Other Medicines

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Purple

Purple

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Relationship to Diabetes
Type 1
Last week I developed a rather nasty cough. No cold or yucky nose goo, but it was severe enough to keep me awake at night. Anyway, in my desperation to get some sleep and not cough myself to death I went to the chemists to get some night nurse or some other cough medicine that would aid sleep and help prevent me from coughing my lungs up.

Anyway, the pharmacist refused to sell it to me as I'm diabetic and it has sugar in it! I said that I wasn't worried about that as I am on a pump and could compensate for it. Still refused! Now whilst i can understand his reluctance as he could be held liable, blah blah blah but I still find it extemely annoying that I can be refused medicine because it contains a few grams of sugar but I can buy a 2 litre bottle of lucozade from them with no problems!!! 😡😡😡 *Insert profanities here...*
 
Where's RachelT? We need a ruling on this! 🙂

I agree with you totally, what nonsense (it seems to me!). I bought some Halls mentholyptus extra strong the other week when I had a cold and only realised afterwards they weren't the sugar free variety. I had them anyway and, given that I was ill and my levels were misbehaving, who knows if they had any effect or not - I survived anyway! The only things I am reluctant to take are things to help me sleep in case they mask the symptoms of a night hypo, but that is quite the opposite of what the pharmacist was suggesting (or was it?)
 
Northerner said:
Where's RachelT? We need a ruling on this! 🙂

I agree with you totally, what nonsense (it seems to me!). I bought some Halls mentholyptus extra strong the other week when I had a cold and only realised afterwards they weren't the sugar free variety. I had them anyway and, given that I was ill and my levels were misbehaving, who knows if they had any effect or not - I survived anyway! The only things I am reluctant to take are things to help me sleep in case they mask the symptoms of a night hypo, but that is quite the opposite of what the pharmacist was suggesting (or was it?)
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It was the sugar content he was getting at most definately! I can empathise with the night hypo's though I've had more than my fair share of those over the years losing days is not cool! Getting married was definately a good idea :D
 
My pharmacist is just the same, wont sell me anything with sugar in it if he thinks it's for me, but if it is for a cough he will offer me a sugar free alternative, which normally works.
 
I think I would make a complaint about the pharmacist as surely its your decision whether you take the medicine or not, and if you need it - then you need it. I have asked about antibiotics and various other things when Alex has been ill and all that has ever been said is that the amount of sugar in tablets etc is very minute and wouldnt affect blood sugar. Actually, it could affect Alex because he is really sensitive and this is where the pump helps out - but we have never been refused a treatment on this basis. I think I would have bought some glucotabs before leaving - just to see the look on his face.🙂Bev
 
I was at the pharmacy when someone wanted to buy a cold remedy for a diabetic relative, and they were told they couldn't buy the one they wanted due to one of the ingredients. It wasn't sugar - I think it was a chemical that can raise blood pressure.

Have you tried a steam inhalation with menthol and eucalyptus.

Whilst on a health topic - I saw someone buying barley sugar in a shop they said it was much better for sore throats than all the lozanges you can buy. I didn't buy any, has anyone ever tried this remedy ?
 
I never buy cough lozenges / sweets, just suck any boiled sweets - much cheaper, and just as effective, although it's much easier as I can adjust insulin doses to match. Gargling with hot salty water is also very effective - and no temptation to do so unless you really do have a sore throat.
 
I use Tyrozets for a really sore throat, don't know what's in them but my GP recommended them years ago. Don't really like cough sweets apart from Lockets but even they give me indigestion! So then I have chewable rennies!! How's this for a trip through my medicine cupboard!! Don't know what the Pharmacist would say!

I tried to buy disposable Insulin syringes once as a standby if my pen went funny when I was out. They said "well it depends what you want them for" So I gave what I thought was a good reply "I need them to inject insulin" They wouldn't sell them to me!! Couldn't believe it! That was Lloyds, so I went up to Boots, had a good laugh at Lloyds and bought some there. Mad!
 
I couldn't buy cold capsules with phenylephrine in because i (stupidly) told them i was diabetic. I don't think it's the sugar, it's the decongestant that's the problem. There may be sugar free versions of the stuff anyway (drug companies have realised that sweet, liquid medicines are popular with kids and are worried about the effect it has on thier teeth).
There's probably two reasons why they refused. 1)Litigation society: if you bought a medicine that was considered to be unsafe for diabetics over the counter, and they sold it to you knowing that you were diabetic and you had a horrible hypo/hyper and ended up coming to harm, they could be sued and lose thier licence to trade. It might not be the sugar, it might be the decongestant. 2) Cough mixtures don't actually work that well in practice, if your pharmacist was being particularly patient minded, he'd probably advise you to take paracetamol and a nice hot drink/bath. Menthol crystals are also good as Margie says.
I don't think they were doing it just to annoy you, it's probably duty of care, they decided that the risk of you having some kind of a reaction to the drugs in the mixture outweighed the benefit of the cough relief. You might be annoyed that it happened in this case, but if somebody really wanted to buy something that would do them more harm than good (say somebody with a serious eating dissorder and appeared to be very very thin, wanting to buy diet pills) then i'd say they were doing thier job.
Don't tell them you're diabetic, that way you're taking responsibility if anything does go wrong. Or buy a bottle at a supermarket, but remember you're taking the risk, and it may be a small one, i don't know. My advice is to stick to paracetamol and steam. Just don't burn yourself...

Rachel
 
Wow, that really is ridiculous!! I would be SO angry if a pharmasist did that to me! I never tell them I'm Diabetic though, it's the best way :D

I've only bought cough medicine once and asked for sugar free, I planned on taking alot because my throat was really annoying me and I was on a road trip!
 
Thanks Rachel,

I have since discovered an effective sugar free solution which has a lovely warm feeling on the throat 🙂 Unfortunately I am at work now and can't recall what it's called but it has "suitable for diabetics" written all over it. Usually a bowl of hot water with some vicks in it is enough but that didn't help on this occassion and it was more the need to sleep than anything that I wanted help with so on reflection I could have perhaps better presented my case.

I've put my rant down to lack of sleep and feeling a bit off, but his issue was definately down to the sugar content and I'm certain that if he had another reason and took the time explain it to me rather than take the diabetic = no sugar reasoning then I would have been happy to accept it.

I'll post the name of the stuff I found when I get home incase anyone is interested 🙂

Thanks, Martin
 
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