No idea of why I was there. I went back to my computer which was on. I had been working
all day and I realized that I could not turn off my computer which is something, my computer
is something I use all the time and it was a completely foreign instrument to me. I called
my husband, he said I sounded out of it and I denied that. I said no I'm fine, I'm just
a little strange, maybe I'm going to go lie down and take a nap.
Did you connect it to the pill?
I did because I had nothing to eat that day and I had a bowl of Cheerios or something
and I took the pill so I made that connection. It was so powerful that it had to be the pill
to me, it couldn't be anything else. I'd never had any experience like that before.
And this pill is an antibiotic, it's supposed to be an antibiotic.
Very powerful, antimicrobial actually. I went downstairs to lie down on the couch and I
proceeded to have what I believe was a seizure, not a grand mal seizure but a mild seizure
and went unconscious.
Meaning what, you started shaking?
I was shaking violently and I went white. I just saw white and I felt like I was going
to die. I actually felt like I had gone, I was dying. And my husband called, I heard
the phone ringing, I managed to pick up the phone which was nearby and he said I'm taking
you to the emergency ward right away, I just talked to your doctor and I said okay I'll
get dressed. And I got up and I went and looked into my closet, I thought I must put clothes
on but I didn't recognize my clothes as my own and I didn't know how to put them on,
I had no idea. So he came home and found me basically lost in my closet.
Well what had your doctor told you about any kind of side effect?
Nothing, she told me nothing. It was a brand new drug she had, she had samples in her office.
She felt that I didn't know that I had the urinary tract infection but she asked me how
I felt and I said I felt lousy so she said well I'll give you this new antibiotic and
maybe that'll help you feel better and it wiped me out.
And hours later? Six hours.
Six hours later. We'll be back, more stories in a moment. What we're talking today is about
the fact that over 10 million Americans each year suffer from adverse effects from prescription
drugs and over 145,000 will die. Coming up next we're going to meet Diane's husband and
find out why these women have given up hope on ever resuming a normal life after suffering
side effects from an antibiotic that was supposed to help back in the moment.
After Oprah, desperate pleas for help give evidence of the Simpson stormy relationship.
Today find out how local dispatchers deal with calls of domestic abuse. Plus it was
a matter of time but time ran out. Find out this woman's unique situation at 5.
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Continuous soft hits at work. He's your friend, your psychiatrist and your confidant but you
need something different. We were together for about seven years. He wouldn't listen
to me. I never felt satisfied. You start cheating with another. Somebody who cares about your
needs. He made me feel so beautiful. He's kind, he's caring. I finally found someone
who was just wonderful. You know it's time for a change but you don't know how to break
into him. Divorcing your hairdresser. Tomorrow's Oprah. Our goal today is to make you more
aware of potential side effects that could really be very harmful to you. It's important
to note that this drug Phloxin, which we're talking about right now, is not a bad drug
for everybody. Only that these three women that we're talking to now and Alice McGee,
my producer, suffered a very adverse reaction to it. Many people have taken Phloxin. Kind
of side effects but what we're talking about today is maybe you're suffering the side effects
and you don't even know that that was indeed the side effects. Caroline, you were saying
that. You did indeed take the job but the person that they hired was not the person
that they had interviewed, correct? Yeah, what had happened with me, Oprah, is I went
to see my doctor for what I thought to be was a uterine infection. I had been prescribed
a drug by the name of Keflex prior to this that worked very well and I went to my treating
physician versus my OBGYN and he said why don't you try, I said could I have some Keflex
and he said why don't you try this other drug called Phloxin and I, like many women, I didn't
ask questions. I said fine, give it to me, I'm sure it'll cure it up. I took two pills
and in the middle of the night I had a grand mal seizure. I had a three month old baby
at this time which is what initially caused the initial uterine infection. This could
happen to anybody. We've all had urinary tract infections. This was actually a uterine infection
but a lot of what I will tell you about is from what my husband told me. He was woken
up in the middle of the night. I was frothing at the mouth. I was doing rigor mortis type
movements. I was doing labored breathing and he thought that I was about to die. I bit
down on my tongue so hard I still have no feeling in one side. He tried to rouse me
from it. He couldn't for a while. Then finally he did and he started talking. I didn't know
who he was. I didn't know where I was. I didn't know anything. He kept trying to say do you
remember you saw the doctor today? He gave you this pill. I couldn't remember anything.
