Taking medications correctly requires clear communication

Follow me on Twitter @DavidAScales Early in December, Ms. Silva (not her real name) came to the hospital for a bladder infection that just kept getting worse. She’d been having symptoms — pain when she urinated, feeling constantly like she had to go to the bathroom — for about a week. She did all the right things. She called her doctor, picked up her prescriptions at the pharmacy, saw her doctor for a follow up appointment soon after, and swore that she was taking her antibiotic. But the pain got worse and she started having fevers. She needed to be admitted to the hospital. Ms. Silva was an elderly lady in her 60s from Brazil. Without much grey hair, she looked much younger than her 60 years, yet the infection had wiped her out. She looked exhausted. As she returned from the bathroom, she tried to contort her hospital gown in a futile attempt to get it to cover more of her body. “Why wasn’t the antibiotic working?” she asked, stating the question on everyone’s mind that night. At first I was worried about drug-resistant bacteria.  The bacteria causing her infection should have been killed by the antibiotic that she was given. If she had taken them as prescribed, then drug-resistant bacteria would be the only explanation for why she was getting worse. So, we chatted about the antibiotic. She said she took every pill and was also taking something for the pain, that unrelenting, squeezing feeling of urgency. She took the pill bottles out of her purse, saying, “...
Source: Harvard Health Blog - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Drugs and Supplements Health Managing your health care Source Type: blogs