Preventing Medication Mix-Ups

Many drug names look alike or sound alike, even to doctors and pharmacists. In fact, medication dispensing errors involving confused drug names occur about 1 percent of the time at retail pharmacies. This may seem like a small percentage, but that 1 percent translates to approximately 30 million of the 3 billion prescriptions filled at U.S. pharmacies each year. Mistakes at the pharmacy can lead to serious consequences if they’re not caught right away.

Taking the wrong drug can produce negative side effects or can even cause unsafe interactions with other medications. To help prevent potential errors, follow these safety tips whenever you fill prescriptions at retail pharmacies:

- Eyeball it: Open the bottle at the pharmacy and show the contents to your pharmacist. Make sure the medication looks correct to both of you.

- Take your time: When filling a new prescription, allow your pharmacist to provide detailed information about the drug.

- Practice teach-back: Do you understand the medication dosage and instructions? Test yourself by explaining the information back to
your pharmacist, or even demonstrating how you will follow the instructions.

- Share your story: Doctors don’t write your diagnosis on your prescription, so usually pharmacists don’t know why you’re taking a particular drug. Unless you tell them. If you don’t consider it too private, consider sharing your diagnosis with your pharmacist. It’s one more piece of information they can use to prevent mix-ups.

With these simple techniques, you can help prevent medication errors that can cause serious health problems.

Sources: Institute for Safe Medication Practices, National Patient Safety Foundation

Gardening in Small Spaces

Growing your own veggies and herbs is a time honored (often money-saving) tradition. And anyone can do it, even if you have a small yard—or no yard at all. The key is to maximize the potential of the space available:

• Don’t have a patch of soil available? Install a raised-bed garden (6-36 inches deep). Or plant in large containers or pots.


• Choose wisely. If all you have is a window sill, consider planting lettuce or herbs with compact root systems that don’t require a lot of space. If you have room for an outdoor bed or large pots, consider tomatoes and other larger plants.


• Looking for variety? Plant multiple crops in the same space. Tomatoes and peppers make good neighbors and ripen around the same time.


• Plant ahead. Save space by planting veggies in the same row that will ripen at different times. Lettuce and radishes are a good pair: lettuce will come up early; the radishes, later.

Don’t forget to protect your garden from critters and pets. Use a protective net or plant herbs (like spearmint and chives) that repel pests.


Sources: Simplegiftsfarm.com, Urbangardeninghelp.com

Nutrition in a Pill? The Low-Down on Vitamin Supplements

All it takes is a glance at a nutrition label to realize that there’s more to your food than fat, carbs, and protein. The foods you eat also supply a wide variety of vitamins and minerals—nutrients your body needs to make DNA, release energy, create tissue, and regulate metabolic processes.

Your best source of these essential vitamins and minerals is always food. However, if you can’t get all the vitamins and minerals you need from food, it’s important to take supplements.

Supplements fall into three categories:

• Water-soluble vitamins (including vitamins B and C). These nutrients pass in and out of your body easily, so they need to be replenished on a daily basis.
• Fat-soluble vitamins (including A, D, E and K). These nutrients are stored in your liver and body tissue and do not pass out of your body as easily as the water-soluble variety. While these vitamins are important, you should avoid consuming more than 100 percent of the recommended daily allowance—they can build up in your body and become toxic.
• Minerals. Your body needs larger amounts of some minerals, like calcium, to stay healthy. With other trace minerals, like iron and zinc, you only need small amounts each day.

Who Should Take a Supplement?
Supplements can’t make up for unhealthy eating habits, but sometimes even people who try to eat healthy find it difficult to get all the nutrients they need. For these people, a supplement can help fill in the gaps. In addition, some people are more susceptible to nutrient deficiencies than others and are more likely to need a supplement. These include:

• People on low-calorie diets (1,200-1,500 calories per day).
• People recovering from surgery or who have been sick or injured.
• Anyone with a food allergy or intolerance.
• Anyone following a diet that restricts them from consuming certain foods (e.g., vegetarians).
• Pregnant or nursing women.
• Children and teens.

Why are Some Supplements Labeled for Certain People?
A standard multivitamin is usually all a healthy adult needs. However, many supplements are marketed specially for certain people. These specialized formulations include:

• Women’s formulas, often containing extra calcium to help prevent osteoporosis, and extra iron (important for pre-menopausal women).
• Men’s formulas, often containing less iron than women’s formulas.
• Prenatal formulas, typically containing extra folic acid (to help prevent birth defects) and extra iron and calcium.
• Senior formulas, usually containing more vitamin D (for bone strength) and B-12 (which is harder for the body to absorb as you age).

If You Take a Supplement, Choose Carefully
We’ve all seen the late-night infomercials for “magic” weight loss supplements and “memory boosters.” The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t regulate dietary supplements the way it regulates prescription drugs. Many supplements are sold without adequate research demonstrating their safety or effectiveness. Consult your doctor before taking a supplement and make sure you purchase quality products. Look for the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) seal. This means the supplement has been tested and contains the amount of vitamins and minerals listed on the label. In addition, follow these other tips to ensure you get the most out of the supplement you choose:

• Take a supplement that provides close to 100 percent of the daily value for each nutrient and steer clear of supplements that contain excessive doses.
• Optimize absorption by taking supplements with or after a meal.
• Check the expiration date before you buy and store your supplement in a cool, dry place.
• If you have a food allergy, check the label. Some supplements include ingredients like wheat and gelatin.

