stickers on med bottles

does anyone else feel like the warning labels on bottles from the pharmacy are totally random?

today, after years on both of them, for the first time I was warned for plaquenil "do not take this drug if you get pregnant", "may cause drowsiness or diziness" and "take with plenty of water". which is a nice change of pace from "stay out of bright sunlight" which is what I usually get. then my mobic, has take with food, don't take aspirin, and don't drink alcohol which is all normal but i get a bonus of 'may cause drowsiness and take care while operating a car' (what?).

its kind of hilarious...

Woops!

Amongst other meds I've been on Plaquenil for more than 4 years and I always just toss it down without a drink - what's the risks?

Dozey.

"do not take this drug if you get pregnant"

"may cause drowsiness or diziness"

"take with plenty of water"

I've been on it for almost 8 years, and none of those things have happened. Why don't they have a sticker saying to get your retina's checked? Thats the only problem I know about! And the pregnancy thing was really out of left field- don't people take it when they're pregnant? it is bizarre...

I worked in a pharmacy for a number of years before I switched to banking and I can honesty tell it depends on the pharmacist and the stickers on hand.  That's why they vary from bottle to bottle.  If they put every warning sticker possible on every medicine bottle our lables would be obscured and our filling fees would go throught the roof.  I can sometimes tell which pharamcist filled my meds just by the warning labels.  What happens is the computer program the used to do the filing will indicate any warnings (hence the labels) and the contraindications (which is why it is good to use the same pharmacy for all your meds).  One filling program actually prints the warning lables with the label for the bottle so all the pharmacist has to do is peel them of the sheet that issues a receipt, the pharamcy label the medication info for the patient and the warning labels.   Another program just lists the warnings so the pharmacist just choose from rolls of labels.  As for the retina sticker the pharmacy probably didn't buy those as not enough meds have that warning.  The other stickers are common to a lot of other medications and would be standard for any pharmacy.

I get quite amused by what sticker the filling pharmacist picked to out on my meds as with our meds there are so many to chose from and some of the bottles don't leave much room.

You can always tell if you have a newbie in the pharmacy as the bottles are plastered with them and there is not a spare part of the bottle left.

bigted

In the UK our Pharmacy labels are quite neat and all meds in there original blister packs from the pharmaceutical (spelling?) company.

A typical Pharmacy label on my Folic acid reads:

28 Folic acid 5mg tabs

Take one daily except mondays

Mrs Dozey Rosey (AKA)                              30/09/08

The rest of the label is pre printed with the name, address and telephone number of the pharmacist.   All directions for use and contraindications are always printed out directly from the Pharmaceutical company inside the box.

Dozey.

I hear they do the same thing in France for their Pharmacy. Everything is in the original package if you are required to take 5 of the pills and there are 30 in the bottle  you get all 30 and you disgard what you do not use.

I actually ignore all the little labels, since I research most of it on WebMD or my online pharmacy before I take them. 

But I am weird so that should say it all!!!

BTW I get NO Labels on mine from the mail order pharmacy..Only from the regular pharmacy i.e. CVS or Walgreens.

Tess

Just touching on something Tessa said about meds in original boxes in France containing full contents whether needed or not.

In the UK as I said on my previous post we get our meds in the original box but the parmacy will cut out tablets from a blister pack and then cross out and correct the number to the number of tabs left.

Our NHS as brilliant as it is cannot afford to waste drugs.   I must admit though that when my MTX was reduced last time my Rheumatologist did tell me to throw away all the injections I had  and he would order lower doses for me.   What I actually did was use the original syringes and only injected the amount I needed.   After all I'd paid for all the injections plus I would then have the next lot to pay for without any refund.

Dozey.

In Canada many of the meds are sold in massive quantities that make it impossible to provide the patient with the orignal packaging.  We would buy the meds we dispensed large quantities of in bottles of 1000 (or more) pills and would have to dispense them into vials to give to patients.  Other meds that come boxed in monthly quantities are dispensed in their containers as it makes no sense to remove them as it takes time (and it costs money). 

I too have used old doses for new ones - for example my Lyrica dose was increased so I just took the right quantity of the old to make up the new.  No sense in wasting money. 

bigted

This drug has done wonders for me and I am thankful everyday for it. 

I have been told that when I choose to get pregnant I will need to go off of Plaquenil because whatever is in it, is also a part of the abortion pill...aka could cause a miscarriage or birth defects.  I have not put much thought into it because I am not at the point in my life yet, but eventually will be. 

Maybe you can help me with this...alochol and Plaquenil?  I have not gotten a real answer about if alochol can be damaging paired w Plaquenil.  Anybody know?

Thanks!

Caitlin

Hi,

As with everything, I think moderation is the key.   I drink with both Plaquenil amd Enbrel but not with MTX.   I probably only have the odd glass of wine every few months, I drink very little anyway.   The big concern is your liver, it really isn't worth taking risks, but keep up to date with all blood tests which check organ function.

Cheers,

Dozey

Hi, and welcome! I was just about your age when I was diagnosed (8 years ago), I know how hard it is to adjust!!

Are you sure whoever said that isn't getting mixed up with methotrexate? I know that when you get a chemically induced abortion there are a couple drugs, and one is methotrexate so you absolutely have to go off of it. I have never heard of this with plaquenil (my doc warned me about pregnancy and mtx but not plaquenil). Carolan is around here somewhere, I thought she was on plaquenil while she was pregnant? not sure though.

Similarly, you have to monitor your drinking on mtx but no one mentioned that to me about plaquenil really. On mtx you can have drinks once you've been on it enough to know that it doesn't make your liver go crazy all on its own. If your liver is doing fine you can have drinks periodically- only occasionally so probably not as often as your used to, and only one or two drinks when you do- that was a hard adjustment for me, but my liver is doing great and its nice to at least be able to have a drink to toast special occasions and things! (plus, if you go out with friends, not drinking is soooo much cheaper .