It's drain cleaner!!

[K'Z'K]

I never mastered taking pills like a normal person. Instead, I basically pill myself like I would a dog. Open wide, stick tongue out, drop pill right into esophagus. Follow with water or other liquid. The few times I tried the traditional method, I ended up either choking or swallowing the water but not the pill.

It means I can't be subtle about taking my drugs, but it works. Just make sure your hands are clean.

[fireheart]

Though I still dread for the day when he can't have liquid medicine and needs to swallow a pill when needed. I have bad memories from when I had to adapt, and to this day I still get gag reflexes whenever I need to take a pill, be it vitamins, pain killers or other stuff.

Get Lil'Zel to practice with jellybeans or M&Ms first. Alternately, the way I coped with it (I used to gag as well) was that I'd put some water into my mouth, shove the tablet in, swallow the whole lot and wash it down.

[SongsOfDragons]

Some paracetamol in the UK - we can get it generic for something like 15p - is really chalky and nasty-tasting. I always look for the capsules if I can. But it's not as bad as other things mentioned here, and it goes almost immediately.

[CorneliaMarieRocks]

APAP is an abbreviation for the chemical name for acetaminophen (Tylenol) or paracetamol in Australia. Acetyl-para-aminophenol.

Many narcotics work more effectively when combined with aspirin or Tylenol. Because of the risks with bleeding or Reye's syndrome involved with aspirin, it has fallen out of favor and isn't used much anymore.

Thanks for the info Panacea, that's kinda what I figured it was but wasn't sure. Must also be why they tell you that if you're taking narcs not to take Advil etc at the same time. I've found though that when that monthly time rolls around I HAVE to take Advil for the cramps as the hydrocodone doesn't touch it

[trailerparkmedic]

I'm really hoping my current hospital does it IV. I'm sure I'll learn about that fairly quickly once I hit nights.

I gave Mucomyst a few days ago and apparently we only do it PO. This is especially lame because we don't have any cranberry juice or soda on the unit so we usually ask family members to buy something. There used to be a soda machine in the break room and nurses would just buy a soda. Maybe I'll keep some cranberry juice in my locker.

The only good thing is that we have 20% solution instead of the 10% I used previously. I gave it as protection before IV contrast so the patient only needed a small amount so he just took it like a shot.

[NorthernZel]

Sometimes I have to take a sort of Panadol (paracetamol) pill called Zapp - those pills are HUGE and cannot be cut in half.

When Lil Zel had a mild case of pneumonia he got prescripted some liquid penicillin that was vanilla flavoured - then a year later he had an ear infection that also had to be treated with penicillin, only that the vanilla stuff had been taken off the market and substituted with some bad-smelling, bitter stuff. Yet Lil Zel took it all in stride, and downed his medicine from a shot glass, instead of having it masked with cocoa milk as suggested from the nurse.

Though I still dread for the day when he can't have liquid medicine and needs to swallow a pill when needed. I have bad memories from when I had to adapt, and to this day I still get gag reflexes whenever I need to take a pill, be it vitamins, pain killers or other stuff.

[Dragon_Dreamer]

Ceftin. HUGE horse pill (I choke if I take pills with liquid, so I have to swallow without), that causes me to puke pretty much immediately. My doctor wanted to try a stronger antibiotic for my bronchitis flareups, and it backfired. They at first told me to just keep taking it, so I resorted to putting it into a tablespoon of marshmallow fluff. When that lead to me getting sicker due to a reaction to the actual med, they switched me back to Z-Packs.

ANYTHING strong will cause my system to reject it violently, medicine-wise. Can't take Percoset, Vicodin, or the generics, either. It comes right back up.

[ralerin]

Activated Charcoal. This usually gets vomited up as well, usually on the nurse as well as all over the patient's front. And it does NOT come out in the wash. I've lost more scrub sets that way.

Hm. I take activated charcoal tablets if I haven't taken my lactose pills quick enough and I get the stomach "grumblies" as I call them once the dairy works its way through my system. They smell nastier than they taste, IMO.

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. So I guess Iwas being not so cooperative and my parents had to kind of force it down, and I promptly spit it out on my dad, all over his new suit!

I like Kaopectate and Milk of Magnesia. Go figure.

[Sapphire Silk]

Thank you, I had managed to completely block that from my memory until now.

Always happy to share

[ArcticChicken]

Milk of Magnesia produces about the same effect in me

Thank you, I had managed to completely block that from my memory until now.

[Sapphire Silk]

ok, I gotta ask, what the hell is APAP? I notice that my pain medication has it listed on the label (hydrocodone/APAP)

APAP is an abbreviation for the chemical name for acetaminophen (Tylenol) or paracetamol in Australia. Acetyl-para-aminophenol.

Many narcotics work more effectively when combined with aspirin or Tylenol. Because of the risks with bleeding or Reye's syndrome involved with aspirin, it has fallen out of favor and isn't used much anymore.

Oh yes there is. Mineral oil.

If I ever have to induce vomiting in myself, all I'll have to do is think about what that tastes like and what it feels like in my mouth and

Milk of Magnesia produces about the same effect in me

[MoonCat]

I learned to swallow pills at the tender age of six. As a kid, I was anemic. I don't think there is a single thing more disgusting than the taste of liquid iron.

Oh yes there is. Mineral oil.

If I ever have to induce vomiting in myself, all I'll have to do is think about what that tastes like and what it feels like in my mouth and

And it's probably been about 45 years since I had to take it.

[CorneliaMarieRocks]

ok, I gotta ask, what the hell is APAP? I notice that my pain medication has it listed on the label (hydrocodone/APAP)

If I take NyQuil/DayQuil I gotta take the pill form, just thinking about the liquid form makes me wanna *yak*

I take my meds with milk mostly, but I won't actually put the pill in my mouth until I've got the milk glass in my hand. my mom, on the other hand, will put it in her mouth & *then* pour her drink (and by then it's started to melt

[SongsOfDragons]

I think the banana medicine was some kind of antibiotic. It was definitely banana-y, taste like a liquid version of those foam sweets.

[Shalom]

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.

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.