My Medication Regimen

Zenpep (blue and white pills) and the rest of my morning medications.

As a lot of you know, I take an abnormally large amount of medication. However, most people only encounter about two of them: my enzymes and my breathing treatments. I thought I would discuss the different medications that I take, what they do, and how I take them in this post. I will also include some therapies that I do with some of the medications, as well.

Up first is my morning list! Every morning I start by taking my most important medication: Trikafta. I already talked in a lot more detail about what exactly Trikafta does, and how it helps me, in another post. I have to be sure to eat 15g of fat when I take the medication, so I typically have a big breakfast to meet that requirement. In addition to the Trikafta, I take Zenpep. Zenpep is one of the most important medications that I take, as it allows me to take in the nutrients from the food that I eat. Due to Cystic Fibrosis, my pancreas does not produce enough enzymes for my body to properly digest and obtain nutrients from food. Zenpep does that for me. I take eight pills every time I eat.

Next up is a mixture of more minor medications.

1. Amitiza is to help with constipation, again due to the intestinal issues that come with Cystic Fibrosis. 
2.  Loratadine is an antihistamine to fight my allergies.
3. Montelukast is to treat allergies and help prevent asthma attacks (you guessed it, that is a side effect of the Cystic Fibrosis).
4. Ursodiol is an acid that helps to decrease cholesterol production and is supposed to help break down gallstones (a lot of good that did me recently!). 
5. Potassium Citrate reduces the amount of acid in the urine. I take this primarily to help reduce the number of kidney stones that I produce.
6. Vitamin D3 helps with my vitamin deficiency and keeps my bones strong. 
7. Omeprazole is for acid reflux. I have really bad acid reflux due to my intestinal problems, and this fixes that. If I even miss a single dose of this stuff, I get horrible reflux. So it is pretty important!
8. Multi-vitamin to supplement my body with all of the vitamins and minerals I am not taking in due to my pancreatic insufficiency and intestinal problems.
9. Milk Thistle is to help my liver. I started taking this after I started Trikafta and my liver enzyme levels were rising.

At night, I take Mirtazapine to help with appetite, sleep, and depression.

Aside from pills, I also do a variety of breathing treatments and nose sprays. My nose spray is Azelastine. Azelastine is an antihistamine that helps with my numerous allergies.

I take five different nebulized medications three times a day to help my lungs.

1. The first is DuoNeb. This is a combination of two drugs: Albuterol and ipratropium. DuoNeb is my bronchodilator. It opens up and relaxes my lungs to increase airflow. This allows my other nebulized medications to work more efficiently. 
2. Budesonide, an anti-inflammatory, to help keep those narrow pathways in my lungs open to help prevent asthma attacks.  
3. Pulmozyme is an important part of my CF medication regimen. It helps to loosen and thin the mucus in my lungs, making it easier to clear the mucus out.
4. Finally, I have two antibiotics that I rotate between bi-monthly: Cayston and Tobramycin. These actively fight the Pseudomonas that resides in my lungs. Pseudomonas is a type of gram-negative bacteria that lives in the lungs of people with Cystic Fibrosis. Without these medications, I'd be in the hospital constantly due to lung infections. 

In addition to all of these medications, I also use a therapy vest. This gives me physical respiratory therapy that helps me to clear my lungs of mucus, but I will go into more detail on my vest in another post!

Until next time, stay safe!