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Medical Forum / Diseases and Disorders / Arthritis / April 2006Student seeks info
Hi everyone. My name is Rikky and I am a 2nd year pharmacy student at the University of Illinois in Chicago. I've bee assigned to monitor an online support group that deals with chronic illness. After looking around a bit I've decided that I would like to monitor this one. I hope that's okay with you. If not, you can tell me to get lost, but I promise I'll try not to be intrusive. My intentions are good and our professor feels very strongly about the worth of these groups and would like us to understand how much they help people cope with some extremely difficult situations. If you have no objections, I have a question. Do any of your healthcare providers involve themselves in your conversations? If so, do they ever offer advice? If so, is it generally helpful advice? Thanks so much for your time, Rikky > Hi everyone. My name is Rikky and I am a 2nd year pharmacy student at > the University of Illinois in Chicago. I've bee assigned to monitor an [quoted text clipped - 12 lines] > > Rikky Hi Rikky,,,,, I know for a fact that quite a few doctors read the newsgroup but do not take part. Oooh a few do every now and then like this RD in South Africa. http://www.arthritis.co.za/default.htm The internet can be a ruffff place if you can be bothered by what others say. It is like actors with arthritis that are somewhat famous..... get ground up by people in pain even if they live with the same pain that we do. You are welcome here and ask any question you want. If people think you are trying to sell something, it will not go over very well. The problem with giving advice without an examination of the person has a great many problems and one of them can be legal. You will find that most of us try to help others with what we have taken, tried, and used saying all the while that their mileage may not be the same. I have found that a pharmacy person is the most help when helping someone buy over the counter medicines when they may not be able to afford to buy the same or near same thing in a prescription. It is really an art to helping someone without the responsibility of a prescription. I am sure there are plenty of times when it is best to just not help someone with what a person thinks about a problem. It is why we see our doctors. Harv >Do any of your healthcare providers involve themselves in >your conversations? If so, do they ever offer advice? If so, is it >generally helpful advice? Dr Susan, a Rheumatologist, used to post fairly regularly. You might do an google group search for Dr Susan she was from Drexel University, we miss her input. She gave us great advice. As Harv mentioned Dr Doc pops in every now and again he has been very helpful answering questions. -- MZ >Hi everyone. My name is Rikky and I am a 2nd year pharmacy student at >the University of Illinois in Chicago. I've bee assigned to monitor an >online support group that deals with chronic illness. After looking >around a bit I've decided that I would like to monitor this one. I >hope that's okay with you. Hi, Rikky, you are welcome from my point of view. I firmly believe my pharmacist is my friend. I go to them with questions about my meds, and also worked closely with them when I was nursing. Several of the floors like ICU and NICU had a pharmacist assigned and he or she would attend rounds each day and give input. So, come on in. Hope it is helpful for you. And congratulations to your professor for supporting this. --- Joan Hello again. Thanks to Harv, Mary and Joan for your responses. I definitely see Harv's point about it being somewhat dangerous for a healthcare professional to give advice without an examination. That could get tricky. I'm sure you are all well aware of this, but just to give a shout out to my future profession, I hope you take advantage of the fact that, as Joan pointed out, your pharmacist IS your friend. :) Pharmacists are your most accessible providers of good information and they do truly want to help you. Even if the pharmacist is not an expert in rheumatology, he or she should always do whatever it takes to answer your questions so that you can get the best results from your meds and, generally speaking, you can always call your local pharmacy to contact a Pham.D. That said, feel free to post questions for me if you wish. Even though I'm certainly not qualified to answer them myself, I would be happy to present your questions to my professors at school to find out the info you need. Not that you all don't have wonderful healthcare teams with whom you work, but I imagine one can never have too much information when dealing with an illness like RA. I have a couple more questions. I hope this isn't too much of a bother. Do any of your family members or friends ever post on the site to get information or just general support? Also, what types of alternative treatments such as herbal medications, nutritional supplements or physical exercises are most popular? Do any of them help you feel better? Thanks again! Rikky >Do any of your family members or friends ever post on the site >to get information or just general support? My husband checks in now and then, but usually only when I tell him there is something of interest. We both subscribe to the MS newsgroup which keeps us busy. } Also, what types of alternative treatments such as herbal medications, nutritional >supplements or physical exercises are most popular? Walking, walking, walking, stretching. My physiotherapist and my masseur also keep me going. I take Glucosamine, never sure if it helps, my RD said it may help some people. He suggested I stop for a bit to see, said I would know within a month. After two weeks I restarted it, not sure if I had reacted to losing it or it was just a bad time. I take EPO but that was suggested by my neuro, to help with fatigue. I also take Milk Thistle to keep my liver happy. That was suggested by folks here. I checked it out with my RD who didn't know about it, got printed info. from my pharmacy and a health food store, took that to my RD and he gave his blessing, so I take it. My liver enzymes are fine. They were off kilter a bit, but that was when I was on Arava. So who knows? Or as some wag said, Hoo nose? :-) Do any of them >help you feel better? --- Joan Hi Ricky, My family don't take much interest in my condition. When I'm on a high they forget there's anything wrong. When I'm down they are down too. You see mums