It's drain cleaner!!

[SongsOfDragons]

So I'm having...uhh...issues with the nether plumbing. I've been given some medicine called Lactulose. Haven't had to take liquid medicine for quite some time, reminds me of younger times.

This stuff comes in a bottle that emulates those that drain cleaner comes in!! You know, rigid plastic with a built-in handle. It's sweet but it tastes like burnt yoghurt...I guess that's the milk sugar in it...and it's so thick it makes me gag! XP

I'm glad the stuff is only icky to take though, it seems to be making things more comfortable and otherwise doesn't have any nasty side effects showing. So that's good. And I'm sure burnt yoghurt drain cleaner isn't the nastiest-to-take oral medicine out there, so I guess I'm lucky in that aspect.

Anyone else have icky medicine-taking stories? I remember a formulation aimed at kids that was flavoured with oranges, but it was too sour...too much flavouring...

[Bright_Star]

3 words. Cod Liver Oil. My mom forced us to take that when we were kids. It really "moved the mail"...lol.

[Kiwi]

Quoth Bright_Star

3 words. Cod Liver Oil. My mom forced us to take that when we were kids. It really "moved the mail"...lol.

hahaha I have such a 10 year old sense of humor

[trailerparkmedic]

I've had to give many patients nasty medications. Usually they're lucky and it's a few tablespoons, so I tell them to take it like a shot of alcohol and I have some water to chase it with. One guy had to take a LOT of stuff (like half a cup?) that smelled like rotten eggs and tasted worse. We mixed it with grape juice but he still grimaced the whole time.

[Shalom]

OK, this thread is right up my alley. I think I've got a comment on almost every post...

Quoth SongsOfDragons

So I'm having...uhh...issues with the nether plumbing. I've been given some medicine called Lactulose. Haven't had to take liquid medicine for quite some time, reminds me of younger times.

Yeah, Lactulose. That was one of the only two times I had a bottle thrown at me in the pharmacy, and this time it was because the guy was happy. No, really.

Grumpy little old man comes in with a prescription for lactulose. Looked like he hadn't smiled in so long, his face had got stuck that way. I filled it for him, told him the directions (even though printed on the label), and said that he had enough in there for six days, and if he needed a refill he could get up to three more bottles.

Sure enough, six days later the guy comes boppin' into the store. Big smile on his face, eyes lit up. He comes dashing up to the counter. flings the empty bottle down so hard it bounces, and hollers, "Here, gimme another bottle of this! That's great stuff, man! And it don't even taste too bad!" Poor guy's bowels probably hadn't worked right in twenty years. He almost looked like a different person...

I also had one patient who was addicted to lactulose.

Quoth trailerparkmedic

One guy had to take a LOT of stuff (like half a cup?) that smelled like rotten eggs and tasted worse.

APAP overdose?

Quoth suburbandecay

Once when I was a child (nine maybe?), my brother and I were suffering from yet another bout of strep throat and complaining about the "grape flavored" medicine we had to take. My dad got sick of us complaining about the taste of it and said "It can't be that bad". With that, he stuck his thumb over the top of the bottle turned it over and then licked his thumb to taste it. The face he made was priceless. His comment was something along the lines of "That tastes like shit". He then proceeded to tell us we could have a can of pop to wash it down with and left the room.

I used to do flavourings for liquid medications, to help kids get them down.

Once had a 6-year-old child who had to take Penicillin VK. No matter what flavoring I put in there, he'd run up to the door of the pharmacy, spit it out into the parking lot, and come back. Finally I tasted the stuff myself, made a horrible face (couldn't help it) and said, "You know kid, I can't blame you. I wouldn't take this stuff either." Awful, horribly bitter stuff. I eventually came up with apple/cherry/watermelon flavor (IIRC) with extra bitterness suppressor and a few drops of stevia for sweetness.

I did mention to the kid that if he wouldn't take the oral medication, we could always arrange for the doctor to give him a shot instead. He grins at me and says "OK!" Mother chimes in that he never gives them a hard time with shots. I don't know if they went that route or not, but they did walk out with the stuff.

Quoth daleduke17

There's one medicine I cannot stand, just because of the smell:

Kaflex (or however it is spelled). That stuff REEKS. It is used for certain kinds of infections (kidney or urinary tract IIRC).

Doesn't smell so bad once it's mixed, but the dry powder smells like someone cut a very large one under your nose. This may be why the solid dosage form is in capsules rather than tablets.

The absolute king of stink, though, is clindamycin suspension. That stuff smells like the Fresh Kills garbage transfer plant on a hot day, and that is no exaggeration.

