糊涂服药记

我想我真的病得很重吧……

当了自己的医生三天后，病情从发烧到退烧，从喉咙痛进化到失声和咳嗽，自己这“无牌医生”再也束手无策，终于到附近的诊所求医。

医生开了治throat swelling, voices, throat itchiness 的药方，每日服三次，每次一颗，和咳嗽药水。

领了药回家，我便服药。然后，恐怖的事发生了……我竟然……把“每日服三次，每次一颗”，错看成“每次服三颗”！！所以是overdose了！

我赶紧致电于该诊所询问，深怕会引致toxicity与副作用。所幸医生说无大碍，服多了，药效更强，更快好。虽然我也不确定是不是真的，因为我对医生开什么药方是一无所知，只知道药的功效是什么，不知其药名。但是乐观的我还是选择相信医生，毕竟有些药的therapeutic window比较宽，需要很高的dose才会导致toxicity。

真糊涂！还记得小学六年级时，曾经因为服食过量的药，而在周会时晕倒。那是因为身材瘦小，大家还误会我没有吃早餐，血糖过低才晕倒。事因之前服中药，是用喝汤的汤匙来计算服用量。后来转喝西药（咳嗽药），妈妈说要喝两大汤匙，我就照用喝汤的汤匙，事实上应该是用茶匙，而非汤匙。

所以还是奉劝大家服药时得谨慎才是啊！

P.S. 药物知多少：

1. Therapeutic Window: (or pharmaceutical window) is an index for estimation of drug dosage which can treat disease effectively while staying within the safety range. In other words, it is the dosage of a medication between the amount that gives an effect (effective dose) and the amount that gives more adverse effects than desired effects. (Defined by Wikipedia)

Some medications have narrow therapeutic window, thus you need to be very cautious about the dosage as a little increase in the dosage may lead to drug toxicity and adverse effects. While those with a wider and broader therapeutic window is more favorable. Because drug effect varies among individuals and there is more space for dosage adjustment before reaching the toxicity level. (Added by Ling Shin, that's me ^_^)

2. Drug Toxicity: The systemic effects of a drug that are related to the overall level of the medication in the bloodstream. Drug toxicity may occur with overdosage of a medication, accumulation of the drug in the body over time or the inability of the patients body to eliminate the drug. (Defined by online medical dictionary)

Basically refers to adverse effects due to amount of active agent in bloodstream exceeding the upper limit of amount which is safe to the body system. (Ling Shin)