He thought I'll take Caroline to see the children. I had a two year old and a three month old
who were in their beds. He took me in to see the children and I looked down and I had no
idea who the kids were. I had no, I just, I remember never having such a terrifying
feeling in my life. I looked down and I had no idea who these infants were. I just remember
feeling so terrified like I had died and was, it's a feeling that I can't even describe
to you and the members of the audience how terrifying it was. But then eventually after
about 15 minutes I began to realize who I was. I was thinking he wanted to take you
to the hospital because you were foaming at the mouth. We had no one to care for the children.
We couldn't really pick them up and take them to the emergency room. The baby was only three
months old then. They were sleeping and I, so we just, I kind of kept talking and I was
so overwhelmed. We did go see the doctor the next day. Fifteen minutes later were you better?
Were you coming back or? I felt like I had been plowed down by a truck. I mean I just,
I was overwhelmed. I was frightened. I was crying. I was, I didn't know what had happened.
I still wasn't completely there but although I did recognize my husband eventually and
the children and just. Does this sound familiar to you Diane? Yes. To you too Sue? Yes. Like
getting hit with a plow truck. Yes. My experience was basically very similar. I went for a mild
pelvic inflammation and basically began to experience side effects. Again I was told
nothing about the drug. You know, good drug. Take it with water and boom, you know, I even
took two, a third of the treatment in my, in the doctor's office and basically I began
to experience a lot of pain, tingling and numbness, headache, difficulty in breathing,
you know, and very difficult experience and it lasted for a long period of time. In fact
I'm still having some effects of that. Because this was a year ago for you two? Was this
a year ago? A year and a half ago. Last year, December, end of December. And then you read
Stephen's article, is that how you all met? Yeah, we saw them on TV actually and then
we knew, found out about the article and started learning more and more. And the article we're
talking about, we've been joined now by Stephen Freed who founded an information campaign
after his wife Diane's horrendous experience with this drug Phloxin. Stephen is a writer
for Philadelphia Magazine who entitled his article, Less Than 1%. I love what you said
about you loved her more than anything in the world and how you hated this drug so much.
So you became involved because of the experience that Diane had. Well yeah, I mean the experience
she had was so unique. I mean it didn't seem like the doctors we first talked to knew that
much about it so I figured it was time to find out about it. And also when something
like this happens, it shakes your entire resolve about taking any medication at all. Doesn't
it though? Yeah. You know, made me want to find out, well like how do drugs get approved
in the first place and what do these warning labels mean and should we have seen something?
We never saw any warning labels for this because it was a sample but if we had read the warning
label before so, I mean I'm an investigative reporter and I had, you know I wanted to find
out because I wanted to help Diane and help her doctors so I started doing research. I
got the FDA application for the drug in the first place and tried to track down the doctors
who had been involved in improving it and I met Caroline because I told the story, Diane's
story to a friend of mine in town and he said, yeah that's the most amazing thing because
a woman in my firm had the same exact thing happen to her and it changed her whole life.
So it was like the first time that I realized that this only hadn't happened to my wife
and after the article came out, I unfortunately found out that it has happened to you know
a great many other people and the biggest problem is that they're totally unprepared
for it. Many of the doctors tell them that what's happening to them can't be happening
because of the drug which simply is not true and it doesn't mean that nobody should take
the drug, it's just that what I realized was people have no understanding of adverse drug
reactions, they have no understanding that when they're having one, they should stop
taking the drug and their doctors often don't know what to do about the drug reactions.
Or even as what Alice was saying earlier, she can't see the stairs anymore or the stairs
look like one whole big slate but she doesn't connect that that has anything, she thinks
it's stress. Yeah and her doctor, depending on who her doctor was, might have agreed with
her. Right. See this is the problem, I mean some of these things, people go well you're
anxious, well some of these drugs can cause anxiety in your brain, it's not because you're
anxious because there's something wrong with you, it's because these drugs can change your
brain chemistry or they believe they can change your brain chemistry and that's why you're
having these reactions. So there's a great problem in this country because people just
have no idea of what drugs can do and I think it's especially true with women. Well actually
you know the problem is Steven, we think that if you go to the doctor and it's prescribed
then it's okay, it's going to be good and it's going to make us better. The one thing
that I found out about this is especially with new drugs, doctors don't know that much
about new drugs, most of what they know they've heard from drug salesmen. Right. And so the
system is somewhat flawed, I mean it's very flawed and you know hopefully what we did
with this drug is, it makes more people aware of what can happen with it and we're lucky
the FDA actually recently held hearings about the CNS side, central nervous system side
effects that all these three had and they have changed some of the label. So are you
better or are you still suffering side effects? Still having problems. Still having problems.