On the flipside, I will concur with Amoxicillin. That stuff was awesome. My daughter had to take it once and whenever my wife or I said "time for medicine" our daughter would run in and want to chug it.

There's one manufacturer (West-Ward) who managed to screw up the taste of even that. We got so many complaints about that stuff that we had to send it back. (Later found out it's imported from Jordan, for whatever that's worth.)

Quoth AccountingDrone

Back in the 60s there were still a fair number of meds that had liquorice as part of the flavoring because it 'is sweet and covers the bitter flavor of medication' <insert vomit smiley> I absolutely detest the flavor, and even if something has a little bit of the flavor like anise, celery leaf, angelica it is nauseating to me

Not fond of it myself. My roomie in college used to drink Arrak on special occasions. There are also liquorice tablets available in the UK, but for some reason they can't get an import license to bring them into the USA. Wonder if the name has anything to do with that.

Quoth Spork4pedro

When I was pregnant, whatever drink I had to take when I went in for my blood tests (I believe it was to check diabetes?) came in 3 flavors. Orange, Fruit Punch, and apparently Vomit. I unfortunately got the last flavor the first try around and couldn't keep it in my mouth. Blech! (I'm gagging a bit just thinking about it! *shudder*) .

My wife is reading this over my shoulder and is like

Quoth Panacea

Keflex. Yeah, it does smell. Pen VK has a worse smell though IMHO.

I think most of the cephalosporins stink. Ceftriaxone in particular smells like tomcat pee. As it's usually given IV, you don't usually have to smell it, but if it went up to the floor and didn't get used, we had to waste it when it came back to pharmacy, usually meaning cutting the bag open and dumping it in the sink.

The syrup version [of prednisolone] for children (Prelone) is even worse. Kids usually vomit it back up immediately. I usually use a strong flavored juice like cranberry to mask the taste so they keep it down.

Try Orapred instead (prednisolone sodium phosphate). The esterified form doesn't have much taste to start with, and the "grape" flavoring isn't all that bad. I've found the kids like it way better.

Mucomyst (given mostly for Tylenol overdoses, has some other uses). Comes in a liquid, smells and tastes like rotten eggs.

I think that's what trailerparkmedic was talking about. The stuff was intended to be inhaled by nebulizer for CF, so it's unflavored. For APAP overdose it's given orally. It's not pleasant, but dying slowly of liver failure is worse.

Quoth Food Lady

I hated grape Dimetapp. But I have no aversion to grape juice because it resembles the medicine in no way.

Depends what kind of grape you're talking about. Scuppernongs (and to an extent, Concord grapes) do indeed taste like that.

Quoth MoonCat

When I was a kid my mother gave me mineral oil. To this day, if I think about how it tasted and what it felt like in my mouth, I will vomit. If ever I should need to throw up, all I'll need to do is think about that hellish stuff.

Been there, done that. Taken plain, it never got more than halfway down my gullet before . I used to layer it over chocolate milk, and drink it with a straw, rapidly moving it up and down so I got bits of both.

Years later I found that you could also get it in prefilled, disposable enemas (and it even works better that way to boot). I was so pissed off: why hadn't anyone mentioned this to me when I was a kid? So much more pleasant to use it that way. (And I'm not kidding: if you think getting oil squirted up your @$$ is unpleasant, take it from me, by mouth is worse.)

Quoth Catwoman2965

Not so much taste, but consistency. The giant jug of nasty stuff you drink before a colonoscopy.

Oh yes. One popular brand is Golytely; I always thought Go-Heavily would have been a more apropos name...

I finally figured the best way to drink the huge jug o crap was to chug my 8oz glass, then chug some ginger ale to get rid of the feel and taste. I didn't even finish it; I got about 3/4 or so done and was like that's it, anymore, its coming right back up. But the dr. said my insides were nice and clean, so i guess it was enough.

It was. I always inform my patients that they only need to take it until there's no more solid material left in their stool. Once you get to the point where what comes out looks the same as it went in, you're done. Usually takes 2/3 to 3/4 of the bottle. Doctors don't always tell them this; I've had patients say things like "You mean I don't have to drink the whole damn thing? Thank God!"

The stuff they have nowadays has flavor-paks with it, and also they've deleted the sulfate salts in some versions, so it's marginally less nasty than it was. Refrigerating it helps too.

Quoth Catwoman2965

Oh dear. You just reminded me of something that happend to me as a kid. Apparently I had the runs and the dr. told my mom to give me Kaopetate. Which was NASTY with a capital N.

