She had tried and failed multiple cough remedies, including prescription cough syrups. In addition to feeling terrible, she was experiencing a chronic, dry, hacking cough. When I asked if anyone had ever mentioned that her glyburide had the potential to cause extended periods of low blood sugar, she said she could not recall ever being informed of that. She had been feeling this way for months, and it severely limited her ability to enjoy life or carry on with some normal, daily activities. In addition, she had been “feeling terrible” for significant parts of the day on most days of the week. When I asked her why that was so surprising, she talked about her fasting blood sugars being consistently low on her glucose meter readings. She informed me that her last A1C reading was 7.5, which she found a bit surprising.
I knew I would need to keep this in mind when I asked her (as I ask every diabetes patient) to describe her experience with managing her blood sugar. Although glyburide is quite effective at lowering a patient’s A1C, my training and experience with geriatric patients helped me recognize it as a potential high-risk medication for this patient. During the course of the review, I learned her medication regimen included glyburide for blood sugar control, and lisinopril to control her blood pressure. I came in contact with this patient when the Medication Therapy Management (MTM) team at Walmart reached out to her to offer her a comprehensive medication review (CMR). This was the case in a 69-year-old female with type II diabetes, whom I had the privilege of helping. Instead, they tend to think they are just experiencing the results of growing older or sicker. Google” have enabled more patients to be aware of adverse drug reactions, I have found that it’s still common to encounter patients who don’t recognize new symptoms as medication adverse effects. One of the most enduring lessons from my training in the care of geriatric patients is the following maxim: “Treat every new symptom like a (possible) drug adverse effect until proven otherwise.”Īlthough improved efforts in point-of-sale counseling from pharmacists, printed information given along with dispensed medications, and “Dr.
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