I am much improved but I still have a couple of things left. Yes. I'm getting better. You're
getting better. The people who have called me I would say that most of them either the
side effects went away in a week or two or they've had them for over a year and their
doctors are telling them they're nuts. Okay, go to your medicine cabinets now during this
break and get out all your drug vials, get some paper and pencil too because what we're
going to tell you next could save your life. We'll be right back. Here's a snap crack
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With a Jennifer sofa bed, there's always a place to stay. Jennifer Convertibles. Why
buy an ordinary sofa when you can buy a sofa bed? This is gonna be very helpful to you,
America. And even around here, we're all amazed at the things we've learned just backstage
this morning. For instance, did you know that you could wind up pregnant if you take antibiotics
while on the pill? I did not know this. Did y'all know this? Nobody has ever said that
to me. And that mixing heart medication and oatmeal could send you to the hospital? I
know people every day who take medication for their heart and every morning eat a bowl
of oatmeal. What you don't know about side effects in mixing drugs can hurt you and maybe
even cost you your life. My next guest is Joe Grayton. He's a pharmacologist, a syndicated
radio talk show host, and columnist whose most recent book is entitled, The New People's
Pharmacy. Joe is going to tell us right now about some quick life-saving facts. Let's
hear. Oprah, the issues are so important, as you
say. They are literally life-threatening if you don't be informed. So let's just start
with your cereal. Fiber, oatmeal. Yeah. The problem is linoxin, a very commonly prescribed
medicine for heart problems, for congestive heart failure. And if you take it with oatmeal
or bran, it can reduce the absorption of this drug dramatically. So it will not work as
well as you think it will. And as a result, you could end up in the hospital. So don't
take it with fiber or oatmeal. Meaning what? Like after several hours? Well,
it should say don't eat with oatmeal. It should. Doctors often don't know about this
and don't warn people. Now let's take the beverage that you use to swallow your pills.
Does it matter? You bet it does. Let's think about grapefruit juice, right? Yeah. I mean
grapefruit juice. Simple. We love it. Tastes great. Except if you're taking celldane for
your allergies, grapefruit juice may raise the blood levels of celldane and get you into
big trouble. Like what? Well, death. Big trouble. We learned about grapefruit juice with other
heart medicines. A drug called Plendyl and another drug called Procardia. The grapefruit
juice can boost the levels of these drugs and cause side effects. But another problem
with celldane is that if you take it with an antibiotic called erythromycin, we've been
talking about antibiotics today. Again, blood levels could go very high and one woman died
as a result of an interaction between nizoral, an antifungal drug, and her celldane that
she was just taking for her allergies. So sometimes mixing medicines can be very dangerous.
So should you ask the doctor when you're taking the drug, when the drug is prescribed, what
should I swallow it with? Absolutely. And when should you take it? Should you take it
with meals or an empty stomach? You know, we get these prescriptions. They say take
three times a day. Yeah. Don't accept it. That's totally inadequate. You must know precisely
how to swallow your pills. Really? Because some things work with food. Other things work
on an empty stomach. Sure. Exactly. And can make a really major difference if you do it.
Totally. Let's take a look at another example. Tetracycline is a commonly prescribed antibiotic
for urinary tract infections and it's often prescribed for chlamydia, which is a very
common infection that women have that can lead to infertility, a pelvic infection. We've
kind of heard a little bit about that today. Okay. Now, Tetracycline, if you take it with
milk, is inactivated. And so most of the time, pharmacists will tell people, don't swallow
your Tetracycline with milk. But what they don't tell you is, don't take it with your
vitamins and minerals. Don't take it with your calcium. Don't take it with bismuth
subsalicylate and antacid. Because those kinds of things can also inactivate your Tetracycline.