Depending on how long ago that was, there were three different versions. The original version was kaolin and pectin (hence the name), +/- opium (which was OTC back then in limited doses). Then they switched to attapulgite, which was in fact a kind of clay (!) and tasted exactly the way you'd expect it to. The stuff they sell now is just differently-colored Pepto-Dismal.

Quoth Scorpodael

I can't remember what it was, but years and years ago, my brother and I were both sick, and needed some sort of medicine. Having long since discovered that liquid medicine sucks ass, mom asked for the pill version of the medicine. The pharmacist, in all his wisdom, decided that since we were under 12, we needed the liquid version. So what did they do? They crushed the pills and put them in some sort of vaguely banana flavored suspension. It was gritty, it was NASTY. We couldn't keep it down at ALL..

They didn't do it right then. When you make a suspension out of tablets, you first crush and refine the tablets into powder (which shouldn't be gritty if it's ground fine enough), then you suspend it with this, blend it in well, then add that, and flavor it. Done correctly, it's better than no worse than any commercially prepared suspension.

Not to mention, why'd he make a suspension if a solid dosage form was specifically asked for?

Incidentally, for those of you in the USA, most chain phamacies (Chain of Verylarge Stores, Aide of Right, Green Wall etc.) and many independents can flavor things for you. Check out the "Wheel Of Yuck" for a comparison of which oral meds taste worst, and which flavors are best with them.

[trailerparkmedic]

Quoth Shalom

APAP overdose?

Yup. One of the hospitals I did clinicals at would only give Mucomyst PO. I'm really hoping my current hospital does it IV. I'm sure I'll learn about that fairly quickly once I hit nights.

[Sapphire Silk]

Quoth trailerparkmedic

Yup. One of the hospitals I did clinicals at would only give Mucomyst PO. I'm really hoping my current hospital does it IV. I'm sure I'll learn about that fairly quickly once I hit nights.

The trick with Mucomyst PO is to mix it with something strongly flavored. Cola works. I prefer cranberry juice. Cover the cup with OpSite and poke a straw through so they don't smell it.

Does a pretty good job of helping patients tolerate the medication.

Be very, very careful with IV Mucomyst. I've never worked with it, but I've heard the dosing and administration is tricky. There have been some deaths. If you don't have a preceptor that's familiar with it, consult with a pharmacist about how to set the drip up properly.

[Mikkel]

Quoth Shalom

It was. I always inform my patients that they only need to take it until there's no more solid material left in their stool. Once you get to the point where what comes out looks the same as it went in, you're done. Usually takes 2/3 to 3/4 of the bottle. Doctors don't always tell them this; I've had patients say things like "You mean I don't have to drink the whole damn thing? Thank God!"

Damn, I wish I had been told. I drank all two litres . Some of it I even drank twice, closing my mouth when it came up and swallowing it again .
I'll certainly ask about it next time.

[Sapphire Silk]

Quoth Mikkel

Damn, I wish I had been told. I drank all two litres . Some of it I even drank twice, closing my mouth when it came up and swallowing it again .
I'll certainly ask about it next time.

Yeah, I went through this with a friend of mine who had to take it as prep for a colonoscpy. She asked me how much she needed to drink, because it was so nasty.

I told her all of it.

"But as soon as I drink it, it comes out clear on the other end!"

"Uh . . . you can stop now. . . . "

[Shalom]

Quoth Mikkel

Damn, I wish I had been told. I drank all two litres . Some of it I even drank twice, closing my mouth when it came up and swallowing it again .
I'll certainly ask about it next time.

Back then it was four litres; the 2-litre size (Halflytely) is a more recent development. It's possible that you might have actually needed that much, or maybe not. I can guarantee you that you didn't need four.

Quoth Princess-Snake

Nystatin (sp?)?

Pretty sure nystatin suspension is apple-flavored, or at least smells like unfiltered apple juice. It does look kinda like pureed bananas, though.

It's also 50% sugar by weight. Don't ever spill that stuff, and if you do, wipe it up right away with a wet rag before it gets too sticky. We used to load 30ml of the stuff at a time into individual dose cups when I interned at a cancer hospital in the mid-'90s. There was a pump with a footpedal actuator (which we left on the table and hit with our hands, seemed to work better that way). Each press got you 15ml, so you left the hose in the vial, pumped twice, then moved the hose to the next vial. Except that once you got into the rhythm, you sometimes pumped before the hose was fully in. This is when you thank your deity of choice that the vials are set in a cut-off cardboard box and not right on the counter. Still made a huge mess, but at least the mess was contained.