Your pharmacist, four questions, and five myths
Why your pharmacist belongs on your care team, four questions to ask before any new medicine, and five common beliefs that aren't true.
The best protection against a medicine that surprises you is asking the right person the right questions before you take it. This page explains why your pharmacist is that person, gives you four questions to carry with you, and clears up five common beliefs about medicines and type 1 diabetes.
Your pharmacist is the most underused person in your care
If you are newly diagnosed, it may not have occurred to you that your pharmacist is part of your care team. They are.
Your pharmacist is the only person who sees every prescription from every doctor you have — including the ones your endocrinologist never hears about, and the walk-in clinic that prescribed the prednisone.
No appointment, no wait, no fee. And they will happily go through your whole list with you.
Four questions, before anything new goes in
Put these four in a note on your phone. At the counter, under pressure, almost nobody remembers them unprompted.
- Will this move my blood sugar, and in which direction?
- When — straight away, hours later, or only for the first week?
- Does it interact with insulin, or hide the signs of a low?
- Do I hold this on a sick day — and does it change my insulin plan?
Ask the same four about vitamins, herbal products and anything bought online. "Natural" doesn't mean it does nothing — it usually means nobody measured what it does.
Five things that aren't true
"They can't take that."
Almost nothing is off-limits. Living with type 1 is about expecting a medicine's effect and planning around it, not about refusing it.
"The insulin dose is fixed."
Insulin needs move with illness, steroids, activity and hormones. Changing the dose is the management, not a failure of it.
"Vaccines are risky with diabetes."
This one is backwards. Flu and similar illnesses are what push people into DKA, which is why annual vaccination is recommended. This belief circulates widely, and it lands people in hospital — so it is worth stating plainly.
"Sugar-free means free."
Sugar alcohols still carry carbohydrate, and in quantity they upset stomachs. Read the whole Nutrition Facts table, not just the front of the package.
"The sensor says it's fine."
Not on hydroxyurea, not above maximum acetaminophen doses, and not when the number and the person disagree. See medicines that fool your sensor.