During the 2-3 years of leukemia treatment, you basically have to take medication every day, not only chemotherapy drugs, but also other adjuvant drugs. So how can we use the medication wisely and make it work better? The following is the usage of some drugs for parents and friends.
1. 6-Mercaptopurine (6-MP): We all know that this is a chemotherapy drug that has to be taken every day during the maintenance period, and indeed it is the backbone of leukemia treatment (especially the maintenance period), so it is best to take it alone and not mixed with other drugs. Since its most common side effect is nausea or even vomiting, it is recommended to be taken at bedtime. However, some children eat 6MP gastrointestinal reaction is heavier due to too long fasting time before bedtime, then you can change the 6MP taking time to 2 hours after dinner, but must remember: two hours before and one hour after taking the drug, do not eat food, fruit (including fruit juice), and do not drink milk, yogurt and other dairy products.
2, cotrimoxazole: This is a very important adjuvant drug during chemotherapy, take three days a week, stop four days. Because there are reports that cotrimoxazole can aggravate the toxicity of MTX, so it is best not to apply the same day with MTX. Cotrimoxazole is used to prevent a kind of “Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia”, although the chance of this pneumonia is very small, but once it can be fatal! Therefore, it is necessary to take this drug until 3-6 months after stopping it. As cotrimoxazole is excreted from the kidneys, in the acidic environment is easy to form sulfonamide crystals, damage to the kidneys, resulting in stones, hematuria, etc., so in taking the drug to drink more water, and do not take with vitamin C, juice and other acidic food.
3, calcium tablets: this is chemotherapy during the prevention of osteoporosis drugs, in general, children can take 300mg per day, for older children can increase the dosage to 600mg per day, because starchy food can increase the absorption of calcium, so with the meal or immediately after the meal to take the calcium effect is better. Some calcium supplements can be taken directly in milk, while others can have certain chemical effects.
4, other drugs: children during chemotherapy, from time to time there are colds and flu and other occurrences, at this time also need to take cold medicine, antibiotics, etc.. These drugs should be taken according to medical advice, and should be taken separately from chemotherapy drugs.
In short, the basic principle of taking drugs is: 6-MP and cotrimoxazole should be taken separately and at least 1 hour apart. In addition, all drugs should not be taken with milk at the same time, because pharmacologists have found that: milk and drugs mixed together will form a film on the surface of the drug, which will wrap the drug inside and prevent the release of the active ingredients in the drug; at the same time, milk will also form a film on the surface of the stomach wall, which will prevent the absorption of the drug by the gastric mucosa; milk will also react with some drugs to produce an insoluble substance and affect the effectiveness of the drug Milk can also react with some drugs to produce an insoluble substance that affects the effectiveness of the drug.