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Overmedication with cancer and other conditions

Head & Neck Cancer | Last Active: Sep 23, 2018 | Replies (62)

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@stephend

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.

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Replies to "I was on 16 medications and, besides feeling horrible, I also was mentally going downhill. I..."

@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