Important Information About Your Medication - VLJP
This video was created by The Vermont Language Justice Project: https://www.vtlanguagejustice.org/.
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Transcript:
Important Information About Your Medication.
When your doctor tells you that you need to take medication it is important that you ask your doctor some questions so that you understand how the medication will be helpful to you.
Here are the questions to ask your doctor.
How long will I take the medication for?
What time of day do I take the medication? Morning time or night time?
How much liquid or how many pills should I take at one time?
Should I take the medication with food?
How will I know if it is working?
How will the medication affect my body? For example will the medication make me sleepy?
When the medication is finished, do I need to go to the pharmacist to get some more? This is called a refill.
If you are taking other medications, ask the doctor if it is OK to take the new medication with the ones you are already taking.
You need to tell your doctor if you are taking medications that they do not know about. Maybe you brought some medications or herbs with you from another country which you still take when you are sick, or maybe your friend or neighbor gave you medication to try, as it worked well for them.
It is REALLY important that you tell your doctor all the medications and other treatments or herbs that you are taking, and how often you are taking them so the doctor can make the best decisions for your health.
When you get your medication, the label on the bottle, box or container will have some important information on it.
The label will tell you 6 things.
It will tell you the name of the medication you are taking
It will tell you the dose of medication you should take– “dose” means how much of the medicine for example 2 pills or for example 5 ml of liquid medicine
It will tell you what time or times of the day to take the medicine
It will tell you how many days to take the medicine
It may tell you if you need to take the medicine with food.
It will tell you if you can get more of the medicine – this is called a refill.
It is important to take your medication at the same time of day every day. If you take your medicine in the morning at 8am then take it every morning close to 8 am. If you are told to take your medicine in the evening at 7 pm then take it every evening close to 7 pm. If you regularly forget to take your medicine it is important to tell your doctor as they can then tell you if you should continue to take it or what to do if you forget. It is better to tell your doctor that you forgot to take it than pretend that you are taking it.
Some medications are only meant to be taken for a short period of time. So, when you finish the bottle, you do not need to get more of the medication. Other medications are meant to be taken for a long time and each month you need to go back to the same pharmacy to get a new bottle. A new bottle is called a refill. The label on your current bottle will tell you if you have any refills left. The number of refills is on the lower corner of your label.
A few days before you finish all the medicine, you can return to the same pharmacy where you first got your medicine and ask for a refill. If you bring the current medication bottle with you, the pharmacist will know which medicine you need more of. If you do not have any refills left, please contact your doctor to see if they need to write you a new prescription for more of the same medicine.
The medicine container also tells you if the medication will make you sleepy and whether you need to take the medication with food or not. If you have stopped using your medication early and you still have medicine left, please check with your doctor to make sure you will not get really sick. Also do not throw away your medicine in the garbage or put it down the sink or toilet. Bring unused medicine back to the pharmacy or your doctor.
You might notice that some medications with the same name may look different. This is because there can be many different companies that make the same medication and they use different colors and shapes for the same medicine. To make sure it is the same medicine, you can also ask the pharmacist.
If you are taking more than one medication a day, some pharmacies are able to pack the medication up for you so that it is easy for you to keep them organized.
This is what the packages might look like. Please ask to see if they can do that for you. It makes life easier!
Please keep all medication away from children. Always keep the lid on the medication bottle, and remember, if you are taking medications that your doctor does not know about, let your doctor know.