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Q. I'm worried about my mother. She's 65 and has type 2 diabetes and mild depression.In the last few months, her behavior has changed dramatically. She is extremely lethargic and has no energy to do housework. She is sleeping a lot and often falls when she gets up. She says she feels dizzy.
She's normally very industrious, loves the outdoors and keeps a very clean home. She says her blood sugars are very good now during the day, but they go extremely low at night.
Her doctor told her to take Dramamine and cold medicine for the vertigo. She also takes Abilify, Actos, atenolol, Benicar, furosemide, gabapentin, glimepiride, insulin, Lipitor, paroxetine, potassium chloride, Sular, and sometimes Acetaminophen PM. What do you think?
A. This is a LOT of medicine! Your mother needs a specialist in geriatric medicine who can review everything very carefully for side effects and interactions. She should not stop any medication on her own, but the doctor needs to see if she really needs each of the medications in this complex regimen.
Abilify is of particular concern because it can complicate the treatment of diabetes and can be dangerous in older patients. It may also contribute to dizziness on arising.
We are sending you our Guide to Drugs and Older People for a discussion of the pitfalls of of medication for senior citizens along with a drug safety questionnaire that should be filled out by her doctor and pharmacist.
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I am 62 and bristled a bit at someone 65 needing to see a geriatric specialist. But on second thought I see several kind of people when it comes to following doctors orders. Those who devotedly take whatever they are prescribed with no questions asked. Those that loosely follow the doctors orders. And those of us who see our relationships with doctors like we see nuclear disarmament.... trust but verify.
I am not sure how my doctors take my questioning, but I have caught them in several drug mistakes regarding my atrial fibrillation and its treatment. I know what drugs I take, the brand and the chemical name, I checkup on all my meds and possible side effects and make sure I can reconcile their reasoning with mine. I have told doctors that while I have a lot of information on drugs, I do not have their breadth of overall knowledge, but they don't know how the drugs make me feel.
I had a catheter ablation for the A-Fib 9 months ago and am finally paring down many of the meds that the A-Fib required me to take. One last tip, I keep my medication list on Google Docs instead of on my computer at home. That way any place I have internet access means I have access to my drug list.
Other than diabetes I had all the same symptoms as this woman plus a few. Visits to my primary, 2 cardiologists, gynecologist, endocrinologist and dentist led to ALL saying the symptoms were NOT related and they were all a factor of age, lack of exercise, poor oral hygiene (Never before noticed?) etc.
I experienced an attack of vertigo (also can be attributed to my ultimate diagnosis) and ended up in the ER. Than God for the ER Director who after repeating a blood test diagnosed hypercalcemia and high parathyroid hormone. This led to the diagnosis of Parathyroid disease. I had a very large parathyroid gland removed in Mid-May and have been getting better since the first week.
I have not had ANY episodes of the atrial fibrillation or tachycardia which had led to non-successful invasive procedural results in inhibiting these conditions and put me on some very undesirable medications. I hope to be able to be weaned off at least some of these in a few months. . My cognition is back to normal, I have energy for gardening, housework and all social activities. In fact all my symptoms were indicators of this issue and the blood test results over the years had indicated the correlation between high calcium and high PTH.
The surgeon said from the size and activity of the tumor, it may have been growing for 7-10 years. It is a simple blood test with an alert physician reading the results. I would hope this suggestion is followed through and in one way or another it may indicate an issue or rule it out. I hope she has the same wonderful results that I have had.
My mother has type two diabetes and high blood pressure and each drug she takes seems to cause side effects that lead to the prescription of more pills to cure the side effects of each new drug. She is on Cardozin, Furosemide, Carvedilol, Repaglinide, Digoxin, Warfarin, Metformin, beta blockers, Statins and Allopurinol.
I am wondering if drug companies have a vested interest in over medicating the old, since all this started the moment she became a pensioner. She is never taken off a pill, just given a new one. Almost all the old in the UK seem to be on multiple pills and I cannot believe they are all necessary. This is very worrying since she used to be in good health and now seems continually bothered by multiple blood tests and new side effects.