Skip takes a lot of prescription drugs. There are so many, I started keeping a list. We bring the list with us whenever we go to a medical provider or the emergency room. It almost always generates a word of thanks from the person handling intake. And, it results in a complete and accurate list of all drugs for the provider who's thinking about prescribing something new.
Over the years, it's morphed a lot. I've now got it categorized by medical condition, describe the pill itself, indicate when it's taken and, when Skip developed some drug allergies a few years back, I added a list of drugs she's allergic to at the bottom.
Here is a sample of the drug list with some MS drugs left in as examples:
Patient Name
Daily Drug List
As of: Month Day, Year
| Drug,* dosage and pill description | Morning | Noon | Evening | Bedtime |
| For MS Symptoms | ||||
| Baclofen, 10 mg, white tab, imprinted 10 a | 4 | 4 | 4 | |
| Tizanidine, 4 mg, white flat oval tab, imprinted R180 | 1 | |||
| For Condition X | ||||
| For Other Issues | ||||
| As needed: | ||||
* Where now available as a generic, the generic is used
DRUG ALLERGIES:
- List as needed
6 comments:
The list I maintain for BR looks very similar. I also keep date started, date stopped, and notes in a separate sheet in the Excel workbook, so new doctors can easily know what's been tried and when.
That's a good idea -- adding in the stop and start date. Especially good for items that have been stopped, to give docs the history. I'll add that feature in as a second page. Thanks!
Another helpful item of information, for me, is the name of the doctor who wrote the prescription. I get some meds from the neurologist, and some from my family practitioner (who has two siblings with MS, so is more familiar with the disease than she probably would like to be). Either one will write a scrip for any of my maintenance meds, but come refill time it's slightly less hassle if I keep track of who wrote which most recently.
Although there is also something to be said for a handy reference that doesn't require a table of contents, index, and several appendices.
Zoom - that's a good idea as well.
It's funny, I thought I was posting this drug list to give others a good idea and here I am getting great enhancements from you and Steve!
A med list is a great tool - couldn't do without it. And it really helps that it makes the ER staff very happy. There is going to be a free webinar from the National Family Caregivers Association about med safety for family caregivers this NOv 12 at 2pm - if you go to thier web site there is more info
www.thefamilycaregiver.org
Lisa - thanks for the heads up about the webinar. I'm going to check it out right now.
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