Why do I get nauseous when I take my pills/drink some water right before bed lately?

[Anonymous]

I take several different pills from several doctors for different things. As of over a month ago I take a prescribed vitamin D supplement,2 different psychotropic medications, a seizure medication (which my neurologist decreased the dosage a little bit a couple weeks ago), thyroid medication and cholesterol medication. I begged my neurologist to decrease my seizure medication because I felt like my dosage was too high and I kept getting nausea and dizziness. But I'm laying in bed nauseous, it's past midnight and I have work, appointment and exercise to do tomorrow. I'm trying to lose weight so I'm also paying more attention to my sleep. But I'm nauseous and it won't go away and I'm scared it's gonna get really bad. What could I do about this situation?

[Red_Arrow]

You have a complicated mis of medicines. I am pretty sure the cholesterol medicine is not causing your problem, but not sure about the others. Check all your pill bottles and read what they say about WHEN to take them and if you are supposed to eat something at that time. I suspect something is not supposed to be taken at the same time as something else, or that they should not be taken right before bed. If reading the labels carefully does not give you the answers, talk to your pharmacist about it. He (or she) would actually probably be better to talk with than the doctor.

[Asker]

It sure is complicated and I hate pills and I hate going to the doctors that prescribe things. And I know that one of the psychotropic ones says it's supposed to be taken with food or milk. Some of them say to be drinking a lot of water. But I should look at all the labels again. Or maybe it could be that my stomach doesn't like them before bed anymore. I don't know. I was able to end up going to sleep and being fine all the other times, but this time it's gotten worse and now my stomach is making weird noises.

[NearlyNapping]

Is anyone keeping track of all that (besides you)? I'd talk to the pharmacist about it.

Do you need to take them all right before bed? Are you required to take them after eating? Eating just before bed may be the problem, not the drugs. Or a combination of food and drugs before bed.

Are you getting reflux? Do any of those drugs relax or otherwise affect the sphincter muscle?

Are some of the side effects expected to decrease with time?

Those are all questions than need to be answered.

[Asker]

I haven't really talked to anyone about it. I take the thyroid medication and vitamin just in the morning and the seizure and psychotropic medications are both morning and night, and my cholesterol medication is just at night. It's also weird because I've been taking my pills right before bed for almost two years and I never had this problem until maybe a couple weeks ago or so. I avoid eating before bed. I try to always eat at least 3 or 4 hours before bed. I haven't had any acid reflux with it, but I do sometimes during the day. Where is the sphincter muscle? I don't know if the side effects are supposed to change.

[NearlyNapping]

Well you REALLY need someone to keep track of all the medications you are taking. I'd start with the pharmacist which you should do anyway. If you don't get all your prescriptions filled at the same place, make a detailed list and give it to any of the pharmacists. Make sure you ask about taking them before bed, and without eating recently.

This could easily be something that builds up over time. So even if you didn't have trouble in the past, it might have reached some sort of threshold over time and now it's starting to cause problems.

The body has several sphincter muscles. That's a type of muscle, not a specific one. The one I'm referring is a valve between the stomach and esophagus. It keeps the stomach contents in the stomach where they belong. There are several things that can weaken it including many foods, caffeine, some drugs, etc.

Reflux and nausea are different, but I could see all the meds you are taking causing both.

[NearlyNapping]

You also have to consider that this may be unrelated to the meds. Let your doctor know what's going on. They need a complete list of meds also, and may be be able to check for other things.

[kaylaS91]

... that's a lot of medications to be taking on a regular basis. I bet your stomach isn't happy with that amount of chemicals. Try taking some OTC pills for indigestion. That's what helped me when I got nauseous on a regular basis in my first month of taking birth control pills, and it seemed to stop the symptoms for the most-part.

[Asker]

Thank you. I should try that. I thought I had a medication for it as a PRN but right when I was gonna try taking it, I looked on the description on the packet and it said it's for stomach acid stuff, but I looked it up and found out that it's not for nausea, but a common side effect is nausea. That scared me so maybe I should stay away from that one. I'm just thinking about how I have to cancel everything tomorrow if I throw up tonight or get too little sleep. And yes I hate all of them and I do think that I take too many pills, too much medication along with hating pills. But my doctors wouldn't listen to me and I wouldn't be able to do anything if my bipolar disorder and seizure disorder were left untreated. The cholesterol medication isn't as important as it seems, but my grandma died from cholesterol problems so that's a risk. Then the thyroid medication is because one of my psychotropic medications gives me hypothyroidism

[kaylaS91]

awe well I'm really sorry about that. I definitely think about making any appointment iwth your doctor to specifically explain this nausea effects that you've been having.

[Asker]

Thank you. Which doctor should it be?

[Red_Arrow]

OTC meds for indigestion can interfere with some other medicines. Do not take them unless your pharmacist or doctor okay them.

[Asker]

@Red_Arrow oh that's true. Medication combinations. I know doctors watch out for that too. No wonder why all the doctors I go to want to always have an updated list of my medications

[Red_Arrow]

Because you see different doctors, it is easy for that list of all medications to be missing some. If you go to a set of doctors that are all part of one plan and they put their info into the same computer, then it will probably be up-to-date. But the safety end is when you get all your meds from the same pharmacy, they have them all in the same computer with a program that will flag any problem combinations. But it still is best to ask your pharmacist to check your med list out and see if he knows why you are having these problems.

[Asker]

Thank you very much. I will have to look into it. It's crazy to see all these different doctors for different things but I do have one pharmacy for all of them.

[SüßeJäger]

Maybe eat a small snack before you take them.