Many of us older bloggers (and possibly some of the younger ones also) need to take regular medication in the form of tablets so here in Australia once a month we pop up to say hello to the local pharmacist and come home with our goodie bag of ‘keep us alive’ pills.
Not making light of it but I love the look of those shiny new sheets as they come out of the cardboard boxes. They are clean and fresh and full of promise.
Last time I had my script written my GP changed one of my tablets to something slightly different – similar ingredients doing the same job but a different brand So like a child with a present, I couldn’t wait to get home from the shop and see what the new pills in the bag looked like. Well you can’t actually ‘see’ the pills but I’m sure you know what I mean 😊
Oh dear, what’s this on the back of the sheet……I’ve never seen that before….a pill for each of the 15 days. And what is that…..take first…is there something special about that particular pill ? And what does it matter which day of the week I take the tablets – surely they are all the same?
So off I go back up to see Mr Lee to ask for a ‘please explain’ – and of course once he did explain I felt like a real dill.😏
Yes you’ve guessed (and probably already know) the reason the days are there is to serve as a reminder for those who wonder- did I take my tablet today? I suppose I’m lucky in that there’s a cue to help me remember to take this medication each day. It’s part of my bedtime routine – teeth…tablet…toilet…toodle off to bed.
So like the good ‘rules abiding’ patient I am I did just that. Began with the take first tablet, then the next evening found the one for that day and continued that way to the end of the sheet. Don’t laugh but I found doing that a real nuisance. I’d been used to picking up the previous sheets and just pushing out a tablet any which way until the sheet was empty but the new way meant I had to turn the sheet over to check I was pushing the correct tablet out. It completely changed my routine lol
And I was disappointed to find at the end of all that, where I thought I’d have a very neat pattern on the back if turned out to be the same old mish mash of foily bits same as if I’d done it willy nilly as per usual 😊
I had another little chat with Mr Lee and I’m sure he had a smile on his face as he reassured me that as long as I took my tablet at the same time each day as i had done previously it really didn’t matter what order they were removed from the sheet 😊
Now I realise that where medications are concerned we should follow the rules but I’m curious to know whether others actually follow those directions – take this – then go to the correct day when all the tablets are exactly the same?
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- My pharmacist’s name is not Mr Lee
- Here in Australia the system of prescribing and dispensing of medication may be different to other countries
- My GP will only write prescriptions for 6 months. One to be dispensed plus 5 repeats. This ensures I see him on a regular basis.
- Only in certain circumstances are we able to pick up more than one months supply at a time.
Still Waters 