Heart Attack Recovery – Medication
Heart Attack Recovery – Medication
You will have been prescribed either singularly, or as a combination, the following medications to support your body on its road to recovery and to act as secondary prevention barriers. These prescription drugs are designed to:
-Balance out high or low blood pressure.
-Lower cholesterol.
-Deal with angina attacks (spray or tablet).
-Disperse and thin blood that is overly clotting, thereby improving circulation.
-Reduce water retention.
-Relieve breathlessness and the likelihood of heart failure.
DO:
-Take your pills as prescribed.
-Report any side effects.
-Take enough pills with you when you are travelling.
-Check with the pharmacist or your doctor if the dispensed tablets appear to have changed in shape or colour from your previous prescription.
-Consult your GP before you take any homeopathic remedies.
-Avoid eating grapefruit or drinking grapefruit juice if you are taking cholesterol-lowering drugs.
DO NOT:
-Forget to take your pills.
-Run out of pills.
-Start any other medication (including cold remedies) without consulting your doctor.
-Miss appointments with your GP.
-Stop taking your medication if you experience side effects without first consulting your doctor.
-Take other people’s pills because they seem to have the same complaint and their tablets work for them – not everyone is the same.
Warfarin
If you have been prescribed warfarin, you will have been given a card and a booklet. Carry it with you at all times. Here is a reminder of the important do’s and don’t's of warfarin therapy.
DO:
-Always take as prescribed.
-Take at the same time each day.
-Keep appointments for blood checks.
-Inform your dentist and GP that you are taking warfarin.
-Notify your GP if you bruise or bleed abnormally.
DO NOT:
-Take aspirin or drugs containing aspirin (this will thin your blood further).
-Take any other medication, including vitamins, without first consulting your GP.
-Drink excessive alcohol, although a daily drink is safe.
-Drink cranberry juice if you are on warfarin.
Stress-reducing tools to cope with medication
Some people have several medications to take, creating anxiety as to how much, when, how frequently and for how long to take them. There are several coping options:
1 – As soon as you return home from the pharmacist, write on each container exactly what your pills are for, e.g. fluid retention, heart, arthritis, sleeping tablet, how many and when to take them. This will also be useful for other family members, especially if they have to administer your medicine. Sometimes the prescribed dosage is higher than that actually manufactured or supplies are low, so that you have to take more than one tablet. Make sure you write on the bottle the number of pills you need to take.
2 – You can buy a small hand-held pill container that has compartments clearly marked and separated into breakfast, lunch, teatime and bedtime sections for each medication for each day. Once a week, these compartments are filled. These are easily checkable on your chart and safe for a week, as you only slide the plastic top back to release the tablets for that day. These containers are available from the London Association for Blind People and many chemists. The Royal National Institute for the Blind also support the use of ‘talking labels’ on medication containers which, when pressed, tell you the correct dosage to take.
3 – Keep a chart inside the medicine cabinet door detailing what needs to be taken and when.
Medication and your GP
It is imperative that you contact or visit your GP a week before your tablets run out for a repeat prescription. A face-to-face consultation is more reassuring than re-ordering over the phone, especially as you can tell your GP of any discomfort or side effects you have experienced on the medication. Also, report any physical sensations you are experiencing, no matter how trivial they may seem.
Getting medication right is obviously essential for everyone, but it is important that you take an active part in such selection. While I am not suggesting you constantly scrutinize papers or articles on new drugs, do keep an eye out and, where appropriate, take the article along to your GP and ask about it.
Regular monitoring by your GP of your blood pressure, height and weight, and tests for cholesterol levels, are all essential. But you should wait six weeks after a heart attack or surgery before having your cholesterol read as you can have a false reading. When blood cholesterol levels have been checked, after due consideration of other risk factors, drugs known as ‘statins’ can be prescribed. They have been found to significantly reduce the risk of strokes and glaucoma and help prevent deep vein thrombosis, osteoporosis and breast cancer and arthritis symptoms in 31 per cent of people.