I thought I would wrap up the medication series by talking about what happens when you get medication overload. I hate taking medicine. I will deal with a headache all day, just because I don’t like taking medicine. Now I think of my wife, who has to take a couple dozen pills every day, and it doesn’t surprise me that occasionally she just doesn’t want to take anything ever again.

There have been numerous occasions over the past decade when my wife was reluctant to take her lupus medication. In some cases she either limited the amount to a lower dose or stopped taking the medication entirely.

In my experience, there have been three reasons that my wife has been resistant to taking medication since I’ve known her. She’s either been afraid of possible side effects, afraid of becoming addicted to the medication, or has been afraid that it was the medication that was causing some of her problems.

The most common medication with side effects that has caused her concern is Prednisone, which has been an important part of her treatment in various dosages, but trying to convince a woman to take large amounts of medication that can cause sudden weight gain, increased hair growth, fragile skin, and make your face swell up, well, that’s a tough sell.

Her concern with addiction is associated primarily with her pain medication; although, she has also been concerned with taking sleep medication for long periods of time as well. I just try and remind her that while her pain medications should be handled with caution, her doctors have prescribed them for a reason. She needs to be able to keep the pain in check so that it doesn’t make her overall condition worse than it is already.

It is usually through the often well-intentioned advice of a colleague that my wife becomes concerned that it is actually her lupus medication that is causing her lupus. It is often accompanied by offers to sell her some type of juice or herbal supplement. Reviewing her medical history and initial diagnosis is usually enough to get her back to taking her medicine.

This was re-written from a draft of an article that I wrote for Lupus Now.