Medication Regimen, Case Study Example

7:30 am (before breakfast): Glipizide

8am: Terazosin, Simvastatin, Hydrochlorothiazide, Fosinopril, Metformin, Levothyroxine, Finasteride

12:00 pm (with lunch) Thiamine

6:00pm (with dinner) Thiamine

Mupirocin (for leg rash; ointment, once a day)

Insulin (Aspart; injectable)

Insulin (Glargine; injectable)

Adhering to this medication regimen presented several challenges at first. Not being used to taking a medication regimen on a regular basis meant that I had to make many changes to my typical lifestyle to ensure that I took the medications on time and as prescribed. I began by keeping a journal, primarily to help get myself used to the schedule of taking my medications. Most of the medications were prescribed to be taken once a day; those medications I took in the morning. There were several medications that had to be taken several times a day; with those medications I attempted to time them to take them at mealtimes, so they would become part of my daily routine.

Perhaps the mot difficult part of the medication regimen was the sheer number of different medications, and trying to remember which medication was for which ailment and at which time it was supposed to be taken.  I attempted to put myself in the mindset of a 74-year-old patient with a number of ailments, and to keep in mind that it may be difficult for someone in that situation to remember what all his medications were for and when and how often they should be taken.

With the help of a friend (whom I asked to play the role of caretaker in an assisted living facility), I managed to take all of my medications relatively regularly; very rarely did I miss a dose or have to skip a medication until the next dose. I did realize, though, that without the help of someone reminding me of when my medications were due, and of which ones I was supposed to take at certain times, it may have been very easy for me to forget to take them (or even to forget that I had taken them, and ended up taking them more than once at any given time for dosage).

As noted, the easiest way for me to adjust to my regimen was to enlist the help of someone to remind me to take my medications. Though I was “role-playing” the part of a 74-year-old retiree, I actually had to go about my typical daily routine. I used several methods to remind me to take my medications. The first, and easiest, was to set reminder-alarms on my cell phone. I carried my “medication” with me in a plastic medication container I purchased at the pharmacy, one that is split up into seven different sections for daily dosages. Along with my reminder alarm would appear a note that reminded me which medications to take at the particular times. Along with these reminders, my “assistant” (the friend who had agreed to help me) would call me at lunch and at dinner, and role-play a nurse or other health-care worker and remind me to take my medication.

One consideration I had during this exercise, though, was whether or not the reliance on technology was something that would be as easy for an actual 74-year-old patient as it was for me. The fictional patient in this exercise lived in a facility that hd others around (including a willing roommate_ to assist with assuring the medication regimen was met; someone who lived alone, and who had such an array of maladies, might have a significantly more difficult time in remembering to take all those different medications at all those different times. Fortunately, most of them could be taken at the same time (in the morning), but there were others that had to be taken throughout the day, as well s some that required intravenous injections in some cases and subcutaneous injections in others. This could certainly present an enormous challenge to someone who lived alone, and/or suffered from memory problems. It certainly became evident to me almost immediately that a daily written log times was imperative in order to manage the different medications and dosage times.

The mot difficult part of this exercise was keeping all the different medications organized, properly labeled, and accurately managed so hat I was taking the correct medications at the correct times and in the proper amounts. As I was using various candies to represent the different medications, the risk of mixing them up was certainly nothing to worry about, but in a real-world scenario, some of these medications, if used improperly, could have serious repercussions. I was taking multiple medications to control blood sugar levels and to manage hypertension; it was imperative that the prescribed balance of these medications be adhered to rigorously.

I had to “make believe” to some degree that I was living the schedule of a 74-year-old retiree, rather than keeping the busy schedule I usually keep. It seemed to me that adhering to the medication schedule would not be particularly challenging, beyond simply remembering to take the medications at the correct times and in the proper amounts. There are numerous commercially-available devices on the market designed to help patients maintain proper medication schedules; I simply adapted my cell phone for such a purpose. Again, I had to remind myself that this might be a bit easier, or at least more “natural,” for someone who was used to using cell phones, PDAs, and other similar devices on a regular basis than for someone who rarely interacted with such technologies.

Perhaps the single biggest lesson I learned during this exercise was how much I hd to rely on outside sources of support. As I noted, the two biggest support systems I relied o were my cell phone, which I set to remind myself how often to take my medication, and my friend who was playing the role of health-care worker, who checked on me frequently via telephone (which we pretended was an in-person meeting in most cases), and “administered” my injections (sometimes in the role of health care worker; others as “room mate’). Without these social supports, I may have had a much more difficult time remembering to take my medications on a regular basis, and remembering to take the correct amounts at the correct times.

I managed to stay almost completely “medication compliant,” but I would never have ben able to do it successfully without the help of my “health-care worker” and the use of my cell phone timer/reminder. It was the aid of the “health-care worker,” though, who was probably the most helpful. Not only did she help to assure that I took my medications at the right times and in the right amounts, but she also reminded me to make sure I kept everything properly logged, so that if there was a question s to whether I had taken a specific medication, I could simply refer to the log to see if I had, indeed, taken it.

I found this exercise to be invaluable; there is a world of difference between reading about “medication schedules” and “compliance” and other issues related to patients and proper medication, but actually living through it is an entirely different matter. Despite the assistance of friends, and utilizing technology to remind myself which medications to take and when, I still found myself getting confused at times. I would occasionally forget of the brown M&M was my thiamine tablet or my Glipizide; without the help of my logbook, my health care worker, and my cell phone-alarm system, I may have become quickly overwhelmed.

That is perhaps the single biggest lesson I will take away from this exercise: that proper, effective health care isn’t just about being prescribed a pill, or seeing a doctor for a checkup. It is about a away of life, of integrating proper diet, medication, exercise, and all other aspects of healthy living into a workable, realistic routine. In order to create and adapt to this routine, we need to rely on friends, family, health care workers, and ourselves to make sure that we don’t just see our health care needs as a list on a page, but as a way of life.