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Dad (83, history of strokes/seizure/throat cancer, swallowing issues, takes many meds) is trying to deal with daily coughing-up of phlegm (generally not unusual-looking), and we tried to get him to take a liquid cough medicine containing guaifenesin (glyceryl guaiacolate), but he has this particular brand burnished in his brain, likely because a pill form of it my mom (d. 2015) took is still in our cabinet.
Pills (for reasons you can ascertain above) are issues for him (what he has to take, he tries to break up, /without/ liquids, in a blender), so liquid's all that's left, but the brand he wants only makes liquids that are for multiple symptoms like sore throat, nasal congestion, etc. that I can't honestly tell if he legitimately has. He won't tell me, I'm not supposed to ask him about his symptoms.
So what I did was get a guaifenesin-only product in a store brand, and repeatedly told him that it contained the same main ingredient as the brand he was interested in, among several others, and that the brand doesn't make a guaifenesin-only product in liquid form, only caplets like what mom took.
I also said that I'd need to go back to the store to exchange the store brand liquid for something in the brand he wanted, but he rejected that idea, and as of now the store brand liquid continues to sit on the kitchen table, waiting for him to either take it or to expire (at least a year away)
My brothers, who (if their cars don't break down) take dad to health appointments, appear to trust me to take care of this issue, but the only solution I can come up with, is to call back the pharmacy where I got the liquid and ask them for help.

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I thought I'd surprise dad today, by presenting him with a bottle of the best-known variety of the brand name cough medicine he'd talked about weeks ago, only to have him reject the (expletive) stuff again. It is my considered opinion that the things going on in his head, (have continued to) convolute his perception of things, and that what he wants is a product that no longer exists, or perhaps *never* existed; or, he may want something that is available only by prescription such as codeine or paregoric, which were available more readily when he was young, back in the 1930s and 1940s. My feeling is, this constitutes a =new= symptom, one which his MD deserves to know about ASAP, except that the protocol my older brother put in place - requiring me to tell him to (choose whether to) pass it on to the MD - creates more risk to dad about which I still can't do anything.
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In the end, my older brother did NOT take the medicine, the MD didn't / couldn't pass judgement on the issue b/c dad doesn't get the cough in the MD's office, and so the situation continuuuuuuuuuues (as a famous TV announcer once said)... and the bottle still sits on the table. Only when the coughed-up stuff starts to look more disgusting than just the usual relatively-clear or cream-coloured stuff will he begin to get concerned, and think it's legitimately coming from his (smoking-damaged) lungs...
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Just to clarify, what I actually bought was a store brand, guaifenesin-only product.
It doesn't have the other ingredients, and I've not since bought another product; the only thing I've done, at the behest of another family member, was stick a piece of tape with the brand name written on it /rather impressively/, on the package containing the bottle across the store's logo.
Dad rejected the idea of taking the store product back to the store to exchange for the brand.
So, unless something else happens in the next week, it'll be the bottle of the store product that's taken to his MD, and on which she'll have to pass judgement.
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I think I'd take the brand that he wants to take to the dr appointment, check with her about the added stuff - that dad may not need - for negative interactions. If the dr has no objections I'd let your dad take it. Personally, I take an OTC sinus product that treats addition symptoms that I don't have - but it's the only thing I have found that effectively treats my sinus headaches.
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He has some impairments, not so far as dementia yet though I'm wondering if they'll get worse over time, as does his MD... he is scheduled to see her in about a week, and we'll make sure to show her the bottle... guaifenesin of itself doesn't by nature badly interact with other drugs, but stuff they add to some versions of the brand-name stuff like sinus decongestant/cough suppressant/et al can.
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Does your dad have dementia, or mild cognitive impairment? This sounds so much like my mom, before we realized what was going on. Couldn't get her to see that something with a different label or a different brand name had the active ingredient. Can you get the doctor to tell him what to take?
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