Know when to get help

Severe allergic symptoms need urgent help

MedlinePlus describes severe allergy symptoms such as trouble breathing or swallowing, facial or tongue swelling, and loss of consciousness, meaning passing out.

For severe allergic symptoms, reach emergency help by calling 911 or going straight to an emergency room.

This is a reason to seek urgent help, not a checklist for deciding the diagnosis yourself.

Get a plan for other new symptoms

Ask the person treating you what problems to watch for with the particular medicine, how to report them and when to seek care.

Ask who responds when that person is unavailable. Keep those instructions with your medicine information.

A report is useful without proving a cause

MedWatch is the reporting service of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA); patients can report problems with medical products themselves.

The FDA says a report about a problem is not enough to show that a medicine caused the problem.

Take the medicine details with you

Keep the product name, label and pharmacy details together. When speaking with the person treating you, explain what happened and when, in your own words.