It'll be worthless and a woman could have chlamydia and it could go on for weeks and
months and she might become infertile as a result. What's this about birth control pill
antibiotics? Seems hard to believe, doesn't it? Birth control pills are much safer now
because the dose of the hormones has come down, the estrogen and the progesterone, much
lower today. But that means they're a little bit less effective. And so if you were to
take antibiotics, like ampicillin is one example, a woman might become pregnant because of the
interaction between the antibiotic and her birth control pill. So the birth control pill
isn't as strong because you're taking the antibiotic. Exactly. This is also true of certain
seizure medications. And because the seizure medications can cause birth defects, you can
understand what a tragedy it would be for a woman, for example, taking Dilantin to become
pregnant because her birth control pill was no longer effective. Wow. So this is America's
other drug problem, isn't it? Well, it's even a bigger drug problem because more people
die each year from prescribed arthritis drugs than all illicit drugs combined. I mean heroin
and cocaine. Heroin, cocaine, crack. More from just prescribed arthritis medicines. You're
saying from bleeding ulcers. Drugs like Naperson and feldin and ibuprofen, even aspirin that
we buy over the counter, as great as it is, can cause side effects. This is shocking.
Next, are you a good candidate for the pill? Are you sure? When we're going to find out
how birth control pills combined with other factors led one woman to have a stroke back
in a moment. Please fasten your seatbelt. Make sure your chair is in an upright position
and get ready for inside addition. Our investigation will show you what you need to know before
you get on another airplane. What questions should you ask when you check in and what
secrets can help you survive a plane crash or investigations that matter to you? Watch
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fee. Okay, so are there bad drugs and good drugs? Oprah, there are no bad drugs or good
drugs. All drugs have the potential to cause some side effects in some people. But let's
always remember drugs save lives. They cure us when we're ill and they relieve a lot of
suffering. It's the balance. We need to know the benefits and the risks. Be informed. Act
wisely. Ask the questions of your doctor and your pharmacist. And if they don't give you
the information you need, find out for yourself.
Okay, so as Stephen, you were just saying something about that during the break that
many times the doctors don't know. So then I think that it's the unique situation when
a doctor would know some really new thing that maybe Joe would know. Because through
the research that I did for this article, I met pharmacologists and people who were
doing this research. It takes a long time for it to filter down to the product label
and then maybe through the product label the doctor would find out about it. But that can
take years. So a drug interaction like that, the process is out through the regular media.
It took us five years to find out that cell vein could interact with other medicines to
cause potentially lethal reactions. It's the kind of thing that would have been rumored
about for a long time. If you had talked to a pharmacologist, they would say, oh, they're
doing research in that area. Well, this is Pat. Pat, stand up if you don't
mind. And nine years ago, Pat had a stroke in her sleep after taking birth control pills
for a week. Right. Well, I just had a baby two months
prior to taking the pill. My children are 18 and a half months apart, so I didn't really
want another one so close together. So I went to my doctor for my six-week checkup and found
asking if I could take the pill. And he instructed me as to how to take the pill and when to
take it and things like that. Took it seven days. I woke up with a massive stroke. I didn't
know what had happened right away. I was asleep. I was waking up for five o'clock feeding with
my two-month-old. And my arm was on my chest. I thought it was my husband's. I took it and
threw it and realized it was not his but mine. Wow.
And went to get up and realized that I couldn't walk and I couldn't talk.
You just fell to the floor. I fell to the floor.
So you've given birth two months before the stroke and had a history of migraines, plus
you were a smoker. C-section. That was the major factor. Any operation,
any abortion, any kind of thing where your body's trying to heal that wound and the pill
causes clotting as well. Had you been told about the risks of taking
the pill? They had told me about smoking. In fact,
my doctor had given me a prescription for the Nicorette gum at the time. I never got
a chance to use it. I heard that in your lawsuit, the court found
that you did have some responsibility for what happened because they felt that you hadn't
revealed your medical history to the doctor. Is that correct?
I did. I felt that was something that was an indiscrepancy in the court case.
So you said from your hospital bed you wanted to tell other women so they wouldn't have
to go through this hell? Yes. I want everybody to know that the pill
is not safe. It's something that you have to be very, very careful of.
But I think don't they warn you that it's not safe for a lot of people, particularly
if you smoke? That's right. People who smoke should never
take the pill if they can possibly avoid it. But we've known for well over 20 years that
birth control pills can cause strokes. This is not new information. Fortunately, it's
a very low risk and most women can indeed take birth control pills, especially if they're
relatively young and healthy. But it is a risk and women need to know about that risk
before they start taking the pill or any other drug for that matter.
Has this made you more involved in your own health care?
Absolutely. Yeah.
