Prescription Medicine Safety Tips

Do you keep a loaded gun standing in the corner, or hanging on the wall at your house? Probably not. Most of us don't, especially if we have small children, but we aren't nearly as careful when it comes to the storage of equally dangerous, prescription medicines.

It is easy to become careless when it comes to handling prescription medicine. We pick up our latest prescription at the pharmacy, toss it in the bathroom cabinet, or into the family refrigerator when we get home and forget about it until it is time to take the first dose, assuming that, because we have told our children to leave it alone, they will.

1. Keep Medicine Away From Children.

I will never forget the panic I felt when I walked into our kitchen to see my 3-year-old sitting on the counter next to the sink, nonchalantly gobbling tablets from a bottle of children's aspirin. I had stored the aspirin on a shelf that I absolutely knew she couldn't possibly reach, and there was a child-proof cap on the bottle. To this day, I don't know how she managed to get to that bottle, let alone open the cap that even I had trouble with, but the point is that if there is something you don't want your child to find, you'd better lock it up. That goes double for prescription medicine.

In case you're wondering, we didn't know how many baby aspirins had been in the bottle so we ended up at the emergency room getting our 3-year-old's stomach pumped. Not a pleasant experience for her or for us. Aspirin was bad enough, but if it had been prescription strength medicine, our experience may have been even worse so, even though it may not always be convenient, do get a medicine cabinet with a lock on it. If your medication must be refrigerated, find a container with a lock on it that can hold your prescription and be stored in the refrigerator.

(In case you're wondering, we didn't know how many baby aspirins had been in the bottle so we ended up at the emergency room getting our e-year-old's stomach pumped. Not a pleasant experience for her or for us. Aspirin was bad enough, but if it had been prescription strength medicine, our experience may have been even worse.)

2. Use Prescription Medicine ONLY As Directed.

Do not cut back on the dosage prescribed, or stop taking the medicine before the recommended time is up. Your doctor has good reasons for his instructions and, if you want to have the best chance of recovery, you need to follow them.

If the instructions say one pill daily, don't skip two days and then take three pills to catch up.

If the instructions say to take the pill just before bedtime, don't take it with your lunch.

If the pills say, take with one full glass of water, don't take a half glass of water, instead.

3. Call Your Doctor If Your Prescription Medicine Isn't Working Correctly.

Ask your doctor what to expect from any new medicine he prescribes. If, after a dose or two, you are having reactions different from those described, get in touch with him or her immediately. People react differently to prescription medicines so your dosage may need to be changed or adjusted.

If you have a severe reaction from a newly prescribed medication, and are unable to contact your own doctor, head for an emergency room, and take the prescription bottle with you so the doctors there will have an idea of how to treat whatever might be going on with you.

4. Never Take Prescription Medicine In The Dark.

We've all had the experience of waking in the wee hours of the night with a throbbing headache or a pain just as bad somewhere else in our bodies. "If we could just grab one of those pain pills, maybe we could get some sleep," we reason to ourselves, and, not wanting to wake a husband or wife, we sneak over to the medicine cabinet and grab that pill.

Don't take chances. Too many people, in that kind of situation, grab the wrong bottle, only to end up with worse problems than the headache or leg cramps they started with.

5. Never Share Your Prescription Medicine With A Friend.

I know how hard it is to resist the temptation to pass left-over pills on to a friend who is suffering from the same symptoms you had before you went to the doctor. Don't do it! Your friend may well have the same problem, but he or she may need a totally different dosage than was prescribed for you. And, if your left-over pills have been around for a while, they may no longer be effective anyway.

6. Always Keep Your Prescription Medicine In Its Original Bottle.

Most prescription bottles are colored to keep light from reaching the pills inside and destroying their potency. In addition, the original dosage directions, the prescription number in case you need to order a refill, and the name of the doctor who prescribed the medication can all be found on the bottle label. Some or all of this information may be needed to determine how to treat you should side effects develop from the use of the medicine.

7. Get Rid Of Out-Dated Prescription Medicine.

My mother didn't believe in wasting anything. If the milk started to sour, she turned it into a cake that called for sour cream; if the cheese showed spots of mold, one of us girls was given the task of cutting it off and chopping the rest of the brick into cheese sticks for supper; stale bread ended up as bread pudding; and extra produce from the garden was always shared with neighbors down the street.

Prescription medicines are harder to recycle than food. Most have a life-span and may lose their potency as they grow older, and they can be downright deadly when shared with a friend.

The expiration date on your prescription bottle is there for a reason. It means you should not take the medication after that date. Doctors prescribe medicine for a particular ailment at a particular time-not for one that pops up a year or more later. A new problem may be totally unrelated to the first one and left-over medicine, besides being out-dated, may actually be harmful to the later problem.

Most prescriptions lose effectiveness as they age and are unlikely to take care of your symptoms anyway, so there is no point in keeping left-over pills around. If you have a drawer full of half-used, out-dated medical prescriptions, dispose of them now.

If you follow the tips above, your home should be one where prescription medicines achieve the purpose for which they were made and where they won't turn into a health hazard instead..