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 
I take only one capsule a day.as a routine. A multivitamin capsule with minerals. If I fall ill, other medication as prescribed will be procured and taken but, nothing is kept in stock at home.
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I have possibly the worlds largest medicine basket. Well that is not quite true because my parents have an even larger one. But ours seems huge. There are all kinds of things in there, from the American version of Tums which I brought back huge containers of from the states because they were so much nicer than quick eze, many many over the counter drugs, much plain cheap aldi versions of panadol and nurofen, various prescription drugs which I rarely use but have on hand just in case, like Panadeine Forte which knock me out for hours.
The only one prescription drug I take daily now is thyroxine as my thyroid is misbehaving. I do take a vast array of vitamins and herbal things, but I have a big container for them and once every 18 days I refill all the now-empty spaces.
If my thyroxine had instructions like that, I would probably follow them because I do tend to forget to take them. They are kept in the fridge and I do not usually visit the fridge until lunch time. I now have a couple of reminders on my phone to remind me. 🙂
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My Canadian pharmacist gives me my precribed tablets loose in a little plastic container. I do not pay attention to whether I’ve taken my daily tablet or not, so I transfer the tablets into a organizer with 7 compartments, one for each day of the week, that way I can tell at a glance if I’ve taken my medication. I do this for my multiple vitamins as well.
My tablets are annoying because the seniors drug plan here in Ontario, Canada, only allows for certain dosages, and I take half of the lowest dosage they have approved… this means I have to use a pill splitter to halve the tablets before I can take my medication. I refuse to double the amount of medication I take to acommodate government bureaucracy.
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Mother has a plastic container with divisions for the days of the week and the number of times she is to take the appropriate pills. This helps her chuck out the ones she has no intention of taking.
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I do not look forward to any type of prescription from the doctor because my biggest concern is not the packaging but the cost. Can I afford to buy it, here in the good old USA.
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I take two in the morning, three in the evening, one in the middle of the night. When I take the morning dose, I dish the remaining into a tiny plastic container and set it aside on my desk.
I think I would not the Australian system better.
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Here we get the script for a year and it is dispensed at three month intervals. I hate it when the year is up.
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I only follow the series of days with one of my medications…and I don’t know why I follow the rules with that one and take the others ‘Willy nilly’ 🙄. On that sheet of tablets I use a marker pen on the front to draw arrows to show which direction I am moving in as I’m too lazy to put on my reading glasses every morning to check the day of the week. Recently, arthritis in my thumb and fingers has made it difficult to push some tablets out on some mornings 😕
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You’re darn lucky with 6 months, we have to see the darn doc every 3 months for renewal. I have a plastic case with a little ‘drawer’ for each day. I fill it every week. So easy to see if I’ve taken the pill or not. And I put it on the bench beside the sink so I can remember!!
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Lol. You made me laugh. It’s all to help those of us who think, constantly, did I take my tablets today
Love the fact that you can be a rebel and take a Tuesday tablet on a Friday!
Yup I used to get the same tablets for six months, dispense one month and get a reminder from the pharmacist for the next month when ready.
I still do for my nexium.
Although if I forget the nexium, my body reminds me. Ohhhhh the pain
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I have no such pills, just a “thing” similar to a puffer. However this last week, met a woman with everything in a tear off packet – she had a huge roll of the prescription meds all in together – seemed they were packed so she took the right ones at the right time…
but she also had the regular foils for extras when needed – ie. pain relief.
I can get a bulk prescription at the chemist if I sign “travel distance” – but have renew again over the doctors front desk every 3 months or when needed…Every 6 months actually make appt and see said doctor!
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Sadly I take quite a lot of medication (one injected). And I do like to follow an orderly pattern and routine.
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The only pills I ever took that were “ordered” were the birth control pills when I first got married. The only Rx I take now is the blood pressure pill and I use one of those plastic things with a compartment for each day, so the BP pill and various supplements get doled out once a week. Fortunately, the BP pill is on a yearly prescription so I only have to go back once a year to have that checked.
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I am so sorry… I never met to leave three comments — I didn’t realize the comments were showing at “the top” so I thought there was something wrong with how I was posting. I don’t see a way to delete the post please do save one and get rid of the rest…
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I used to with low dose aspirin but when my partner began taking it too, I had to give up such orderly pill taking. A couple of times it did help me to remember, meaning remembering other medications too.
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Ooo, I’ll have to ask my pharmacist if I can get these kind of foil packets and I often have to stop and think “Now…did I take them this morning…?”
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Sadly I take 26 different pills daily. I keep asking my doctor to eliminate at least one but he says I need them all. It is tempting to just quit all of them and see what happens.
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I’m very fortunate in that I take no prescribed medication. I do, however, take Vitamin D (recommended by doctor but not prescribed), Glucosamine and magnesium. I decant them all into one of those little pill boxes with separate compartments for the days of the week. The down side of this is that nothing seems to chart the passing of time quite so quickly and I don’t like that at all. I always seem to be re-filling it.
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