Absolutely. Maybe a little too involved.
Really? Well you get to the point, how do you decide
once you've made a decision that has, you know, such, that changes your life so much?
I will never go to a doctor again and have them prescribe something to me and not ask
questions about it. Well this wasn't a prescription. She had samples.
In fact, many of the people we talked to were given samples. I mean one of the biggest problems
is when a new drug comes on the market, it's sampled by the doctors and you're much less
likely to get the warnings and stuff. And that's also the time when the FDA is most
likely to want to find out what kind of reactions people have. So it's a double edged sword
and neither edge works properly. Okay.
I think another thing too, you really have to kind of watch yourself when you take a
medication, you know, watch how you react for the next hour, couple hours, half a day,
full day during that period of time. Good point.
Yes, because that's where the effects take place.
I think people really need to understand two things. One, that they do have to monitor
their body very carefully and understand what's going on. But side effects don't always happen
the next day. I've had many cases of people reporting to me over my radio show or through
the newspaper column or through the books that six weeks later they become forgetful. Or
they may lose their sex drive and it may come on gradually. In some cases it may take months.
So realize that not all side effects are instant. Some come on so slowly you think, oh, I'm
just getting older. But those people, their doctors will tell them that that can't have
anything to do with the drug. Yeah, but your doctors told you to, your doctors
told you to, correct? Oh no, I had great doctors. They immediately...
Their doctors, I think, recognized what was going on. We got a lot of calls after the
article in Philadelphia Magazine from people who had been suffering for over a year and
their doctors had told them no matter what was happening to them, it couldn't have happened
because of the drug. Even though some of these side effects are right on the label for the
drug. And for the doctor to say that, it's just to not read the label.
I had excellent doctors who treated me for the polyureitis, which is what they called
what I had. And basically one of the first things each of them said to me was, I think
they're just waxing. I think that's the exception because I think most doctors wouldn't have
known to say, oh, it's the reaction of this drug.
Well we want to know what are some of the dangerous side effects of over the counter
medications. And also we're going to find out when we come back how an allergic reaction
of a very popular drug landed one man in the hospital with pints of blood seeping out of
his body. Just amazing.
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This is Martinez McNeil. He has an incredible story. He was taking blood pressure, high
blood pressure medication for almost a year, had no adverse reaction that you knew of,
and then one day...
I went for the worst. I woke up, I was itching in my back. My wife said that we should go
over to the doctor. By the time I reached the hospital, my lips had started to blister
and then my entire body blistered. My temperature went up to 104. The doctors couldn't explain
it. The blisters then began to break. And from head to toe, I was nothing but a massive
flesh. They were giving me 23 pints of blood a day. As fast as they gave it to me, it was
running out through the bed.
The blood was coming out through the bed? Out of your skin? Your skin couldn't hold
it?
No. My wife came in to see me and blood was under the bed and she asked who spilled blood
and they said, Mrs. McNeil, no one spilled blood. Your husband is bleeding through the
mattress onto the floor.
Wow.
And it was nothing but a miracle that I'm alive here today.
I'm thinking it is a miracle that you are alive.
It is. It is a miracle that I'm here. The doctors gave me up.
And this was because of a reaction to the drug, to the high blood pressure medicine
you'd been taking for a year?
Yes.
So was it because you'd been taking it a year and it sort of built up in your system?
They really can't explain what happened as far as how it just went adverse. All they
know is that it was a prescription drug. They did it because I was taking anything else.
Okay. So you were told that you were going to be blind and never walk again?
Yes. He told me that I would never... First of all, he said because the temp was high
and all the bleeding that my mind wouldn't be right. He said that because I was bleeding
through my eyes and I had dry sockets that I would be blind if I lived. And he also said
that I would never walk again because I was in bed so long.
How long were you in bed?
About nine weeks. My wife knows more about how long I was there, but nine weeks I believe
I was actually in bed.
And because of the fever, the high fever and the high blood pressure during the reaction,
now you need a kidney transplant? Are you waiting on a kidney?
I'm waiting on a kidney. Yes.
Anybody out there got a kidney, please? So what do you think caused you to... You're
not suing or you...
We really can't sue because of the fact that we never knew that I was allergic to the drug
and the doctors didn't know I was allergic to the drug. So I mean, it was just something...
Is your wife next to you? So when you walked in there and saw that blood underneath the
bed and they told you that it was your husband's blood, what on earth did you think?
