Dangerous medication?

Best thing for an annoying cough is Boots Nightime Cough Relief. It works a treat and you get a good nights sleep. I think they also do one for the daytime. Can't remember the ingredients but I and all my family have been taking it for years with no noticeable side effects.

Medicine should never be poured down the sink. It gets into our water courses and causes damage. Please hand in any un used medicine to a pharmacy

Saw the physio, have a rotator cuff tear in my shoulder- she said to arrange for a muscle relaxant prescription from Doc. Could only get a telephone appointment and Doctor couldn't get through(no signal) but he left me a message saying I should take ibuprofen and cocodamol, for my knee pain and I could buy them at chemist. I rang the surgery, explained it was shoulder, not knee and I didn't need painkillers but a muscle relaxant only available on prescription. She said she'd contact Doctor and I was to ring back later. When I rang back she said Doctor had arranged two items to be picked up - ibuprofen and cocodamol, neither of which I can take. Will need blood pressure tablets at this rate!!

Sorry, but I wouldn't have taken up a doctor's appointment for a cough unless I thought it was a chest infection which would need anti-biotics. If I felt I needed cough mixture I would have asked the chemist for advice and bought some (I do get free prescriptions) but, to be honest, I have never found cough mixture to work in the past.

DH's neurology consultant was not too happy with me for asking questions about his symptoms and medication. He could tell that I'd been doing 'my research', and told me that, "you read a lot of 'guff' on the Internet" !

I ended up with Gastritis after taking Ibrofen for 2 weeks on my GP's advice, I can no longer take it so Paracetamol is my only painkiller now. I'm not going down the road of stronger painkillers, Tramadol sends me "away with the fairies".

I am on Epilim for my Epilepsy, I cannot take Amatryptylene as this reduces the effectiveness of Epilim however I can take Pregabalin which I find very effective.

I also take Metformin for my Diabetes Type 2, slight constipation when dose is changed & the wind, so glad I live on my own.

When your GP prescribes new medication there should be a warning come up on their computer if it will react with medication you already take. I ignore the leaflets most of the time, you could frighten yourself with all the side effects

I Try not to take painkillers at all. It fills me with horror when I see youngsters reaching for them because of something minor.

I can't take either ibuprofen or pholcodine due to their potential side effect of respiratory depression. Not advisable for an asthmatic

The leaflets shopuld always be read, but having read them, one wonders if it is safe at all to take the medicine, there are side effects on every leaflet, like diarrhoea or constipation, what do you choose, then on one leaflet for Statins, it said if you stop taking them then you can be subject to Stroke or a Heartattack, not much choice. Good advice would be to try to avoid all unnecessary medication!

My mother was being prescribed Ibuprofen amongst other medications for her arthritis, she was also blind so had to rely on the GP and Pharmasist to point out any problems. No-one mentioned that longterm use of Ibuprofen damages your kidneys until she was referred to the Renal Clinic with virtual kidney failure.

I have used it occasionally.
www.evidence.nhs.uk/formulary/bnf/current/3-respiratory-system/39-cough-preparations/391-cough-suppressants/pholcodine

www.medicines.org.uk/emc/medicine/25385/SPC/Pholcodine+Linctus+BP/

However I now use 'Anaesthetic sore throat relief' (Lidocaine Hydochloride) which you buy from behind the counter in Boots. The pharmacist will check out if it is OK for you before you are allowed to buy it. It is a spray for the back of the throat and I only get it out of my bag if I feel the cough coming on in a public event. It works immediately and very little gets swallowed.

The surgeon for my cataracts allowed me to use it preoperatively to prevent any coughing in the theater. I find it a very useful fall back.

I was prescribed an antibiotic by the doctor. Good thing I read the leaflet inside. In large red letters it said "Do not take if on Statins". I am very wary of taking any medication. Will suffer the pain of arthritis rather than take constipating drugs or those which make me sleepy.

Know nothing of your medication but know MUCH about a persistent and embarrassing cough. Buses, theatres etc., are a nightmare and only made worse by personal discomforture. My only solution has been gentle but constant sipping of water. Tried sweet sucking but doesn't work as well. Don't know why but suspect a temperature 'thing' involved. Genuinely try to avoid medication at all times. The side effects of everything scares me.

Medication is all about a cost-benefit analysis. It's very individual. Do the benefits outweigh the risks. There are always risks with meds, so small and mild, some serious and alarming. I'm afraid it's very naïve to say 'doctor wouldn't prescribe it if it wasn't safe'! A couple of thousend of British people die every year due to medication mistakes and side effects!