And don’t be afraid of store-brand (generic) or synthetic supplements. As long as they have the USP seal of approval, they should work just as well as the more expensive brand-name or “natural” vitamins.

Keep in Mind…
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Supplements can help keep you healthy, but they have never been proven to cure diseases like cancer or heart disease. Be leery of supplements that guarantee quick, dramatic results.

Sources: Nancy Clark’s Sports Nutrition Guidebook 3rd ed., Healthwise Knowledgebase, Mayo Clinic, KidsHealth.org, United States Department of Agriculture

One night left.

On facebook I said I was having a litter of kittens and several of my friends took me seriously...even offered to adopt some. As I commented, I think Stanley would be hard pressed to deliver.

I feel very nervous. I ought to go and exercise, but somehow it seems easier to just sit in front of the TV and watch a movie. Just like I did last night. The prospect of going to court tomorrow just makes me want to hole up. But maybe afterward I'll go for a nice long bike ride. I have the day off. It's probably a good idea to find a way to spend some energy. Energy that just seems bottled up right now. And as much as I'd like to release a little of it on the eliptical machine I just can't.

Tomorrow I'm going to be alone for real...I suppose it's not big change. But having it be official feels different.

It's gray and wet outside. The streets are shiny and the leaves on the maples are sobbing.

I can see why these extra scenes in Save the Last Dance were cut. They really weren't necessary.

I see other couples' problems differently now. I see other people working things out and I feel bad that I didn't try to work out my own. That I just ran away. Lots of guilt. Seems to be my theme these days. Guilt. And loneliness.

Only a few days left

Watching Ironman. This is my favorite part: before he gets really good at using his suit; when he's still in the lab testing its various functions...flipping backward into the wall...trying to keep very-polite robot assistant from spraying him with fire retardant. The first flight...the best part is really the look on his face as he experiences flight for the first time.

Michael and I played Frisbee Golf together today. It would take me quite a lot of practice to attain proficiency. Right now my aim is quite poor and I don't tend to get much distance on my throws. The important thing, though, was that we talked, and I think I found out that he is not upset with me. I've spent more than nine months being afraid of him and all my other friends.

Next Thursday is my court date. Pete and I show up at court at 9:30 am and go before a judge. And assuming everything goes smoothly and we can complete the last bit of paperwork without a hitch, that will be it. We will be divorced. Of course there will still be house refinancing stuff to attend to. The bank takes a while to respond to online refi requests. We should have started it sooner...I didn't have a clear idea what was involved. It's not easy to find the information you need online...there's lots out there, but nothing that really helps you if you start out without knowing the right questions to ask. I didn't know that we should simply ask the bank about refinancing. I thought there might be more involved...that we might need an attorney to handle the whole thing. Apparently we don't...or at least not until we get to the quitclaim, and even with that we might be able to do it alone. I wonder if the legal system deliberately makes the process a little obtuse. I was surprised that the real estate lawyer I talked to had no real idea how to handle the transfer of a house in a divorce. I would think this sort of situation would come up often.

The guy they have playing Tony Stark is really the person who makes the movie. The movie has the potential to be much less than it is...more superficial, without him. Truthfully, there are a lot of things about this movie that bother me. The cop-out reliance on generic Arab-terrorist bad guys. They should either be more specific about their bad guys so it doesn't seem quite so much like a stereotype, or they should have simply picked a "new" terrorist group that doesn't have any (or many) current analogues...maybe South American bad guys or Australian bad guys. I sort of thought it would be entertaining to pick a really unlikely group, like Icelandic terrorists...you know, all upset about their failing currency. *grin*

Oh and here he goes, all flashy red and gold and saving villagers. And apparently he has now figured out how to fly. I always wonder how superheroes with suits could possibly have predicted the gadgets they would need...and have built them into the suit. How do they all fit? Surely little shoulder-mounted mini cannons take up space!

Knitting for forgiveness

Just purchased three skeins of Noro silk garden yarn and I’m very excited to have a knitting project again. An excuse to watch television. The therapeutic, rhythmic stress remedy I’ve been missing for months. There’s nothing quite like plopping myself in front of a comfort movie like White Christmas or While You Were Sleeping and picking up my needles. I feel productive and yet relaxed in the same instant…the same long string of instances. I wind up my tension in the ball of yarn and let it go.

I’m making a scarf for my best-friend-since-we-were-five. We’re not as close as we were as children…few people are lucky enough to achieve that. Still, I feel fortunate to have had a friend for more than 20 years. I’m only 27 so that’s a good portion of my life. I’m nervous though. This year money is tight yet I feel I need to make her something nice, something creative. I feel the need to apologize to her for getting divorced. She’s LDS and believes in the sanctity of marriage with her whole heart. She just got married last summer and is probably still floating in the first-year bliss bubble. I haven’t told her about the divorce yet. I dread doing so. I don’t want her to judge me. Why should I worry so much about such a good friend judging me? Well, I feel guilty for not having told her yet. I worry that she won’t be able to see beyond her beliefs about marriage and family and see me.

So I’m making her a scarf. To show her I love her and to beg for forgiveness. I hope she understands.

Crazy Health Questions

I can't beleive these are on a real health risk assessment.

If you had to rater your current state of health, how would you answer?

How many times in the last month did you drive or ride when the driver had perhaps too much alcohol to drink?

How many days a week do you at least 20-30 minutes of physical activity, without stopping, in which you breathe heavier and your heart beats faster?

If you drink alcohol, do you ever drink more than 5 drinks at a time?

At any time in the past year, how often have you felt that interesting and challenging situations full your life?