How many prescription drugs do you currently have in your . . .

medicine cabinet? Elaborate if you'd like to. Perhaps you have standard stuff like extra strength ibuprofen, or birth control pills or a current anti-biotic for a cold. Or perhaps, unfortunately, you suffer from something more serious that requires several medications.

I'm simply curious about this -- especially in light of the new mental health testing that was passed. Someone mentioned that Bushco's motivation is mostly profit for the drug companies.

Ahhhh, if only they had a complete mind control drug! But then again, who says they don't?

I have thyroid medication, which costs fifteen cents a pill, and my husband has diabetic medication that he rarely uses-only if his blood sugar level gets too high, which it has done only twice since he got the bottle of pills two years ago.

Because after 30 years of acid reflux every day (night), I thought it would be a wise idea so my esophagus would not disintegrate.

One of the best things I ever did in my life, have been reflux free for two years now.

I had reflux for 35 years. Then I quit smoking, gave up coffee, switched to a low fat diet and took up meditation. No more reflux.

However: All I need to do is eat one high-fat item, like a McDonald's egg McMuffin for breakfast, and I'll have reflux for the next 36 to 48 hours. Then it goes away again. My own self-experimentation suggests that it's really the high-fat foods that was doing it to me all along.

(Your milage may vary. Objects in the mirror are closer than they appear. Void where prohibited by law. Substantial penalty for early withdrawl.)

I could get reflux drinking WATER

Reflux started for me the minute I started puberty, my dad was the same, my grandpa was the same.

My Mom tragically died suddenly, tragically & unexpectedly from something else over the summer, but during the autopsy, they found esophageal cancer that would have eventually killed her (metastasized into the liver) and she suffered with reflux for decades too. Makes me even happier I take it, no matter what sinister side effects my particular drug may have hidden from the FDA.

I still do not do heavy fats, no Aspartame, MINIMAL caffeine, etc. We also eat organic as much as we can, and do not EVER open a box to prepare something that is an all in one (like stuffing, scalloped potatoes, etc)

It costs too much.

I'm not too worried about the mental health testing unless they actually intend to buy the Rx for folk diagnosed with an illness. My several physical illnesses have been diagnosed for years and I don't see anyone lining up to buy medicine for me...so...most of the time, I do without.

Under the Bush administration, a friend lost $1,000 a year toward his diabetes medicine and may lose his leg. They are not buying medicine for gross physical disorders that anyone can see. You honestly believe they are going to buy medicine for everyone who gets depressed or angry? Nah, not gonna happen.

Check out if your meds are on the list by searching for them in the search box to the left at this site
http://www.freemedicineprogram.com/index.html

If your meds are there, don't pay money to the website - just email or write a letter directly to company who makes the stuff and tell them you heard they have a patient assistance program for the needy and ask whether you're eligible.

I think you can earn up to $60,000, depending on the cost of the meds you need.

A friend recently was told by his doctor that he needed to be using an expensive over-the-counter eye drop. The cost wasn't covered because the stuff was OTC and not a scrip. He wrote to Alcon and they emailed him a form for his doctor. Supposedly they will soon sending a 6-month supply for free.

Also check out the info here:
http://www.needymeds.com/

And here too.
http://www.themedicineprogram.com/

Cat is pretty ill but does not seem to be in any pain. So I am watching her and will keep her around. Vet thinks something has happened but she will be OK. The third eye lid has sort of covered her eye which at one time was fixed so she would not lose her sight.

The stuff is very handy for bronchitis, and I hate to pay a doctor $75 just to get another scrip. I hoard prednisone. None gets thrown away.

Hi,

Prednisone can be life-saving but it should not be taken on a whim, just because it helps ease some of the inflammation one experiences with bronchitis. Prednisone will NOT kill the bacteria (or, less likely, viruses) causing your lung infection. Quite to the contrary, it suppresses the immune system. It is SO effective at suppressing the immune system that it is often used to prevent organ rejection in patients receiving transplants. If you are trying to fight off an infection, don't take drugs that suppress the immune system unless it's absolutely necessary.

