Overmedication with cancer and other conditions

Mayo requires that you update your list of prescriptions they have on file each time you go to your doctor there. I have several different doctors at Mayo in addition to my hematologist who prescribed various drugs for the side effects of chemo therapy. I would hope that a Mayo pharmacist would go over these drugs periodically to alleviate any problems. In addition to the cancer drugs, I also have medications for blood pressure, hypothyroidism, GERD, COPD, asthma, cholesterol, pain from torn rotator cuff, etc. I have no idea if there are adverse interactions from any of these medications. Does anyone know whether the Mayo Pharmacy Department reviews these lists of medications?

Mayo requires that you update your list of prescriptions they have on file each time you go to your doctor there. I have several different doctors at Mayo in addition to my hematologist who prescribed various drugs for the side effects of chemo therapy. I would hope that a Mayo pharmacist would go over these drugs periodically to alleviate any problems. In addition to the cancer drugs, I also have medications for blood pressure, hypothyroidism, GERD, COPD, asthma, cholesterol, pain from torn rotator cuff, etc. I have no idea if there are adverse interactions from any of these medications. Does anyone know whether the Mayo Pharmacy Department reviews these lists of medications?

Mayo requires that you update your list of prescriptions they have on file each time you go to your doctor there. I have several different doctors at Mayo in addition to my hematologist who prescribed various drugs for the side effects of chemo therapy. I would hope that a Mayo pharmacist would go over these drugs periodically to alleviate any problems. In addition to the cancer drugs, I also have medications for blood pressure, hypothyroidism, GERD, COPD, asthma, cholesterol, pain from torn rotator cuff, etc. I have no idea if there are adverse interactions from any of these medications. Does anyone know whether the Mayo Pharmacy Department reviews these lists of medications?

I was on 16 medications and, besides feeling horrible, I also was mentally going downhill. I sat down and made an Excel spreadsheet, listed every drug, then tediously looked up interactions, reactions and allergies. It took,some looking and digging. It was so important to search every medication deeply, because there are interactions or reactions that occurred during trials and testing that were of such a low percentage that they weren’t listed on the basic medication leaflets, and some the pharmacist didn’t even know about.... I took him a copy and he spent a week going over it for me as well. That led to some changes in meds. Today I am on fewer prescriptions and feel better because of this little exercise. But any time a specialist tries to put me on something new, I know what questions to ask first, how to research side effects on my own, and have been able to be more involved in my healthcare.

@colleenyoung Maybe you will want to cross post this to other groups.

My husband has fought Squamous Cell Carcinoma since summer 2015. He has had many surgeries, many rounds of radiation, Erbitux from September 2016 to June 2017 when a pet scan showed that while the Erbitux had worked on the cutaneous lesions, the cancer had metastasized to his liver, diaphragm and neck.

He was started on Keytruda in June 2017 and PET scans in October 2017 and February 2018 were clear. He continued having profound fatigue and it was always blamed on "chemo" and radiation. Sometimes he would fall asleep in mid sentence. The Keytruda took his transplanted kidney - that is why we waited so long to try it. Of course, hindsight is 20/20. We now do home hemo-dialysis four times a week. When we do the dialysis, we have to keep a record of his blood pressure and pulse every 30 minutes.

Last Friday we had an appointment with his Nephrologist, who also acts as his primary doctor. One of the nurses from the dialysis center was there. I had the records from our prior month's dialysis sessions, so I gave them to her. She leafed through them and said, "Why is his blood pressure falling into the 40's?" She brought it to the doctor's attention. Turns out that a legacy blood pressure medicine called Atenolol was the reason. My husband had been taking it for years. He stopped that day, and the change has been nothing short of miraculous. Today he got out in the yard and worked for the first time in a couple of years.

The reason I telling this is that you should question everything. The pharmacist is so right about knowing WHY you are taking what you are taking. That nurse gave my husband a chance to live again, instead of just existing. QUESTION EVERYTHING!!!

@stephend,

Thank you so much for sharing how you did your own research and became a strong advocate for your own health. This is good advice for us all. Welcome to Connect!

I have done something similar but only for one drug - a statin that the doctor wanted me to take to "help" lower my cholesterol numbers. I had to tell her that when you have neuropathy, statins make it worse since one of the side effects is causing neuropathy. Since I have small fiber peripheral neuropathy, I told the doctor I will work on lowering the numbers through diet and exercise.

John