Remembering if you took Medications

[Pete]

How do you remember if you took your meds or not? Whether it be morning dose, afternoon dose, or evening dose. My morning Esbriet I place it next to my coffee but the afternoon or evening dose sometimes I can’t remember if I took my pill or not.

[sally williams]

Count them out in the morning and place them in 3 small containers…I have 3 very small saucers that I use, easy to see right away if I need to take the next dosage

[Christie Patient]

Advice from a transplant caregiver:
1. Set an alarm on your phone for every dose. If you can’t take it right away, snooze, and don’t turn it off till you take it.
2. Use a pill sorter like this for twice-daily meds. There are options for 3x, all the way up to hourly if you just search what you need on Google. There are even some fancy handmade and vintage pill cases on Etsy, if you want to have something a little less clinical for your pills.
3. If you want to continue taking pills from the bottle, use a timer cap to remind you when the bottle was last opened.
4. Or get one of these day/night switches to stick on the lid of your bottle. Switch the lid to the next bottle so you don’t have to peel and re-stick 🙂
5. If nothing else, leave the pills where you will be sure to see them in both the morning and night: bedside table, or by your toothbrush.

[Lorraine Tracey]

Christie, I love all you ideas and how cool that you linked up the items you were talking about! Spot on!

[Christie Patient]

Thanks, Lorraine! @ljtracey

I hope it’s helpful for folks. Lots of other great suggestions here!!

[Karen Rachal]

I have a 7 day pill box.  I just count out 9 per day.  That solved the problem for me.

[Karen Martin]

I have a small container that I carry in my pocket.  Just count out my nine pills in the morning (the bottle is beside the coffee maker) and I am all set.  Never have to worry that I am not at home.

[Bruce Hawn]

I have a seven day pill box that I fill that has morning and evening compartments for each day, which I leave on the kitchen counter.  After I take my morning dose I leave the lid for the morning compartment open, which signifies that I have taken my morning dose.  When it is time to take my evening dose, I close the morning compartment and leave the evening compartment open.  Next morning, I close the evening compartment from the day before when I take my medicine, and repeat that process.  I can look across the room at the box and be able to tell if I took or not.

[Lorraine Tracey]

When I was Esbriet (I am now on Ofev), I received in the mail a pill container. It is circular and has 7-Monday through Sunday pill holders that have 3 places for pills. I fill it up every Monday and include my other pills I take and keep it right on my placemat where I sit. It’s so user friendly and if I go out to eat I can slip one of the 3 pill holders in my purse or pocket. I also have calendar alarms set on my phone set for around the time I take my Ofev, so my phone reminds me twice for all my doses, that was 3 when on Esbriet, but now twice on Ofev. I also got healthy recipe cards in the mail from Genentech. Those were nice perks! But my 2 bedtime pills are a different story. Ridiculous that I can walk in the bathroom to get ready for bed, and in that short amount of time can forget whether I’ve taken them!!! So now, when I go in the bathroom I take my pills and leave the 2 containers on the counter till I’m finished and leave the bathroom, then I put them back where I keep them.

[Richard L Shelby]

I take many pills each day. Like many others I use a pill organizer. Mine has four compartments for each day of the week. On Sunday I fill the organizer with the week’s medications.

As an added safeguard, and to help with PRN medications, I use an app, Medisafe. There are other apps available which accomplish the same things but I like Medisafe. The app notifies me when it’s time for a medication through a pop-up. It also keeps a history of my meds and checks for interactions among my medications — a useful feature.

Between the organizer and the app it’s difficult to miss a dose. Hope this helps.

[Brian Dickinson]

I have an Apple Watch and iPhone. I use an app called “Alarmed” which I can see on my phone and my watch. The alarms I set will cause reminders to be seen (and felt) on my watch and my phone. I use it for meds and repeating chores and it works great. I would not be compliant with all of my meds without these tools and I highly recommend them. Cheers.

[Mark Lunt]

I put my 2 nintedanib tablets onto my dining table at night so they are ready for the following day. I get up and take my first tablet with water and my breakfast, the second tablet is now sitting there and visible for the evening. When this has been taken I put the next days two tablets on the table ready for the next day

[Pete]

A lot of great ideas. Thank You all. I found a pill container with 3 compartments. I am going to try using that for my Esbriet meds first and see how it goes. I thought I was the only one with this issue of forgetting meds, but now I see many with this issue. LOL

[Bob Rawlins]

I use my phone and set alarms so I don’t forget.

When the alarm goes off I stop whatever I’m doing and take the meds.

making sure that if I venture out and it’s close to my time I have the meds with me.

especially with Lung Transplant eventually coming for me I can’t forget to take my meds at certain and specific times.

Hope this helps

[Paul B]

Hi Pete, Like Bob, I set permanent alarms on my cellphone for 9am and 9pm everyday. I then also stop whatever I’m doing to take my OFEV. I use the daily treatment journal that came with it faithfully, checking the box and time I took it. Hope this helps. Paul B – Lakeland

[Pete]

Don’t you need to take OFEV with a meal? 9 PM seems rather late for a meal .

[Paul B]

Pete, 9am to 9pm works best for me. I’ll have a small snack at 9pm with the Ofev just to be sure my stomach isn’t empty. Paul

[Doris Bolton]

I made a small chart with all my meds on it and I use a highlighter pen to mark off when I take them. So I always know I’ve taken everything I should have.

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