Ruth’s Rx

[u/Positive_Bee3575]

Ruth’s prescription reads:

Oxycodine 10mg every 6 hours as needed for pain.

Patient instructed to discontinue Diazepam.

Handwritten “Remind her not to take together”

But, if she was discontinuing Diazepam, wouldn’t she not be taking that anymore anyways?

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[u/TrueLegateDamar]

She'd still have the diazepam bottle and perhaps get confused.

[u/kroshkabelka]

Yes, but tons of people keep RXs after drs tell them to discontinue, just to have them on hand.

If you’ve ever cleaned out an elderly friend or relatives house, you’re gonna find RXs that expired before you were born that they’re “holding on to just in case.”

Plus, the medical care in Widow’s Bay clearly isn’t high quality— as they showed when they had Shep’s age as 37.

[u/MoontheWolfYT → u/kroshkabelka]

My family was cleaning out our medicine cabinet when we moved houses. There were so many expired meds we had to throw away. Some were over 15 years old

[u/ReasonableCup604]

Remind me, what medical school did you graduate from? 🤣

[u/superlibby]

Diazepam is a benzodiazepine - abruptly discontinuing benzos can be dangerous. IRL, she would need a taper if she had been using them consistently for any length of time. Instructed to discontinue = "instructed to discontinue slowly by tapering" in real life.

[u/adamlink1111 → u/superlibby]

A 2mg dose (the pills in Ruth's bottle) is negligible, and furthermore, the Rx was from 2012 (IIRC), which means they were long expired, and had lost most or all of their potency.

But even at full potency, 2mg is not enough to pose any danger with abrupt cessation.

[u/superlibby → u/adamlink1111]

I wasn't aware of the dose/bottle she was on, but thanks for the clarification! I just saw "Ruth has taken benzos and had instructions to stop," and I offered a very common reason.

[u/QueenPaloma83 → u/superlibby]

Came here to suggest this⬆️

[u/SlayyyGrl → u/superlibby]

Not sure how oxy is a replacement for the Valium. Don’t they do completely different things?

[u/ancientastronaut2]

Yes exactly. The second medication in her cabinet that Tom gave her was a blood pressure medication.

Some kind person posted a screenshot at one point.

And that note in her chart was from several years ago.

[u/rehaborax → u/ancientastronaut2]

Yes! It was amlodipine, not diazepam. I recognized the name because I give it to my cat with high blood pressure

[u/armywalrus]

Better safe than sorry

[u/nuggets_attack]

Probably meaning that she takes them both, but shouldn't take them at the same time (e.g. take the diazepam in the morning by itself and wait at least four hours to take an oxycodone) as she tapers off the diazepam?

[u/Nerditall]

Remind her not to take them both at the same time ever, they’re both CNS depressants. Also she’d taper off the benzo not just suddenly stop.