I learned a hard lesson

[Guest guest]

I have had CP ten years now and have an observation to make.

How many meds are you taking now? I am up to 16 now!! I get such a good deal

on my med: $5 generic and $15 name brand for a pharmacology cycle of 90

days, except for Fentanyl, which is only 30 days.

Now, as I have gone along and presented quite a few problems over the years,

I have received a new prescription for each symptomology that was ³serious.²

All of these ³serious² incidents add up over the years.

As I was quite ill for a few months wanting to meet the ³maker² and to kick

his hiney for doing this to me, I also discontinued all of my medications,

except for Fentanyl. When I got better, I just stayed off all of the drugs

and am still off all of them, except for ones for lowering my cholesterol

and triglycerides, insulin, tolinase to keep my blood sugars in check, and

premarin. I also have a strict diabetic and more pancreas-friendly diet

combined.

I gave up valium, reglan, zoloft, pancrease (most of you take Creon instead

of this), omeprazole (otherwise known as prilosec), and a few other

incidentals. Now, these are not light medications‹together they add up to

quite a few pills throughout the day.

Guess what? I am better!! While I do have problems with digestion, I am now

able to think better and more clearly. I don¹t have to ³check out² of life

for many days at a time. I don¹t taste food as well as I did only a few

months ago (kind of a ³plastic² flavor and a weird coating in my mouth),

bowels are a bit touchy at times and my stomach feels ³tight² quite a bit of

the time if I am up out of bed for more than a half-hour.

I can live with the trade-off. My quality of life is richer (I could spend

NO time out of bed before) and the discomforts are OK overall.

Anyse

[Guest guest]

Anyse,

I was in the same position...I used to say to people...I don't each

much food because by the time i've taken my upteen dozen pills, I'm

not hungry anymore. Even the multivitamins I was taking were 6 in

total a day, and I just thought no more. I got to go off everything,

including the vitamins. Now I want to take a multiv that is

excellent with everything in it and the best I can come up with that

won't mean I have to take hundreds a week is prenatal vitamins.

I highly believe that some doctors tend to overmedicate, and there

have been many instances when I've just refused other medications. I

am down to coumadin and prilosec now. Unfortunately, I have no

choice but to take these. Thousands of polyps in my stomach are

causing gerd so bad that this alone makes me vomit and have fire

shooting up into my mouth if I don't take it. I have tried natural

cures for this, including vinegar (related to an article written by

a doctor who converted to natural practices). And if they tried to

pull out every single polyp I have in there, I'd probably bleed to

death lol...so that is something I will just have to live with. The

coumadin..as long as I have a port, I will be on this stuff.

I am glad your life is so much better than it was before. With each

medication having it's own side effects on our systems, it's only

natural to feel so blah....

I hope your quality remains as good as it is now and stays that way.

It's nice to hear of people getting better

Regards,

Ward

PAI Administration Support Staff

dceward@...

[Guest guest]

I too was on so many medications, I was taking at least 12 potassium

pills a day to keep my potassium above a critical level. I reached a

point after having such a low potassium that caused 2 heart attacks

that I don't have what it takes to absorb all of this stuff, and if

it means I die from potassium loss, well then so be it, and quit

taking it, I had all I could take, and was ready to go, I quit it

all the Baclofen and neurotin that destroyed by joints and caused my

feet and legs to swell to the point that they wouldn't bend and made

my size 7 feet a size 12, I quit them all, except the pain meds and

the anti-depressant, and prn valium, I stopped them, I was on so

many meds it took two pill dispensers to keep them all straight, I

just quit them. I am not advocating for anyone eles to do this, it

is a personal decision, and my Dr. didn't know, but I did it, I just

could not keep up with all of it and it was too expensive and had

caused me to need at sometime a total knee replacement on both

knees. Once I had the pump put in the diarrhea stopped, it must have

slowed down the movement of the bowl, and I eat what ever I want now

within moderation, but I had malnutriton so bad my hair fell out,

there was a time, it looked like I was dying and I believe I was. I

only want to have pain control, I have not had a critical potassium

or magnesium level since August 2001, I have had some heart trouble

that that had nothing to do with the potassium, it was in the

conduction system, not related to potassium probably related to the

infarct, thought I needed a pacemaker for a while, but then that

evened out too.

Atwell LPN