If you are on a lot of meds, I would bet there may be some interactions between the meds. There are also side effects and contraindications to contend with. I know this happened to my dad…

A couple of years ago I agreed to drive my parents from the east coast to Texas because we had all been there for my nephew’s wedding. I was worried that they would not survive a trip back to their home in Nebraska, so I took them to Texas and gave them a rest before they left for Nebraska from my home.

My mother had mentioned that my dad was in exceptional pain. He has had arthritic pain for the majority of his life so I was not concerned.

I stayed the night with them in a motel and I didn’t get much sleep. Either he was getting up and down because of his pain or my mother was snoring. It wasn’t fun.

My dad could barely sit still due to the severe pain that he experienced. I became more and more concerned as the trip wore on.

We finally got to my home in Texas and they had a good night’s sleep. The next morning I fixed a five star brunch for them and we ate outside on my patio enjoying the beauty of my backyard.

I sent them home with concern for my dad’s health. When they got home he began getting really sick and could not keep food down.

By that time I was more than worried. I got angry. I demanded to have all of his medication list sent to me and I intended to do a full analysis of his medication regimen.

Then I started searching for computer programs which could assist me with the analysis.

I found a stellar one which was drugs.com. You can enter all of your medications and dosages into this website and it analyzes all of the side effects, interactions and contraindications.

Through the use of this website I was able to target the reason for his pain and the culprit was his anti-cholesterol medication.

His doctor had never told him that he should not take calcium and iron together either. In fact his doctor didn’t tell him about a lot of things.

It took me a whole week to get him straightened out, many phone calls, the analysis sent and a call to an herbalogist for her assistance with his care also.

Finally he got his stomach straightened out and his cardiologist decreased his Lipitor and he felt a lot better.

My Mom asked me why the doctor couldn’t have done this medication analysis. My thinking was, “It took  me a whole week to do this and I don’t think the doctor has a whole week to spend on just one patient.”

It is your responsibility to be an intelligent patient.

If you are on a lot of medications you need to check them out yourself.

If you have questions regarding the interactions or contraindications bring them to your doctor and ask questions, but do so with respect. They know a lot of things but they can not know everything and you are not their only patient but if you use drugs.com you just may be their smartest one.