it comes to the integrity of the cell wall and its structure. Now cephalosporins are used for the treatment of infections that are caused by certain bacterias susceptible to a particular form of antibiotic. It is used to treat staph infections, pneumonia and other bacteria infections. It is a wonder drug of sorts and it has arrived in different generations as well.

The is the first generation which consisted of cephazolin, cefadroxil, cephalexin, and cephradine. Then the second generation came around and that itself consisted of cephaclor, cefuroxime, cefprozil, and loracerbef. The third, and most current(beyond the fourth proposed generation) came along as the strongest of the generations. It contained ceftotaxime, cefixime, cefpodoxime, ceftazidime, and cefdinir(which is a drug usually given to infants.)

These drugs are some of the most widely prescribed drugs on the planet. There is however, and allergic reaction potential to them. If you happen to have an allergy to penicillin then you may have an allergy to a cephalosporin but if you don’t then you can look for them the next time you get sick with anything.

Advertising is a powerful tool. It makes us crazy for cars, clothes, vacations, homes, and food. Companies spend millions of dollars on making sure the consumer is enticed by their product. The pharmaceutical industry is no different than the big name food chain. They spend a lot of money to get you to take your existing medication and replace it with the new flashy medication. Certainly you do not want to be hasty in your decision to go with a medication or not but what you do want to do is to make sure that you think about everything before you waltz into your doctor’s office and demand that he give you the new medication.

You have to keep in mind that if something isn’t broke then there is no reason to fix it. If your doctor puts you on a heart medication and it seems to be working there is a danger in taking you off that heart medication and going with something else. Changing for the sake of changing doesn’t do anyone any good. Your doctor knows that so don’t be surprised if you ask and he flat out tells you he will not make the change.

You also need to ask yourself why you think you need to change medications. For instance if you are on a heart medicine and a blood pressure medicine but then you see a combination drug on tv, does that mean that you need to be on that combination drug? Are the two medications that you are taking not working for you? Would this combo drug work better? You might find that going to a combo drug will help with the one drug that wasn’t working well but then hurt you by not taking the drug that was working well in the first place. It might be better not to rock the apple cart.

If you really believe a medication can be helpful you should bring it up to your doctor at your next visit but don’t be fooled by the advertising, not everything makes sense for you.

There used to be a time when you would get a prescription from your doctor, take it to your local pharmacy, wait ten minutes and then take your medication home. Well, those days are long gone. Getting a prescription from your doctor is no longer the key to getting the medicine you want or need. Now, the most important thing is running the medication past your insurance company and hoping and praying that they pay for it. If you have ever heard the words “prior authorization” then you understand that sometimes getting the script is a problem, but perhaps you don’t know why. There is a reason for prior authorizations.

When an insurance companies goes through there drug list they set parameters for each drug. They decide if they pay for it, how much they pay for it, and at what age they pay for it. Occasionally they make exceptions for patients who meet some specific criteria. Let’s say a 40 year old woman is having a severe bout of acne. Perhaps she has tried all the over the counter treatments but there were of no help. She sees her doctor and her doctor gives her a script for some heavy duty acne cream. The pharmacy may try to bill it to the insurance company but the insurance company requires a prior authorization.

The reason is they don’t have it in their guidelines that a woman over the age of 25 should experience acne problems so they won’t cover the medication. They will then require that the doctor call them and tell them the exact reason why she is in need of such an expensive and unusual cream for her age. The doctor will have to say the right things. To say she suffers from acne may not be enough but to say she suffers from chronic acne may be all that is needed. Sometimes they will come back and reject the claim outright and then it’s up to the doctor and the patient to decide what is the next best course of action which may include a new prescription.

Nowadays the number 1 thing to keep in mind when filling a prescription is not what the doctor thinks of it, but rather what your insurance companies think of it. The most important thing to remember is that most insurance companies run their companies by strict rules and so there is little to no flexibility to get things covered but occasionally you do. If you are not in the habit of keeping in contact with them about the changes in your policy you could easily find yourself getting the short end of the stick when it comes to getting your medication filled.