I am almost 78 years old and I had used Pholcodeine on and off for the past 50 years - and you used to be able to get the Lozenges (Potters Pholcodeine Lozenges) but the lozenges were withdrawn several years ago. However, I had to have a General Anaesthetic just over a year ago, and I had discovered the huge risk of death whilst under anaesthetic, which remains with users of Pholcodeine indefinitely, so I had no choice but to have a very nasty procedure done under LOCAL anaesthetic instead. I discovered all this about Pholcodeine myself - no doctor had ever told me it was this dangerous. So now I am incredibly worried in case I ever have to have a General Anaesthetic again ... next time it might not be possible to have a future procedure under local anaesthetic.
To vampirequeen: You will not get any obvious side-effecte etc ... it is just that this drug remains dormant in your body FOR EVER, so no matter how long ago you took it, the same risk still applies that you can die whilst under General Anaesthetic. A risk NOT worth taking for me now.

I had one of those nasty coughs recently and after all the lovely alternative stuff (drinks with lemon juice, turmeric, honey, black pepper etc. etc.) cautiously took one codeine pill given by DD. Took it with five prunes (can cause nasty constipation) but slept like a happy baby that night.

So the chemist dispensing it didn't explain anything about it?

I had whooping cough once when in the US got something called Hycodan which I think is similar. I had cracked two ribs from coughing.

I take codeine regularly, and pregabalin for my back. I have to juggle them because of the side effects (sleepiness and constipation).

So I take the pregabalin at night, and when I take codeine, I eat a big bowl of muesli and a salad with dinner. That helps along with lots of water. Then I can actually move! But noo driving on those days.

I take quite a lot of "dangerous stuff" without it I would have no quality of life or even worse be dead by now. 40 years ago, I was just married and in ICU. My husband and mother were told I would probably not survive. Here I am, still going strong, ( well maybe not so strong ) , thanks to the "dangerous stuff" . You have to weigh it all up.

I'm told a few drops of glycerine in hot water helps with a lingering cough (I am prone to them and will try out next time I get one )
You can now get Ibubrofen capsules with a coating that means they don't irritate your stomach in the same way

I have found to my cost that ibuprofen is dangerous for me. I was self-medicating with it last Autumn to ease the pains in my knees, neck and thumbs. I started with excruciating stomach pains in mid- November which developed and grew worse until I was diagnosed, after many tests including a gastroscopy, with gastritis as a result of taking and NSAID (ibuprofen). I am still suffering. I read the side-effects warnings but of course never thought they would apply to me. Do any of us?

Auntieflo. I've scrabbled in the recycling and there's no label except the pharmacy one:
200ml Pholcodine SF strong 10mg/5ml linctus. Take ONE 5ml spoonful four times a day
That's all. Pharmacist is very helpful so I'll have a chat with him when I'm back home.

Ricola - good idea and I did sip from a water bottle in the theatre, helped a lot! Also someone sitting near me was also coughing occasionally!

Sparkle - horrendous for you, so sorry. I guess that's why, even though I'm over 70, I'm sometimes asked whether I could possibly be pregnant!! Best to be thorough!

I am like you katek and my GP knows where I'm coming from now, so we always discuss new meds and any treatment plan. He respects that I will use complementary medicine at times instead of taking drugs. What a great idea at your GP practice to employ an inhouse pharmacist. I'm sure that will save the NHS money in the long term as well as helping patients.

I entirely agree sparklefizz, I am possibly the bane of my GP's life. I ask many questions and am very reluctant to take new meds without full discussion. Sometimes, in the risk/benefit analysis, we may have to take drugs or a combination of drugs which may not be ideal and I understand this. I did object, however, when a locum GP handed me a prescription to treat an entirely new condition and said "take this". Er...not happening without full understanding on my part. Our GP practice has recently employed an inhouse pharmacist who will review ongoing medication and rationalise drug regimes if necessary. Great idea and frees up GP.

After surgery for breast cancer 20 years ago I was prescribed a drug to prevent it returning which gave me horrendous side effects including terrible bleeding and haemorrhages lasting weeks each time. This necessitated going into hospital for a hysteroscopy to see if anything was going on with my womb, but it was ok. I put up with the drugs for 6 months because I thought I had to. Eventually I complained to the consultant who changed me onto another drug. A year later I got my own computer and decided to check out the drug which had made me so ill, and discovered it should only be given to post-menopausal women. I was still having periods which had been made a million times worse by the drug, but the consultant had never even asked me that question, not even when I was haemorrhaging. He made assumptions and he was wrong. This is not the first time doctors have made mistakes with my health. We have to be responsible for ourselves and not assume that if we are prescribed something, it is the right thing for us. Thankfully we have much more access to information than was available 20 years ago.

Pholcodeine sounds really nasty.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pholcodine