On the form, I filled in “Sore throat, runny nose” (I didn’t have a fever yet, but I do now). They looked in my mouth for 3 seconds, confirmed my infection, and gave me a one week prescription. At the pharmacy, I was given a massive pile of 5 different meds. I was told to take 4 pills 3 times a day, and a 5th as needed. They are an antibiotic, mucous thinner, a bleeding suppressant, a diarrhea suppressant, and a painkiller/fever reducer. Being from the US, this shocks me.
This is crazy to me, because I’m normally the kind of person who only takes pills if I absolutely need them. I have been taking the antibiotic and mucous thinner only, and occasionally the painkiller if my fever is up. I tried taking the 4 at once when I first got home, but it absolutely wrecked my insides. I’ve been worried, specifically about the bleeding suppressant. Does that mean the other pills might cause bleeding in my body? I’m obviously going to take the entire run of the antibiotic. Any thoughts? I need to get better, but I’m worried about my internal organs
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Bleeding is probably somewhere on the side effects. But what side effect isn’t? Dunno not a doctor, I personally see most of it as sugar pills as I find the meds weak, Japanese are not happy if they do not carry out a bag of pills for a cold. This is very normal.
But I paid for it I take it , but if you are having an adverse reaction you should probably talk to a pharmacist. The stomach meds should be helping your stomach from the antibiotics.
I usually ask the doctor in advance to not prescribe pain medicines for minor things. I usually ask about what I am being prescribed and why I am being prescribed it. Some I’ve been to ask me if I want analgesics, too.
Well, the good news is that most of them don’t do anything or are such low dosage that they are ineffectual.
I remember thinking the same thing when I had to see a doc for a cold (as in, my contract organisation needed me to see a doc and get a doctor’s note for a cold). Six kinds of medicine ensue. 11 months later when I had severe Epstein Barr, went to the do again with lymph nodes like golf balls. Exactly the same medicine.
They are mostly cheaper generic meds so you get them separately rather than being combined into expensive brand name pills.
I’m going to take a wild guess that the doctor who prescribed you the medicine knows more than you or the couch MDs on Reddit.
Bleeding suppressant I’m assuming Tranexamic acid. Which also has antiinflammatory effects, diarrhea suppressant I’m assuming lactobacillus preparation probably the antibiotic resistant type to substitute for the damage the antibiotics do to your intestinal flora.
Just speculating which ones so sorry if I’m wrong.
You come from a country where they charge you for breathing in the office while you wait for your doctor (this is a joke, but sometimes it seems like that), to a country which has people who go to the doctor just often enough that someone from the U.S. might ponder if they’re hypochondriacs.
Get a little more information on your medication, it’s not impossible that you misunderstood something. I often have to do a search “What’s this? Any chance it’s an antihistamine goldanged mosquitos… Drat, it’s not.”
I would recommend following the treatment plan you were given and go back again if you have any complications. Things are done differently here but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong just because they’re different from what you’re used to. I have always received good care from the doctors at my neighborhood medical clinic when I’ve been sick.
I look up what the meds are and only take the ones that I actually need. Generally that means the antibiotics if I have an infection or the antivirals if it’s a viral issue. Sometimes I use the pain meds if it’s necessary but I have western dosage acetaminophen and ibuprofen already, generally those are more than enough. The rest of the crap goes in the bin.
A couple years ago this happened to me when my friend insisted i go to the clinic for a cold I knew I could self-treat. I was legitimately scared of the goody bag of meds I ended up with, have never had so many meds prescribed to me at once. After a day of using them for my cold, I dumped everything but one.
They usually give some meds to combat side effects. I got pills for my stomach once because the main med might make me feel nauseous. That might explain the extra meds. They usually explain that though.
“Does that mean the other pills might cause bleeding in my body?”
Well, that might have been a good thing to ask the doctor or pharmacist…
Out of curiosity how much did it all cost though? I’m also from the US so when I went to the doctor for a persistent sore-ish throat, I just about had a heart attack when they dumped the pile of meds in front of me. It all ended up being like 1000-1500 though, including the 30 seconds the doctor spent in the room with me.
Lol mate, welcome to the world of universal healthcare.
Unlike the US that tries to fuck their patients, the majority of the rest of the world tries to help them.
Meds are subsidised in JP.
Enjoy your first tastes of real freedom my friend.
There are complex tradeoffs in standards of care, and we get accustomed to the prevailing ones where we grew up, but they’re not obviously superior.
