The wonderful morning was soon ruined when my morning dose of medicine knocked me out and had me crawling back into bed. A few hours later I’m able to get back out. So obviously some of that medicine was *not* good for me. I also take Wellbutrin SR regularly. I was supposed to go back to the doctor for a followup this morning, so when I got un-comatose again, Maggie and I went over to see him. The doctor thought the antihistamine was the problem, and he didn’t want to take it out so instead he suggested I try just half instead. On top of that he noticed that he had under-prescribed one of the medications for me. He had prescribed for 60kg weight and I’m more like 100kg. And on top of that he added a new medication to the mix. He also told me only about one of the antihistamines in my set of medication. I should probably mention that we have National Health Insurance here, so I just pay about US$5 for doctor’s visit and medication, total, no matter how many medications the doctor prescribes.
So this time when we went downstairs to the pharmacy I made them write out what each and every thing was. Here is what I got sent home with today:
prednisolone – steroid (increased dosage)
ambroxol – reduces mucus viscosity
ibuprofen – pain-reliever/fever-reducer/anti-inflammatory
dextromethorphan – cough suppressant
pseudo-ephedrine – decongestant
carbinoxamine – antihistamine
diazepam(valium) – anti-anxiety
chlorpheniramine – antihistamine
noscarpine – anti-cough/anti-cancer
fenoterol – relaxes windpipe to breathe easier (added)
Presumably he added the fenoterol so I wouldn’t wake up choking on snot again.
So instead of just gulping down my pills, I did some drug interaction research. From what I found on the web, Wellbutrin interacts poorly with antihistamines and dextromethorphan. Opinions seem mixed on pseudo-ephedrine, but I was taking that before without problem. So for now I’m going to take out the two antihistamines and the dextromethorphan, and switch the ibuprofen to naproxen sodium which works better on me. The pseudo-ephedrine was combined in one pill with the antihistamine carbinoxamine, but I have some pseudo-ephedrine only pills here, so they can substitute. We’ll see how that works out. Next time I’ll have to make sure to say I’m allergic to antihistamines and dextromethorphan. And I’m definitely getting them to list out the medications and do my own research first before taking it.