Prednisone can cause glaucoma, cataracts, and osteoporosis just to name a few of its serious side effects.

Prednisone, in short, is a drug to be taken ONLY when absolutely necessary.

Only a doctor can diagnose bronchitis and only a doctor should prescribe medication for bronchitis. If your doctor is handing out prednisone like Luden's cough drops, then, honestly, s/he is probably causing his/her patients long term problems just so that they don't complain about short term discomfort.

I'm not coming back out of lurk mode to argue about this. Hence, if you want to argue, I suggest instead that you read more about this dangerous though sometimes necessary drug.
http://prednisone.drugs.com/
http://ibscrohns.about.com/cs/prednisone/a/steroideffects.htm

I only glanced at these links and am drawing my information not from them but from experience. If the links do not suffice, please do your own THOROUGH research, which you should do in any case before using a drug, particularly one you are (unwisely) presribing to yourself.

Almost fifty,I've never had the need for meds (or doctors for that matter) although I did enjoy a few recreational pharmaceuticals "back in the day".

a prescription since...probably ~1984 (and I'm 62)... my mom is 87 and takes about 10 pills a day and feels like crap most of the time. Maybe she really needs them but sometimes I'm tempted to tell her to just lock them all away for a while...'course I'n not an MD. :eyes:

NONE.

Sixty years old. Replaced the type-two diabetes medication, the cholesterol medication, and the blood pressure medication with semi-sane eating and a huge dose of MOUNTAIN BIKING. Very conservative MD did all the tests over a long period of time and took me off ALL the meds.

I'm now addicted to the bike, and so happy to be prescription-drug FREE!

Thanks for giving me a chance to brag.

I do a lot of riding, but was recentlty put on the diabetes meds...

I have a few major chronic conditions that require at least one, sometimes 2 medications. Hypertension, high cholesterol, CAD, diabetes, fibromyalgia and several others as well. I've tried going a day or so on occasion to not take my pills, but I inevitably get sick from not taking them.

last time I went to a doctor was when I was discharged from the service in 1968. Eating unprocessed foods is the key along with a stress free attitude.

The cat gets thyroid, blood pressure, acid reflux, procrit (boost hemoglobin production), and daily fluids (renal failure).

I take 4 medications for my diabetes and things related, and two for something that it would have been helpful had the mental health screening picked up when I was a kid. (I discovered my attention deficit condition at age 35. Might have had a more useful school and work history had it been discovered at age 8 instead)

one for high blood pressure, one for arthritis. He bikes 18 miles a day, so the high blood pressure isn't from being overweight or unhealthy.

The arthritis hit him in his late 20s.

I take nothing.

by means of nutritional supplements, herbs and energy therapy (wooba-wooba). The docs wanted to load me up with 'scrips, but the only one I would take is for my thyroid which was being compromised by the disease.

I did all the research myself and found a combination of things that worked for me. I was lucky to have a couple of physicians whose motto was: it's like chicken soup, it might not help, but it can't hurt.

Two years ago, my hands, feet, and body hurt all the time. Now, I'm pain free and have 5 times the physical and mental energy.

I'm hoping to be able to go off the thyroid within a year. If you take it over three years, you pretty much have to take it for life.

Doctors are good for some things....but I'm the one with a vested interest in my own well being. Besides, they tend to get paid more the sicker I am.....that somehow seems....backward. Foxes guarding the hen-house and such.

Luvox for OCD, Adderall for ADD, and Ortho tricycline low (birth control)

If stem cell research did actually end up curing diseases, like diabetes. Stem cell research funding was not a moral issue, it was a profit margin decision. Pharmaceuticals would have lost BILLIONS if people could be cured, instead of needing prescriptions and supplies.

I keep myself tuned with good diet, herbs,(Astragalus for immune system, Black Cohosh for menopause) some supplements, and Homeopathy for mental health imbalances.

