It's drain cleaner!!

[BlaqueKatt]

As a kid, bubble gum flavored amoxicillin.

when I worked in a research facility supplier, we had a kitten that loved that stuff(she had a bad upper respiratory infection), when it was time for her dose she would get all excited and them refuse to let go of the dosing syringe-weird.

[Pagan]

I used to want to do that with cherry flavored Sucrets.

^-.-^

I loved those! Then they changed the formulation.

The Wally World version of Nyquil smells and tastes like black licorice!

[ArcticChicken]

I heard people say that tramadol was nasty, but it was a breeze compared to prednisone.

Prednisone is the reason that whenever I have to take a pill I first take a mouthful of water, then toss the pill in and swallow the whole thing.

Then I drank a Red Bull. Tasted exactly like that kind of medicine.

I thought that stuff tasted familiar.

[Sapphire Silk]

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

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

Prednisone.

HATE. How nasty, bitter and awful. And if you so much get as a little bit of the outer coating of the pill on your tongue, it clings. Had to chug several glasseso f water to get the edge off. Dear Lord.

The syrup version 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.

I didn't think tramadol was bad at all. Go figure

The three worst tasting meds I can think of are:

Prelone (see above comment)

Mucomyst (given mostly for Tylenol overdoses, has some other uses). Comes in a liquid, smells and tastes like rotten eggs. I mix it with cranberry juice to mask the taste, and put a clear membrane dressing like OpSite over the top of the cup and poke a straw through so the patient doesn't have to smell it.

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.

[Food Lady]

I hated grape Dimetapp. But I have no aversion to grape juice because it resembles the medicine in no way. I, too, learned to swallow pills at a young age. Mom and I even got the doctor to write a script for cough syrup in pill form once.

[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.

Also - I had a kitty who had to take lactulose. Sticky stuff, he hated it. Then the vet switched him to Miralax, which you mix in water. He not only didn't mind it, he actually enjoyed getting it squirted into his mouth, and he never had the "problem" again.

[NotAlBundy]

I hated grape Dimetapp. But I have no aversion to grape juice because it resembles the medicine in no way. I, too, learned to swallow pills at a young age. Mom and I even got the doctor to write a script for cough syrup in pill form once.

I LOVED grape Dimetapp. I probably would have snuck sips if my parents had kept the medicine where I could reach it.

I had issues learning how to swallow pills, and my parents would crush up any pills I had to take on a spoon and then add a little water. *shudder* It was horrible. Now I can swallow multiple pills of different sizes at the same time. Aldactone has a nice minty after taste!

[Food Lady]

Prednisone. HATE. How nasty, bitter and awful. And if you so much get as a little bit of the outer coating of the pill on your tongue, it clings. Had to chug several glasseso f water to get the edge off. Dear Lord. I heard people say that tramadol was nasty, but it was a breeze compared to prednisone. I'm one of those weird people that don't mind the taste of "Nobittussin" too much. I used to lick the bottom of the dosage cup. I don't ever really recall taking any medicines I hated as a kid. Except for prednisone last year and this year. Oh *shudder*

I've been on it for 2 weeks and the bitterness only lasts about 5 seconds for me. I take it with milk, so maybe that helps. One of the nurses mentioned the flavor stays for a while, but I haven't had any issues. Weird.

[Catwoman2965]

Not so much taste, but consistency. The giant jug of nasty stuff you drink before a colonoscopy. OMG it was slippery and nasty. Someone said drink it with a straw but that only made it worse. First one I had my dr. gave me a small bottle of stuff, like 6 oz total. But apparetnly that caused kidney damage so they don't recommend or use it anymore.

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.

Never had red bull, but I remember the pink nasty liquid. I think it was amoxicillian. BLECH. I can still recall the taste and I haven't had it in problaby 40 years!

[Dave1982]

Thankfully I haven't had a lot of experience with liquid medications. But a couple that I rememebr as particurly foul were liquid Immodium AD (not sure they even make that anymore), and pretty much any generic cough syrup.

Liquid Immodium was just pure concentrated evil....not to mention a ripoff becuase one bottle was only two freaking doses.....

Generic cough syrups....God....I can't stand them. There was one I remember taking once that tasted like gunpowder (more specifically, it tasted like the smell of whatever gunpowder /flash powder was used in cap guns).

I refuse to buy cough syrups that aren't name brand because of this. Those don't exactly taste *good* but they are at least tolerable.

[Catwoman2965]

Thankfully I haven't had a lot of experience with liquid medications. But a couple that I rememebr as particurly foul were liquid Immodium AD (not sure they even make that anymore), and pretty much any generic cough syrup.

Liquid Immodium was just pure concentrated evil....not to mention a ripoff becuase one bottle was only two freaking doses.....

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!

[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.

... I used to actually like bananas...

[Shalom]

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

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.

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

APAP overdose?

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.

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.)

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.

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

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.

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.

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.)

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.

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.

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]

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]

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.