What the Hell?

Heath Ledger got sick. He took cold medicine along with prescription drugs . Heath Ledger died.
Brittany Murphy got sick. She took cold medicine along with prescription drugs. Brittany Murphy died.

Today Corey Haim died. Granted…he does have a history of substance abuse, but from what I’m reading so far in the news… Corey Haim was sick with “flu-like symptoms” the last couple days, and he was in possession of prescription medications. Somehow it wouldn’t surprise me much if he also possessed over the counter cold medicine. I’m a regular Sherlock Holmes right?

So what is really going on? Most of us have heard at some point that you are not supposed to mix prescription drugs with cold medicines. And you’d think the tragic examples of several media darlings the last few years would be a heady reminder for us all. But people keep dying anyway.

Part of the answer is really POOR communication on the part of our doctors. They used to express the notion that open communication was entirely the patient’s responsibility. Well look how well THAT idea works!

Doctors are not easily accessible. They are busy people. But that contributes to the communication problem. So what happens when someone with an Oxycontin prescription starts getting that itchy tickle in the back of their throat heralding the onset of cold or flu? Do they call their doctor? They might try…but what happens? Usually they end up leaving a message. Many doctors seem to share a trait that returning calls on messages are really not that big a priority for them. It probably doesn’t help that a large volume of the calls they get likely DO fall into the “no big whoop” category….but even THAT is a result of poor communication and even poorer public information. Such as people heading for the hospital for issues that could be handled faster (and often cheaper) at a Clinic.

But back to the poor patient on Oxycontin who tried to do the right thing. It’s been three days since they left a message for the Doctor asking if they can safely take cold medicine, and they are miserable from the stuffiness, sore throat, and coughing. They can’t sleep, they can’t think, they cannot taste food properly…or swallow it comfortably. Life sucks. So they call the Doctor back.

For the sake of this scenario, let’s be merciful (we already know the repetitive run-around that can take place) and say our patient actually lucks out and is able to talk to the Doctor the second time they call. Let’s say the doctor is cool and tells them which medicines are okay to take. He’s trying to be helpful…but here comes a new problem. Doctors often don’t refer to medicines by Brand name. For a lot of people…tissue is called Kleenex even when the actual Brand is Kirkland. The Doctor is trying to help by being as specific as possible… but this involves actual drug ingredients which generally have a lot of syllables…even the spelling of which, if accidently wrong, refers to a different ingredient.

The Patient gets frustrated. This is going to mean looking at the backs of a lot of boxes and bottles sorting the safe from unsafe. And they already do not feel well. And the words the doctor is saying on the phone do little to make the patient feel good. They might recognize an ingredient the doctor mentions as being what they think of as “Sudafed”…and now worse, they may feel a little angry. After all…can’t the Doctor just say “Sudafed” and be done? The patient feels like crud, and this doctor is sending them to the store to do what sounds like intensive research, instead of just saying, “Buy this, this, and this. Do not buy any of that though, it could be dangerous.” And now the doctor is asking cheerily if they have any more questions…which the patient might, except now they either feel like an idiot, or that they are being sent on a snipe hunt. So the questions may go unasked.

The patient goes to the store. They look on the backs of boxes, and yes…they see the ingredients the doctor talked about. But they are not comfortable about the purchase, because the box also lists ingredients the doctor never mentioned! Or even better, the patient is pretty certain one of the other ingredients listed is one the doctor might have said to avoid. While the patient does not buy those, they feel even less certain about the medicines with ingredients the doctor did not mention at all. Maybe they should call the doctor again…

Yeah right. That’s going to happen.

Nope. They will just buy the medicines. And…this time, all is well. They get over their cold, and feel somewhat silly about worrying about ODing. And the next time they get sick, chances are very good they will not take the precautions they did the first time getting sick while on their prescription meds. The next time they get sick after that, they misplaced the list of “safe meds” they made way back when…but they think they remember what they bought before, and getting hold of the doctor was such a hassle…and a couple years down the road, they get the flu and die from an OD.

So what is the solution? I think we have to accept that both patients and doctors are human therefore their communication skills are of varying qualities. Perhaps we should take it out of human hands. Internet research can lead to the right answers of what can be safe to take with what, but what would be great would be if there were one well known website where you type in the name of your drug, and in one field pops up a list of safe OTC meds, and in another field (With big red letters somewhere) of the unsafe meds all with a common brand name in parenthesis.

Even more valuable if it made lists for OTC meds, as well as other prescription drugs. That way, if your doctor gives you a prescription for something else later…you could check it. And if there were a concern…then call the doctor to find out about your being prescribed a potentially dangerous combo.

The days of doctors complaining that their patients are “over-informed” because of the internet need to be past. So long as doctors lack the accessibility of the internet, people are going to use it instead. The best thing to do then is try to insure sites where the information offered is accurate as possible.