DemEx

I'm on antidepressants. That's the only "real" one. Both my sons have prescriptions for fluoride supplements, b/c our water isn't fluoridated, but I consider that more like a vitamin. DH has a prescription (or at least had) for seasonal allergy medicine, but he doesn't have any right now.

I guess I'm lucky.

I have a bottle of high octane cold meds I got a few weeks ago sitting in the cupboard. I'm normally rather anti-pharmaceutical but that cold was kicking my ass to the point I thought I had bronchitis and I needed something that would allow me sleep without having to sit up. Herbs and such were helping but it was the last few days before the election and I didn't have the time or patience to recouperate.

I have always had a chronic problem trying to get to sleep

for migraines, and then there's my daughter's stuff. She has 2 inhalers, and couple for allergies, and one for add.

Lopermide (OTC but I have a script) - thanks for removing my gall bladder doc.
Wellbutrin to quit smoking.
Imitrex so the light shows don't leave me curled up in a ball on the floor.
Levaquin - prostate, lymph nodes, sinuses, mastoid.... everything impacted.
Naseral because the HMO insists that correcting a deviated septum is cosmetic and not medically necessary even though that most likely is the reason I have been on Levaquin for over 60 days in the last 6 months and costing them a nice chunk of money for the Imitrex. Bastards.

I don't need them right now. The last prescription that I took was anti-biotics about four years ago. Before that, it was the birth control pill (which I stopped using 8 years ago). I guess I'm blessed. But, my health insurance costs so much that I kind of WANT to go on something! To get my money's worth. (Just joking... sort of....)

Zoloft for Seasonal Affective Disorder (Sad? really, could they have PLANNED a cornier name? Oh, and fuck you monkey boy, hands off my meds)
Vicodin which dates back to when I had a wisdom tooth pulled. I don't like vicodin
Amitriptyline, um, this is the dog's :) It was to make her stop scratching (she's part shar-pei). Worked with using it just for a short while.
Cough syrup with codeine, because I had a nasty URI last month, combo of stress + kids with colds + drywalling. Bad combo as it turns out.
Tylenol with Codeine. Damn I love this stuff.
Super-duper motrin. Cramps, gotta love 'em or fling yourself off a mountain.

I'm doped. :-( But not anxious. :crazy:

I use herbal remedies and nutritional supplements. I have only taken about 3-4 prescriptions in my life (and I'm 50)they were mostly for dental work and one was for an ear infection.

I have several meds, as a cancer survivor and a chronic pain patient:

Synthroid - cancer treatment zapped my thyroid
Zoloft - PTSD from cancer treatment
Xanax - occasional anxiety
Allegra - allergies
Albuterol inhaler - asthma and allergies
Celebrex - chronic pain
Tramadol - more pain meds
Vicodin - for when pain is really bad

Thankfully we are insured...cannot imagine it if we weren't

for a chronic medical condition

I for one am thankful for the 'miracles of modern medicine'

I would not be alive if the medication wasn't available.

My health insurance covers most of it

but does it count if they're all for the animals? We can't afford human meds.

Secret of my success? Dumb luck.

that my health insurance which I buy as an individual may actually pay out more per month for my meds than I pay them. Kind of a pyrrhic victory. The big costs come from stuff I need on hand for a skin condition, one of which retails for $230 for a 120 ml tube. It had a liquid cousin which retails for well over $100 for a four ounce bottle, of which I use several a month. It's a shame these things don't have a street value; I could be selling them in the park in my neighborhood. :) I do take some run of the mill stuff as well for blood pressure and cholesterol, the latter being related most likely to genetics than to what I eat, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't want to wind up with a stroke.

I have serious chronic illnesses on an almost operatic scale, and I take something like 12 daily (should be more, but I'm terrible about using my inhalers) plus I have an acute infection, so I'm on one of the few antibiotics I'm not allergic to now. None of the prescriptions are for a side-effect of another prescription; at least I'm not in that never-ending circle.

...that I don't think this is any of your business. Why even ask such a question?