Health PSA

An Important Message About Taking Pills

It is time to refill my prescription for lisinopril, which I take for high blood pressure. (I know, you must be shocked that Freaked Out Stress Woman has high blood pressure!) This made me look at the pill bottle, and for some reason I read the directions. I was shocked by what I read: Take one tablet by mouth every day for 90 days. OH. MY. GAWD. I never noticed that before. I suspect that I am not alone here. If you’ve been taking a prescription drug for a long time, you probably don’t read the instructions all that carefully. I do often check the pills themselves, because they change in size and shape. I check the strength, just in case someone put the wrong strength pill in there. But I just don’t read the instructions any more; I take a pill a day.

Whew. Luckily for my lisinopril and my high blood pressure, I have indeed been taking these pills by mouth. Worried, though, I went through the house to find other bottles. Sure enough, they too include the direction of by mouth. Rx: 1 tab po.

I should have read this sooner. I’m ashamed. For you see, for my antidepressant, instead of taking by mouth, I have been inserting it into my belly button daily. Maybe that is why I am still depressed despite having a prescription? Pain medication has been taken aurally instead of orally, and now that I see my error, I wonder if my knees really do hurt as much as I think they do. It also might explain why my left ear has been itching.

I no longer have the tube of lotion prescribed for rosacea, so I can’t check the directions for that, but I now suspect I know why it didn’t work.

I write this post, exposing my ignorance about taking pills by mouth, in hopes that I may help at least one other person who doesn’t read pill instructions that closely.