I just said, oh my God, is he going to live or is he going to die? But the doctor said
they had gave him up. They gave him 24 hours to live. And if he wouldn't make it that 24
hours, they say if he made it, it would be a miracle. But I said, thank God for the miracle
because I know it is a miracle. The doctors did all they could do and they told me they
had done all they could done.
You were bleeding through your eyes?
Yes.
Blood was coming from everywhere. They used something they called pigskin to try to cover
it up, to stop the bleeding, but it didn't stop right away. It was a couple of days before
it stopped.
This will create some faith for you, will it not?
I have a lot of faith in God, sweetie.
A lot of faith. What do you want to say, Joe? Thank you very much.
Part of the problem over is that in this particular case, he was taking not just the blood pressure
medicine but an antibiotic and many other pills at the same time. It may have been the interaction
of those drugs. It may have been the allergy of more than one, but this kind of reaction
has occurred to other people. Maybe not as severe, but it is a potentially life-threatening
situation.
Unbelievable. You're taking how many pills a day? Did you want to share with us?
It takes about five to seven a day. It depends on what my day is like or what. I'm taking
blood pressure, three for blood pressure, one for allergies. One is a birth control
pill that I'm taking for my endometriosis. I have a nasal inhaler that I haven't used
yet and I probably won't because I can't stand the way it fills up my nose. The blood
pressure medicine gives me a headache, so I take aspirin. I never leave home without
it. Inside my aspirin, I have the little Maylux tablets because sometimes I get upset stomach
from all of it.
Unbelievable. Unbelievable. Well, couldn't high blood pressure be reduced a lot by diet
and exercise?
There's no question there are a lot of non-drug ways to deal with a lot of these problems.
Just losing weight can be one of the best ways to get blood pressure down. Of course,
in this case, this lovely woman does not have an overweight problem, so it may very well
be that she will have to take blood pressure pills.
Just because certain drugs don't require a prescription doesn't mean that the dosage
can't hurt you. When we come back, find out how taking too much aspirin, laxatives, nasal
spray or cough medicine could endanger your life. We'll be back.
After Oprah, desperate police for help give evidence of the Simpson-Stormy relationship.
Today, find out how local dispatchers deal with calls of domestic abuse. Plus, it was
a matter of time, but time ran out. Find out this woman's unique situation at 5.
Tonight, are the birds leaving paradise?
Amherst College is offering me the chairmanship of their philosophy department.
Are you going to take the job?
But do they really want to go?
I don't want to move to a new place.
He's not going to move us if we don't want to go.
I came in here to tell you that I'm announcing my resignation.
Or will they pack it up for dad?
Now it's our turn to give up something for him.
Don't you think?
Goodbye, away.
And all new Birds of Paradise.
Watch the best shows tonight on KMBC-TV Channel 9.
Good morning America calls it hysterically funny.
Long live the king.
And Siskel and Ebert give two thumbs up.
Hear the roar of the movie critics have declared Disney's best yet.
The Lion King rated G starts Friday, June 24.
Don't learn electrical safety by accident.
Her addiction put a hole in her septum, but that hasn't stopped her from inhaling nose
spray.
Dottie Wofford admits that she knows she's ruining her nose by constantly using nasal
spray and fears that her nose will one day just cave in.
But you keep using it?
You still do?
Yes, I do.
Every day?
Yes.
All the time?
Not all the time.
I'm slowly, gradually getting off of it, but I still do need it.
There was a period of time when I was using it, I'd gotten to the point where I was using
it, I was waking up in the night to use it because my nose had rebounded so strongly
that it would swell up tight and I couldn't breathe.
And it was, it was awful.
So the thing with nasal sprays is the more you use them the more you need them isn't
it?
Exactly right.
Dottie reads our newspaper column in the St. Louis Post Dispatch and she got in touch
with us because she had been using the nasal spray over and over and over again because
when she stopped her nose just felt like it was terribly stuffed.
There are people who are so dependent, addicted if you like, to their nasal spray, they literally
won't go home, go away without it, sleep with it under their pillow, have it on their desk
during the day so that they can use it.
In Dottie's case she had to use a steroid spray to try and get her off and that's when
she got into big trouble.
The lady out here had one of those steroid pumps I'd seen out there.
That's what they'd given me and I used that for a little while and I blew a hole in my
nose.
How'd you get it fixed?
It isn't.
