Medications Conflicts and Concerns for Those with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia

At the first sign of symptoms, it is hard to know if you are sick or it is just allergies or asthma, and it is often difficult to know how to treat your maladies. If you suffer from any other illness that you feel some symptoms that might be normally confused with the cold or flu, such as asthma or allergies or migraines or Chronic Fatigue, it might be hard to know if you are getting sick or just having a flare-up of your underlying condition. Even tell tale signs like feeling cold or achy all over are the norm for many people with chronic illness. This may lead you to take your standard asthma or migraine or pain reliever medication before realizing you are sick and then you take something for your cold or flu. This can easily lead to medication conflicts. You may recall with Anna Nicole Smith that even with a drug abuse history, she thought other maladies were wrong with her before realizing she had the flu, and she took prescription medications for each other malady prior to medicating for the flu itself, so many medicines were found in her system. Medication interactions are not uncommon in non-drug abusers who get a cold or flu or other malady, and the results can potentially be deadly if you mix medications too quickly. A specific concern for those with chronic health issues is some of the symptoms of illness - achiness, headache, sore throat, chills and exhaustion are a part of everyday life, so determining if one should take their pain meds or cold meds if often a difficult decision. If medications are mixed or taken too early, results can be very dangerous. Often people at the onset of symptoms think an illness might be something else, and it is especially difficult if you have fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome. How many prescription medications are too many when you aren't feeling well? How long can you self-medicate? Can you continue to take your regular prescription medications and over the counter medications at the same time?