COLUMN: Medication — a blessing and a hassle

There are exceptions, of course, to the assumption that when you get old, you’ll need to take a lot of medicine. You hear of people of advanced age who get by on an aspirin a day.

But then you hear about the rest of us who take multiple prescriptions to ward off disease, control symptoms of a condition or basically to stay alive. I’m thankful for them, but it can be frustrating trying to manage them - both for my doctor and for me.

For instance, trying to manage medication for chronic high blood pressure can be a hassle. Medications for treating high blood pressure are some of the most common available, but finding the right one for the patient is not always easy. Some of the best at controlling elevated pressure, may also bring on side effects that are too much for the patient to handle.

For example, certain medications may do a great job of bringing down blood pressure to a healthier level, but may also slow the heart rate to the point patients can hardly navigate across the room. The blood pressure may drop to a really good level for a change, but it’s outweighed by a real concern the patient will get lightheaded and fall.

In fact, one of the main reasons the elderly fall is due to their medication.

All medications have possible side effects, and they affect people differently. One patient can tolerate a medication perfectly; another patient on the same exact dose, may react with swelling of the feet and ankles, become lethargic and faint or suffer heart palpitations. Who knows why? Sometimes choosing a medication is kind of a crap shoot.

It’s no wonder physicians are cautious about prescribing medications for their patients’ conditions, especially if diagnosing exactly what’s going on in a patient’s body is still somewhat of a mystery. They carefully study the relationship of medications their patients are taking to ensure they don’t cancel out one another’s effectiveness, or to avoid additional health problems.

Sometimes a particular medication just doesn’t work; sometimes the side effects are too problematic and sometimes our doctors have to do a lot of juggling the dosage to get it right. It’s important for patients to communicate with their doctor as to how well the medication is working but it’s also important to give oneself a chance to adjust to a medication. If one has a strong, negative reaction, that’s one thing, but sometimes we don’t give our bodies enough time to adjust to the new medication we’re taking and we’re too quick to call our doctors to prescribe something else.

In addition to having a little more patience about giving our bodies a chance to adjust, there are other steps we can take to help ourselves. For instance, if a new medication that’s been prescribed to deal with a condition such as high blood pressure, but warns of side effects of dizziness, sleepiness and the possibility of falling, we can take precautions.

This is the time to rise out of our chairs slowly and cautiously, to stand quietly for a few seconds before moving on. When rising from bed, one should sit a little while before standing up, and if the blood pressure is quite low because of medication, using a walker to move about is a wise precaution to take. Even a cane, if it actually aids in balancing oneself, is better than nothing.

Everyone knows by now falls by the elderly can be lethal. Falling is the leading cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries for seniors. Fourteen million aged 65 and over suffer falls annually; 43,000 die from their injuries.

It’s not a good feeling to be lightheaded. Nor is it a good feeling when one’s blood pressure goes sky high. And neither are most of the other symptoms the elderly may contend with - pain, weakness, stomach issues, lack of appetite, constipation, anxiety, breathing, irregular heartbeat, etc., but they’re all treated nowadays with medication.

Those of us who have survived to an advanced age, especially with a serious ailment or two, are fortunate to still be alive and to have medications that help us stay that way.

We hang in there with a strong will to live, and usually with a bunch of pills to take every day.