I went to an ear, nose, and throat man.
He said there's a possibility a skin graft might help but he doesn't think so.
So it's inside there because we're expecting to see a big old hole there.
I hope it never gets to this place.
Like in that movie Death Becomes There where Goldie Hawn has the hole in her mouth.
Aren't y'all looking to see where's the hole?
So why don't you just stop?
Well I'm trying very hard but...
When we say addicted what does that mean Joe?
She can't physically stop herself from picking up the nasal spray?
Oprah, she's not getting high on the nasal spray.
It's not that kind of addiction but when she stops she feels so bad she can't breathe.
She wants to go back and use it again and there are millions of people who are literally
taking their over the counter nasal spray every day beyond the three day warning on
the label because when they stop they feel so awful.
You're one of those people.
Yeah I'm kind of worse than her.
I started about eight years ago on a nose spray and it started when I was pregnant.
I had breathing problems and I couldn't get off it since.
I have it on my headboard, in my car, in my purse just in case I go somewhere and I don't
have it.
Wake my husband up in the middle of the night, run to the store in case I'm running low.
And I had the steroid spray also last year, finally my doctor said you better go see someone
and there is a surgery but I won't go for it.
I can't handle that stuffed up within the gauze and all that.
I can't handle it.
I can't live without it.
It's like you have a flu.
When you don't have it people will come over and say oh it sounds like you have a cold.
As soon as I take it I'm thinking you sound like and I'm clear.
You sound like you have a cold now.
Because I need spraying I couldn't do it and it's in my purse and it'll get worse as the
show goes on.
Really?
Yeah it's like come back 20 minutes from now and I'll be like but as soon as I take the
nose spray five minutes later I'm like a new person.
Okay you're the same way?
Your nose spray addicted?
Yeah I've been using it for like two years now.
I started when I was pregnant and then because I had a cold and now I keep using it.
You look ten.
I'm twenty.
Twenty.
Yeah.
Three children.
Three children?
Yeah.
Doesn't she look ten?
Thanks.
Unbelievable.
Yeah I take it everywhere with me.
I freak out if I don't have it.
You freak out if you don't have it?
I have them at my house.
I'm her mother.
I have them at my house just in case she's there and is running low and then she you
know puts one into the other.
So if it is a sort of it fulfills itself how do you stop yourself?
Well it's something that a lot of people...
If you stop and then you put up with that feeling of feeling congested for a while would
that eventually go away?
Well it may take weeks for that to go away and that's why I usually tell people go see
an ear, nose and throat specialist this is not a do-it-yourself project because you have
to be weaned and the temptation to go back to the nasal spray can be overwhelming.
People don't realize that over-the-counter drugs can be that kind of addiction.
Okay find out the secret addiction of many TV personalities when we come back.
I'm not one of them but we'll find out.
Coming up on KMBC 9 News tonight at 6 he is accused of murder, kidnapping and carjacking.
Now a local teen faces those charges as an adult.
We'll have the latest tonight.
Add details in a major healthcare fraud investigation.
Join us for KMBC 9 News tonight at 6.
Grab your bike, strap on your helmet and ride for multiple sclerosis.
Hi I'm Channel 9 Brian Busby and I'm Dennis Pryor from Mix 93.3.
If you're looking for something fun and challenging try the 11th annual MS-150 bike tour on September
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Does the weather ever surprise you?
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What over-the-counter thing are most TV personalities addicted to?
Many, not most, because I'm not one of them.
If it is, I don't know what it is.
Alice told me it was his eye drops.
Oh yeah, very common.
Why is that?
Who wants red eyes?
Oh, it's for that, oh okay.
And so how can that become addicting?
Because when you stop taking them, it's the same kind of medicine used for the nose.
You get this rebound red eye.
And so the more you take it, the more likely your eye is to be unclear.
That's correct, so people just get in the habit of putting the eye drops in their eyes
just as they use the nasal spray.
How can aspirin be dangerous?
Well, aspirin's a great drug and it saves tens of thousands of lives a year, maybe more
for people to prevent heart attacks and strokes, but it can cause stomach upset.
Instantly it can?
For some people it can be pretty fast, so you have to be very cautious if you have a
tendency to bleed from your stomach.
Okay.
You wanted to say what?
Blood pressure.
What did you say?
Some medicine for years?
And I've been taking blood pressure medicine for years and also antidepressants since probably
20, 25 years now.