are not suppose to get sick. Here are my alternatives - after I have taken my daily 200mg of cyclosporin, my weekly 20mg of methotrexate, two different BP pills, and asprin. I take daily iron, folate, B complex. Was taking magnesium, zinc, and milk thistle and a few other things but are having a rest from these for awhile. How do I feel? I feel great. I do yoga when I can't get outside to garden. If I don't keep moving I freeze up. Vigorous exercise makes the joints very painful, so gently does it. I had a very stressful job and the doctor suggested I change my profession, so I resigned and stay at home and since then I have never felt better. It is good to see professionals asking us questions. I found this group by my rheumy. He told me about this group but he does not post! It has been a few years since I had a pharmacist that I could ask questions to. Since my insurance requires me to mail in my prescriptions, I never see the pharmacist and when I call, I don't find them very helpful. I tend to call my doctor with all questions. Good luck! Vickie B. > Do any of your family members or friends ever post on the site >to get information or just general support? Also, what types of >alternative treatments such as herbal medications, nutritional >supplements or physical exercises are most popular? Do any of them >help you feel better? None of my family does. Some favorite alternative supplements are glucosamine chondroitin, milk thistle for those of us on mtx and arava. Melinda used to make suggestions for folks, also some folks use acupuncture, water aerobics, swimming, and pilates. Effectiveness seems to vary. For me it is rafting and kayaking, they make me 100% better! ;- ) Nope, non of my family does either. Which actually might be good, sometimes!! I have ankylosing spondylitis,(and fibro), so I do excercises for my lower back regularly. I also try to walk when I can, but I often have plantar's fasciitis and it's very difficult to walk even short distances when that is acting up. Oddly enough, the stretches that I do for that don't help at all, but finding the right combo of meds definitely did help! I don't try any over the counter or alternative supplements because I am scared to death of one of them interacting with my prescribed meds. I am on Enbrel, MTX (injectable), leucovorin, Clinoril, Azulfidine, and Soma once a night for fibro. Do you guys think that I could benefit from milk thistle? Why are you taking it, Mary Z.? Anyway, I do know that I benefit from my pharmacist...I am on so much crap it's hard to keep it all straight. Char Hi Char, I love your last sentence - that about sums it all up for most of us (I think). My husband made me go to this doctor at the University because he thought he may be able to help - he ran all kinds of blood tests (it was a wonder I had any blood left), found things out that I had never been told before because they were never tested for. The consequence was lots of vitamins and minerals, every thing had to be balanced correctly, it has taken about two years to feel great. I was taking milk thistle - I think it was for the liver. Nice to chat to you Gail Hi! Thank you all so much for your responses. I really appreciate it. I want to respond to one comment from Vickie who wrote: It has been a few years since I had a pharmacist that I could ask questions to. Since my insurance requires me to mail in my prescriptions, I never see the pharmacist and when I call, I don't find them very helpful. I tend to call my doctor with all questions. Can I just say, AHHHHHHHHHHH! That is an absolute nightmare to me! That's just awful. I don't know where you live, but I bet you'll find that, even if you don't fill your prescriptions through your local pharmacy, the staff pharmacists there will be glad to counsel you when you need it. Seriously, just ask. Lord knows, we don't go to school for 8 years to "count, pour, lick and stick!" I know that I'm not anyway! It's kind of a funny thing, but often, some of the older pharmacists hesitate to get too involved. That's because they were educated so differently from the way we are "brought up" now. This is going to sound really scary; believe me, the first time I heard this figure I nearly fell out of my skin, but it is estimated that medication errors cost the United States approximately 29 billion dollars a year! Finally the powers that be have realized that when pharmacists are involved in the prescribing process and when doctors, nurses and patients take advantage of a pharmacist's expertise, those errors can be reduced by more than 80%. It's really staggering. I hope that in the near future the changes that are slowly being implemented will become apparent to all. As far as your vitamins, herbals and supplements are concerned, you should ask your pharmacist about those too. It is absolutely true that some of them can cause drug-drug interactions that can be serious. Even if he/she doesn't know the answer off the top of his/her head, pharmacists are provided with a great many references to find the right answers for you. Some university hospitals also have departments called Drug Information Services or "DI centers". These are often available and free to the public. You should be able to obtain the phone number through the main switchboard if the hospital has one. I have to tell you, those people in the DI really know their stuff. I did some work with them recently and was more than a little impressed. I guess all I'm saying is: Take full advantage of all the resources available to you! There is such a horrible discrepancy in the US between the services needed by people who live with chronic illness (child care, house-work, transportation, etc.) and those that are actually provided that I hate to see any that are out there being unused or underused. Thank you all so much! If there's anything I can do to help you, just ask. I'll keep checking in! Rikky Rikky wrote even if you don't fill your prescriptions through your local pharmacy, the staff pharmacists there will be glad to counsel you when you need it. Seriously, just ask. Wrong! I've had the misfortune of having to deal with the local (5 prescriptions in last week) and found the pharmacist totally unable to answer questions about the prescribed medicines that I finally walked off and left it to my husband! By the way, I know personally a student just starting out on the pharacy trail so there may be hope for the future! Good luck! Vickie B. |
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