A Tale of Excuses

"I stopped taking my medications because there was just too many of them. I'm afraid my liver will be fried."

This is one of the excuses patients tell me when they stop taking their maintenance medications. But when you ask them if they drink alcohol to oblivion, they just give me that smile. Ladies and gentleman and whoever is lucky enough to read this blog, medications that are given by your doctor are in the therapeutic range. Why would we give medications that would fry our patients liver?! Medications are given at the optimum dose that would give the maximum benefit. Take not of the word OPTIMUM. When drugs are taken over the dosage prescribed by the doctor, thats the time you worry about your liver getting fried. Some of the drugs when overdosed can KILL YOU. Sometimes patient double their dose for that day because they missed a dose yesterday which is the stupid thing to do. Again, thats when your liver get fried.
When we prescribe medications, we take into consideration their drug to drug interactions. I would advise against self medicating especially with cardiac and neuro medications. So consult your doctor before taking any medications. For people who can't understand, here's why. When your car breaks, do you do it yourself or do you go to a mechanic? When you want to buy a good jewelry, do you ask the brick maker?Do you build your own house or do you call an engineer? So people, think about it.