And I have no memory.
I can't remember yesterday.
One of the problems.
Some parts of yesterday, but not all.
I overheard her saying that she thought it was getting older, but maybe it's the drug.
Well, it may be the blood pressure medicines and that's something you need to talk about
with your doctor because some blood pressure pills can literally make you feel depressed
or forgetful.
And that may be why you're taking the antidepressants.
We switched those.
We switched off a blood pressure medicine that was causing depression.
It's what I call the vicious cycle syndrome.
You start with drug A and then they put you on drug B and drug C and pretty soon you're
taking a handful of pills all because of the first drug.
Well, that's why this woman here was saying earlier that she's now taking the drug upset
their stomach so she takes something else.
Precisely.
Lady in orange, you said you had something to say about that.
What was that?
Meet me halfway, please.
Yeah?
What was that?
I'm a pharmaceutical company so I sell antibiotics that compete with floxin and also several
hypertensive medicines.
There are millions of choices and as consumers and as patients, we also have responsibility
to ask the physician, you know, this isn't working for me.
Let's go to something else.
Look at something else and find out as much about it as you can.
The lady who takes 40 pills a day or a week, there are hypertensive drugs that are once
a day instead of taking the two twice a day or three times a day.
And then the other drugs that she has to take because of the side effects of those.
Yes.
Because if something is, as she said, causing you headaches and upset stomach, shouldn't
you tell your doctor and get off of that?
This is the key.
I mean, if we can leave people with one message, it is to A, pay attention to their body, find
out if they're reacting.
Number two, talk to your doctor.
Let your doctor know that you're not feeling well, that you might need a different medication
or a different dose.
That's a good point she made.
There are many things that do the same thing.
Exactly.
So if one is causing you to have upset stomach and headaches, maybe you could try another.
Precisely.
And remember, there are not good drugs and bad drugs.
All drugs have benefits and risks.
And watch out when you combine more than one thing.
One plus one can equal three, or one plus one can equal zero, like the birth control
pills that can lead to pregnancy if they don't work.
Stephen, you wanted to say what?
Well, I wanted to say another problem with this is in assessing what drugs do and can
do to you, one of the problems is that people don't report adverse drug reactions.
One of the things I found in doing my research is that FDA feels that maybe less than five
percent of all the adverse drug reactions that happen to Americans actually get reported
to the drug company and to the FDA, so that those reactions would then show up in the
label and then you would know that this could happen to you.
Okay, you wanted to say what?
Yes, I have a daughter that's 11 and a half and was just diagnosed with bronchitis, and
they put her on a real strong antibiotic, can I say the name of the antibiotic, bioxin,
and she was on a nebulizer, albuterol, she was on a steroid prednisone, and she was on
an over-the-counter Advil, and a 12-hour cough medicine, and she's still very depressed,
she cries, she's now off everything, and now they tell us it's just a viral bronchitis,
but she's still on an inhaler.
Yeah, and because it was a viral bronchitis, none of those medicines would have been effective,
because we cannot do anything about viral infections.
Yeah, she's been off school now for three weeks, and it's still miserable.
Well, you're fortunate that she didn't develop a serious adverse reaction.
I hope she doesn't.
Coming up, thank you very much, how many aspirins a day is too much?
We're going to find out when aspirin is good, and when it could lead to something.
Up next on KMBC 9 News, shocking 9-1-1 tape shed light on domestic violence in the Simpsons
relationship.
Find out how local dispatchers deal with these desperate calls.
And every day, children fall victim to guns.
Today we'll show you a new program aimed at saving our children.
Our news is next.
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You wanted to say what to us, Joe?
Penicillin is a perfect example.
It's a great drug.
Thousands of people are alive because of penicillin.
Maybe millions, but some people are allergic to it, and for them, it's a terrible drug.
Okay.
You wanted to share what?
I've been a clinical pharmacist for the last 15 years, and one of the things that I wanted
to point out to everyone is that your pharmacist is your patient advocate as far as medication
usage is concerned.
You have to utilize our knowledge.
When you go to a pharmacy and you get your medication filled, it is your right to know
about that medication.
The pharmacist usually knows more than the doctor, you were saying.
Absolutely.
Many, many years.
Yeah, we had to.
Our experience was that our pharmacist knew much more about what was happening with us
than our doctors did.
And if they don't come to you and volunteer that information, it is your right to ask.
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