Pharmacists and Doctors simply aren't doing their job. Look at one of the soldiers that is involved in the civilian murders in AStan. Hell, I have the same problem. My neuro put me on a rather heavy dose of neurontin. It wiped me out. I checked the interactions and behold, I shouldn't be taking it with some of the meds I already take.
Back in '92 my dad had a stroke. A couple of days after he got out of the rehab center, my step mother dropped over dead walking the dog. When my brother and I got there, (my dad lived in Springfield IL, my brother in Chicago, and I was here in TN) we had to take my dad to his internist and find out about his condition, what we needed to do regarding his health, meds, etc.
When we took him to the dr, my dad could barely walk/talk, he could not dress or feed himself. The dr gave us a list of my dad's meds, and a couple of hours later, a home health care nurse came by to check the meds against the list, and tell us what needed refills, when he was to take them, and so on.
She gave me the list with the ones marked that needed refills. I called the pharmacist,(that was in the pharmacy at the med clinic where the internist was) and while I was on hold, I started looking at the list.
He was on 17 different meds!!!!! I ordered what I was supposed to, but then asked the pharmacist to tell me what each pill was for. My dad was on so many that did the same thing!!! Heart meds - he'd had bypass surgery earlier that spring - and was on blood thinner, blood pressure med, a diuretic. Then he was on 3 or 4 diabetes meds. He was on a couple of different antidepressants, a couple of anti-anxiety meds. A couple of different sleeping pills. For every one thing he took a pill for....he had anywhere from 2 to 3 or 4 that were all to do the same thing!!! Not only did the doctor approve the list that he gave us, so did the flippin' home health care nurse.
ALL FROM THE SAME DAMN DOCTOR!!!When I hung up, I called my internist here, told him what was going on, and just as we were going through the list...I got an emergency interupt from the operator. My dad's doctor was on the line and had to speak to me immediately.
Yeah he did!! The pharmacist had called him, told him I asked a bunch of questions, and the dr tells me I have the wrong list!!! Of course I did .....I had the one the dumb ass doctor handed me that morning and he was in a panic that he'd been found out that he was over medicating my dad!!!
Upshot was, the HHC nurse was at the door about 30 minutes later, with a "new" list.....
nine less prescriptions by the time she left....
Two days later, by the time of the funeral....my dad could walk on his own, talk, feed and dress himself.
I know he would have been dead within a week or so, if he had stayed on all those meds. He could barely function.
My dad continued to see that dr for another 8 years, until he died from complications of the diabetes. He thought he was the greatest doc to ever come down the pike.
This was the same dr who called in a surgeon to amputate my dad's feet....when my dad was in almost complete kidney failure. Fortunately, the nursing home called my brother who had power of attorney. We had already been told my dad had just a few months left....but that didn't stop the drs from trying to get some insurance money by doing unnecessary surgery.
Personally, I would have loved to have sued the SOB and made sure that he lost his license to practice medicine.
My dad used to always brag that his doctor had all these really cool sports cars. Even a Ferrari.
I was married to a doctor....we had 2 cars....and were making monthly payments on both of them.
I still think the SOB was getting a cutback on all the drugs he prescribed.
I think there are a lot of doctors who prey on their older patients. They know that the patient will never question them or what they prescribe. If the dr tells the patient they need this medicine, or that treatment, or some surgery ....the older person will just do it....no questions asked.....because their "god-like" doctor told them they needed to take/do/ whatever he said!!! The elderly don't have to "doctor-shop" for pills...their "trusted" doctor will keep them in anything and everything possible.
Sorry for the rant....but this is one issue that I get really fired up about. It's just wrong.