If the antibiotic they give you has a 5% chance of giving you diarrhea, and diarrhea medicine has minimal side effects, should they give you the diarrhea medicine with the antibiotics? The answer isn’t obvious. It’s a judgment call, and Japan’s judgment is toward proactively prescribing cheap low-dosage generic drugs that might improve comfort. In context, I get it — you’d never take a sick day from the office here if you could help it, and getting diarrhea at the office? Imagine the shame!
Japan also likes to start with less-effective drugs (sometimes I cynically think they might even be placebos) to save costs before they give you the good stuff, and while it’s annoying when you’re really sick, it’s also rational policy in many cases.
America has a bias these days for prescribing less (thanks to opioid crisis and antibiotic resistance), and for jumping to the most effective (usually the most expensive) treatment that insurance will pay for.
A variety of treatment protocols are reasonable, and different ones fit better in different contexts. Don’t stress it; you’re just in an environment with a different set of tradeoffs then you’re used to.
The bleeding suppressant is also indicated for reducing inflammation, from what I recall. It may also be for protecting the stomach lining if you were prescribed ibuprofen or another medicine in that family.
You probably don’t need the diarrhea one.
The others I’d continue taking.
bleeding suppressant – it’s for inflammation. diarrhea suppressant – because antibiotic and pain killer can mess up your stomach.
instead of us which has 1 drug that targets many symptoms, i find the medicine here usually 1 will treat 1 symptom. thus the 5 different type of pills
What did you want from the doctor?
Of course the medical system will be different, you’re in a different country. In my experience while other countries will wait and see if you get side effects from medication, in Japan you’ll likely be given pre-emptive meds to counteract the most common side effects. For instance it’s not uncommon to be given pills for your stomach alongside your actual prescription, as some medication can cause stomachaches or upset digestive system. They just give it to you all at once as it’s cheaper and easier than you then having to get OTC stuff if you do get the side effects.
If you actually look up the pills and the dosage you will see the they are quite low and perfectly safe to take.
Ultimately it’s your choice to take them or not, but then what was the point of going to the doctor in the first place you know?
Next time just tell them you want a doctor’s note for work if that’s what you need, but you don’t want the meds. They won’t care.
No need to be afraid of pills an actual doctor gave you, shockingly they did go through a lot of education and training in order to help you.
Also just some words of advice, the system here doesn’t work like America. You might find doctors here aren’t as receptive to be questioned about why they are doing something. Its not common here at all for patients to request certain treatments or meds. It’s more of a trust the person in charge as they definitely know more than you do about this situation.
Some of those drugs are for the symptoms of your illness. The remainder are for the side effects of the other medicine.
The number of medications you’re taking at one time doesn’t matter as long as the doctor and pharmacist approve it. Medicine is good for your health. The doctors think it’s beneficial for you so take them all as instructed.
Even OTC cold medicine usually contains 3 or 4 different drugs in one pill but most people don’t notice unless they read the label.
OP is somewhat right. Some doctors in fact don’t care that much. They just write stuff and give it to you. I literally had doctors who wouldn’t help me. I had a doctor who kept giving me medication that was not supposed to be taken for more then a few months(he only referred me to a big hospital after I told him I have to go back to the U.S). I like op was given a week or 2 worth of various medication for an issue that resolved itself in a few days.
Look it up. You should have gotten a paper with all the names of the pills. If you look up the Japanese name you’ll very likely get the English name of it as a result.
I had the same feeling, my wife and I came from Mexico, my wife commonly has irritable bowel movement and we used to just take trimebutine 200mg and be done with it.
But here, its a vitality vial, a colon bacterial supplement, a vitamin pill and a laxative.
It also surprised me to bring back a bag full of meds whereas I used to take a single pill and that’s that. But so far they’ve proven to be effective regardless the cultural dissimilarities.
This happened to me in Japan, was prescribed 7 meds for a cough. A month later I had bad heart arrhythmia which took a year on another med to treat. 10 years later I saw one of the meds, of a new class pushed heavily by big pharma, was discovered to cause heart arrhythmia
My advice is don’t take anything unless you really need it. Don’t go to a doctor for a runny nose.
Also, my father died from a bad heart valve. Was he given Vioxx? No idea. But definitely possible, the timing matches.
The pharmacist n the US will answered any question about combined medicines
If you have access to overseas calling you may want to call. No need to explain your location.