Sick day management of chronic medication

What it is

Sick day management is the plan for what to pause and what to keep taking when a patient on chronic medication falls ill. When a patient is sick, it is easy to become dehydrated from throwing up, diarrhea and/or a fever. Once dehydrated, the kidneys may be stressed, and that is what makes certain medications cause problems. Those medications are paused while the patient is sick, to prevent side effects or kidney problems, and started again once the patient has recovered. The signs of dehydration to teach are thirst, unusual tiredness, dry mouth, headache, lightheadedness, dry or cool skin, irritability, confusion and less peeing.