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Give Pills the Special Treatment
5. Then consolidate all your medicines at home to one location. It is generally wiser to have everything together rather than scattered around the house, car, purse, or briefcase. Choose a space that is dark, and that is perpetually at room temperature (unless instructions call for medications to be refrigerated). It should be accessible to adults, but not children. While you are doing this, check each container to see if any have passed their expiration dates. Throw out any prescription medication that you no longer need. Saving those last few antibiotics for the next infection is absolutely the wrong thing for you to do!6. Create a rigid pill-taking routine. You want to take your pills at the same time and place every day, and you want a trigger to remind you to take them. Some ways to proceed:
- Buy a pill box or other medication gadget, and each Sunday evening, restock it for the coming week. Place the pill box at your preferred pill-taking site, and do not move it!
- Link your pill taking to a part of your morning ritual, such as brushing your teeth, or drinking your first glass of water or juice for the day.
- Set the alarm on your watch, computer, cell phone, or personal digital assistant to beep when it's time to take a pill. Then, no matter where you are, or how busy you are, you'll get a reminder.
7. Watch out for shift work. Working different shifts can create timing problems when taking your medications. Try to take them when you would normally have a shift change so the timing is similar whether you're going to bed or to work.
8. Buy measuring spoons just for your medicine, and store them with your medicine. A kitchen teaspoon or tablespoon is rarely accurate.
9. Follow the golden rules of medicine. None of the following tips are particularly clever or surprising, but all bear repeating -- and adhering to:
- Provide full disclosure to your doctor and pharmacist: that you have allergies, that you are pregnant, that you have particularly high or low blood pressure, that you are prone to nausea, that you are on a diet. All can affect a drug's efficacy.
- When you pick up your prescription, open the bag immediately to verify that the medication you received is the correct one, at the right dosage, for the correct duration.
- Always ask your doctor or pharmacist if a medicine or supplement should be taken with or without meals.
- Take only the amount of medication prescribed or listed on the label.
- Get your prescriptions filled during slow times for the pharmacist, to avoid mix-ups.
- Whenever you purchase a supplement, ask your pharmacist if it has any potential interactions with prescription or over-the-counter drugs you're taking.
- Don't use or share medications prescribed for someone else.
- Don't take your medicine in the dark or without glasses or contacts if you need these aids to see.
- Keep your medications in their original packaging with the full instructions, even over-the-counter and herbal products.
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