Pancreatitis due to Medications

[Guest guest]

Ricki,

You wrote, " I have been prescribed two different medications ... that the FDA

has linked to..OUR particular disease...Clozaril.. Zyprexa I had no clue that

these meds were on a list somewhere .. If a Major Pharmo Company is in any

way culpable, the Govt. would want them to...find a way to get me off

disability. "

I understand what you are saying. It was only in the last five or ten years

that pharmaceutical companies were required to tell the public the potential

side effects and adverse reactions to the medications they were selling. If you

watch their commercials, who would buy any of them. They are all scary. The

rationale is, however, that they are required to list the most common, though

they may be 'rare.' For those of us having a 'rare' disease, that 1/10,000, no

longer seems like a good chance.

Re: your statement that you were not aware of these risks, may well be right,

you and the rest of the population. Before they were required to make clear

statements on television, they were only required to list them on the paper

given to you by the pharmacist. Then, legislation required the pharmaceutical

company to put 'package inserts' into the medication containers. This, however,

required the patient to be responsible for reading these and asking questions.

Current legislation requires the pharmacist to do a 'consult' with the

patient when they receive a new medication. I think they should be required to

do a

consult every time, because the med you are receiving may not be new, but you

could easily be on another new medicine that has drug interactions. I was

recently put on Zocor, and the pharmacist simply said, " Here, read this, call if

you have any questions. " I said I thought they were required to do a consult,

the pharmacist said, she just did. " I can read, can't I "

The biggest injustice I feel is when my doctor fails to take my medical

status into consideration when prescribing medications. For example, my

doctor(s)

know I have Pancreatitis, yet when I developed peripheral edema, I was put on

Lasix. Well, nurse or not, when you don't feel good, you hope you can trust

your doctor. Within 12 hours of taking my first dose, I was in a huge

Pancreatitis attack / exacerbation. My first instinct in training is to review

the

patients medications prior to calling the doctor. When I did, cross referenced

them

for interactions, checked the PDR, I quickly called the doctor and said, I

can't take Lasix " I thought I was going to die. She discontinued it immediately

and within 12 hours I was back to my status quo. She said, " I should have

realized that, but the lists of precautions has gotten so long, if I followed

each one, I wouldn't be able to prescribe anything to my patients. I understand

her point, but when it lists a life threatening adverse reaction, and one I

already have, we should discuss it and start slow, reviewed the potential side

effects evaluate the patient's stats and their risk factors for developing any

of these problems. For instance, when a medication says, ' may cause

Pancreatitis', then someone with Pancreatitis should never, in my humble

opinion, take

that medication. It will certainly cause an exacerbation of the Pancreatitis.

There is a list of medications that are known to cause pancreatitis.

Personally, knowing first hand, that pancreatitis is a progressive,

debilitating,

deteriorating, disabling disease with no known cure, I think that if a

medication

is known to cause pancreatitis, it should be taken off the market. Consider

the medications that are known to cause birth defect, cancer, etc. they are all

taken off the market, when this is learned. Chemicals that are put in

products that we use and live around are always taken off the market once the

risk of

a life threatening disease is known. Actually, I don't know that for a fact,

but I think they are??

When I receive inquiries from persons recently diagnosed as 'idiopathic' and

are trying to make sense out of what is happening, I always ask them for a

list of their current and recent medications many times, I can identify one of

the medications that are known to cause or exacerbate pancreattiis. I can't say

it caused it, but it definitely played a role in it. The most common drug that

seems to comes up is used for gout.

I appreciate the advocate in you that wants to make someone right the wrong.

At this time, for myself, my energy is limited, and everything I have needs to

go for healing and surrounding myself in the spirit of love and light.

I am reading Wayne Dyer's book on the power of Intention. It is wonderful. It

gives a great understanding on how to live within the inhumanity of others

without losing your won.

Peace to your efforts.

Karyn E. , RN

Executive Director, PAI

http://www.pancassociation.org

Pancreatitis Association International