When you are deciding to go see a doctor it’s usually because something is bothering you or your doctor wants to talk to you about something. If you have an inkling of what medication you might be taking or looking into then give your insurance company a ring and see what they can tell you. They can always tell you how much something will cost or if it’s even covered. Take a few minutes and write down a couple of the cheapest drugs they have in that category and they may be willing to even send you a coupon too.

If you don’t call your insurance company then tell your doctor you want generic. There is no way of knowing if they will cover it but you should be able to guarantee that they cover generic far more often than they will for brand drugs. It’s your best for getting anything covered.

Once you are at the pharmacy you can ask them to play with the medication. A lot times pharmacists will not only run that medication through but other medication to what is covered and what is the cheapest price. Understand that occasionally they are not able to access that information and it’s no fault of their own. But if they find something that is cheaper for you they will always call the doctors office for you and see if they can get the medication changed.

Knowledge is power and there isn’t anything more powerful than knowing exactly what you are putting into your body. Many times you find yourself blindly trusting what a doctor or pharmacist tells you. Now, while you certainly don’t have the training or the experience that they do enough to know the ins and outs of the medications you take you should have a clear understand of what is commonly given for certain types of conditions and what you might have to expect about it going forward.

One of these types of medications is antidepressants. Depression effects millions of people every single day and the effect of said depression can be crippling so there are more than a few medications out there to treat it so let’s take a look at them now.

One of the earliest medications to treat depression was Isoniazid. This drug was originally marketed as a anti-tuberculosis drug but was found to have a far more powerful psychostimulant effect. Another drug that was very popular early in the 1960’s was Imipramine. This drug was originally going to be marketed as an anti-histamine that could be used to treat surgical shock but they found it to be far more effective in treating depression and certain stages of anxiety.

Now the most popular type of antidepressant on the market are ssri which stands for selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. This class of medications make up the most widely sold drugs on the market. It includes paxil, Prozac, Zoloft, Luvox, and Celexa. The reason it is the most widely prescribed class of drugs to treat depression is that it is believed that those suffering from depression are suffering from an inadequate amount of serotonin in their system. These drugs keep from the body reuptaking the serotonin thus increasing the levels that stay in the body. The adverse effects of an antidepressant drowsiness, upset stomach, long term weight gain, nervousness, and anxiety. These are pretty common and are not considered to be a harmful side effect. However, if these things are disrupting your daily life then you should consult your physician immediately.

When you are taking your medication there is a lot to look out for, especially when it’s new. The first and most important thing you want to be on the lookout for is whether or not it works at all. Is it lowering your blood pressure? Making you feel less depressed? Controlling your blood sugar? These are all important questions and it’s the reason so many patient monitoring their progress on a medication very early on. But there is something else that everyone pays attention to and that’s the adverse side effects. The problem with side effects are there are some that are simply a condition of the drug and something that you may just have to deal with and there are other things that should never be tolerated. The difference between the two and knowing that difference are very important.

The first thing you need to know when you are reading the label where it tells you of the adverse effects that in the study of the drug, any adverse effect, even if it’s only happened once to one patient, if they believe it was linked to the taking of that drug at all they have to put it in the literature so they can avoid lawsuits if it were to happen again.

Knowing this means that the really rare side effects shouldn’t be dismissed but don’t require constant monitoring. The lesser side effects however, should be also dismissed. The fact is all medication can upset your stomach. All medication has the potential to either give you a headache, make you nauseous, dizziness, or even a slight rash. There are some that can change the color of your urine or make your urine smell a bit different.

By that same regard there are some that can cause swelling, vomiting, anal discharge, and difficulty breathing. These should be taken care of by a doctor immediately. With the other side effects it’s a personal choice. If they are too much to live with then you should speak to your doctor, otherwise just know they are a product of the drug itself.