Tips for Managing Multiple Medications

You could get frustrated sometimes when you have many different medications for different treatments to worry about. Asides from the number of the medications, you also must worry about their interactions, dosage and when to take them.

Here are some tips to help you manage your medications better and avoid dangerous side effects due to drug interactions.

Avoid the usual mistakes

When you receive a new prescription, you must ensure that you:

• Follow all the instructions carefully. If there’s anything you’re unsure of, call the pharmacist and confirm the information.
• If the drugs are too expensive and you want to skip doses to save cost, talk to your doctor about it to be sure about what your options are for effectiveness
• Use ALL your drugs even if you feel the symptoms going away and your health improving.

Keep to the drug schedule

According to Canadian Pharmacy when your doctor gives you your medication, it is supposed to treat your illness in a definite way. You must maintain the schedule as prescribed if you want them to work effectively. You can do this by

• Reading all the labels to know that you’re taking the right dose every time
• Choose a specific time of the day that you’d take your pills so that it is easy to maintain a schedule, for example, every morning with lunch or at dinner after your night cap.
• If it’s a long schedule, you can set a calendar on your phone with alarms to remind you. There are also charts and pill calendar apps that you can download to help you track your medication effectively.
• Buy a weekly pill case to remind you visually that you have completed the medication for each day.
• Contact your doctor if you miss a dose, or you inadvertently skip one to know the best course of action.

Avoid drug interactions

Some drugs are not meant to be taken together with other ones as their components could cause negative effects on your body. Your medication can also interact with your food or drink so it is worth being careful when you’re on a medication. To stay safe, here are some tips to bear in mind:

• Stick to the information about your prescription when you get it. Read the paper properly to know all the likely side effects and drug interactions. If you don’t understand some parts, refer to your physician or pharmacist.
• It is better to fill all your prescriptions at the same pharmacy so that your pharmacist can have a list of everything you’re taking and warn you if there are likely drug interactions to watch out for.
• Tell your pharmacist to make use of clear, legible and color-coded drug labels for your medication to make it easier to see important information on them.
• Speak to your doctor before starting a new medication to avoid potentially harmful drug interaction.