Medication Review Resources

@texasblooms I certainly hope that you’ll get some good information at your meeting in August!! It sure sounds like it will be valuable. I wonder if it will be recorded? Be nice.

@texasblooms I used AI to ask for a template that I could use to manage my meds. You have to be very specific what you want included on that blank form. I have a section for meds, dosages, what condition it’s for, when to take. Also, a list of my conditions, surgeries & my Doctors as well as allergies & emergency contact numbers.
I give this to all my doctors, carry one in my purse & have a place to put the date on top of when I lady updated info.
I use free app ChatGPT. It has also helped me understand some of the more complex issues with my Autoimmune diseases. Just have to be specific about what information you want; it’s all about how you ask it.
Hope that helps!

A friend sent me a AUVON 7-day pillbox. Each separate portable pill box has 4 compartments. I use the one for a.m. and another for bedtime.

I take 12 pills a day, most are non-prescription vitamins , etc. I put the whole week’s pills in the box on Saturday.

Don’t know what I would do as the number of pills gradually increase.

@gingerw I like how the containers are organized. Would you say people with arthritic hands can open the container easily?

@becsbuddy Good point! I will ask about recording and good resources.

@texasblooms I actually use one made by FINPAC, with a sliding top
https://www.amazon.com/FINPAC-Organizers-Medicine-Afternoon-Illusions/dp/B08JXHY687/ref=sr_1_17
It has been a workhorse for me for several years!
Ginger

@texasblooms I would experiment with pill boxes sold in drug stores to see if a plastic flip life would work for you,

I do hope that you find a pill organizer that works for you. Maybe the Arthritis organization has some suggestions if AUVON doesn’t work for you.

@texasblooms I second the recommendation of drugs.com. You're right that it's a start, but over the years I've kept and updated a saved list of my medications on my drugs.com account. I run their interactions analysis, which breaks down how severe the interaction is and gives a brief explanation of the rating. I research interactions beyond that site as needed.

I've found that most of my doctors aren't aware of all the interactions—understandably, since there's a LOT to keep track of. They also tend to dismiss the rarer possibilities, but sometimes that's where the answers lie.

I do wish I had started tracking and researching my medications earlier. For example, if I had known more about the downside of taking ropinirole for restless leg syndrome, I never would have started it.

I have had RA for 25 years as well as a pacemaker put in in January, 2025 for Mobitz II for AV block, and in October last year I was in the hospital for Pericarditis. So I have a lot of pills to keep up with. The epic portal has my list of drugs . I'm not sure how carefully the Doctors look at it though.
My experience is that I'm barking up the wrong tree to expect my Doctors to catch drugs that shouldn't be taken together, or to even prescribe the correct dose all the time. And forget the Pharmacy. They don't automatically pick it up either. If you go in and ask them , then you might get the information. But there is no automatic red flag that pops up when they fill a Rx .
The medication I was prescribed to treat the Pericarditis I had last October should not be taken with the drug I was taking for my SVTs/atrial tachycardia . And the dose was double what it should have been for someone my weight (52 kg)and age. It was the PA who prescribed it. And that is what I was given in the hospital.
I am a retired RN and so when I came home, I began my research as I always do with any new Rx.
I first went to Drugs.com where I picked the major drug interaction problem . But it took a lot more research to pick up that the dose was double. They gave me the normal dose for a person who weighed 70kg or more and younger than 70. I first found it on a professional organization site for Pharmacists but I knew that if I was going to have credibility with my cardiologists, I would have to find the information somewhere else. So I went to PubMed.
I had a previously scheduled appointment with my internist a week after I was dismissed from the hospital. He dismissed my concern, thinking I got it from some unreliable site. But when I said told him my source, he said. You're talking to the wrong person. You need to talk to Cardiology.
I sent the message first to my regular cardiologist's nurse and didn't get anywhere. I then sent the message to my EP's nurse with the link to the PubMed site. He told me to stop taking it until I was done with the medication for the Pericarditis which would be 6 months and to decrease the dose in half by just breaking the scored pill in half.
My two week follow up with the cardiology PA, not the one I'd seen in the hospital , he wanted to put me back on a different medication to deal with my SVTs/atrial tachycardia. And he first wanted to prescribed something that also shouldn't have been taken with the pericarditis drug. By that time, I knew, I was going to have to be my own advocate and so I asked if he'd checked the drug interaction checker . He hadn't. So when he did , he discovered that what he had prescribed and had sent the Rx in the pharmacy also had a major interaction. Finally he arrived at something that was okay with the Pericarditis drug.

The Pericarditis drug has a very narrow therapeutic range that is safe. And if you don't stay within the guidelines, you could be in life threatening trouble.
In their defense, I realize that they wouldn't very often have a patient as small as I am.
The PA in the hospital did say , that he had checked the interaction checker for the drug I take for RA, but for some reason, I guess he didn't think he need to check my other drugs.

Thankyou for your post. I'm also a retired nurse and feeling very alone with this new dx of sjogrens syndrome thar has attacked my lungs. They assumed I had IPF because my brother has it but now they say IPF. I have been on antifibrotic medicine for over a year now since antibody testing they say it's Sjogrens and want to put me on Cellceft. These terrible side effects of both drugs together or even one is hard to take. Don't know who to trust anymore , there's no discussion with the drs. I think I need to have a good workup with the sjogrens specialist if I can find one.