From a morning shower to an evening walk, we all have routines to help us stay healthy. If you are like many, one routine can take medicines to keep more serious health problems at a distance.
Maintenance drugs do their best work when they are taken on a regular therapy loyalty schedule. But busy lives can make it easy to forget to take the regulations, freely available (OTC) medicines and supplements that your doctor recommends. With a few tips and advice, however, you can make a simple routine that is easy to follow and you help most of the medicines you take.
To build healthy habits that last, it helps to start with a solid foundation. By taking the time to think about what your medicine routine could look like, which methods help you stay organized and which memories work best, you can create a pattern that is easier to keep.
Make a list of your medicines that you can keep to hand
Write a list of the medicines you use, including prescription medicines, OTC medicines, vitamins and supplements. The use of our personal medication list template (PDF) is a great way to get started.
In addition to the name of each medicine, take the following in your list:
- How often do you have to take every medicine (weekly, once a day, twice a day, etc.)
- What your dosage is every time you take it (one 2 mg pill, three 25 mg capsules, etc.)
- At what time of the day you have to take every dose (morning, afternoon, before bed, etc.)
- How to take your medicine (with food, on an empty stomach, with water, etc.)
- Why you have to take your medicine (to manage cholesterol, lower blood pressure, etc.)
It can also help to record who prescribed your medicines and at which pharmacy you fill it.
Make your regular medicine schedule
Use your list of medicines to build a day-to-day schedule. You can do this by organizing your list at the time of the day you have to take your medication. For example:
- For breakfast
- Lunch
- At dinner
- Before bedtime
- Overnight
Write down the medicine for every time and day of the week that you have to take, the size of the dose and whether you should take it with food or water.
Once you have made your schedule, you make multiple copies and put one in your bathroom, with your bedside table or wherever you take your medicine. You can also make new copies of your schedule every week and check your medicines while you go.
If you have to take multiple medicines or supplements every day, taking a few doses of individual pill bottles can eat a lot of time. Moreover, it can increase the chances of forgetting a dose or accidentally double if you do not remember that you have taken one. That is why many people with regular medicine routine use a pilorer.
A pillorator makes it easy and convenient to keep track of multiple medicines by giving you one or more compartments for each day. Fill the compartments you need for each of the next seven days once a week. When it is time to take your medication, open the compartment for your dose and go. Moreover, a pilorer immediately shows you whether you have taken your pills or not.
There are many pill organizers available in different sizes, and even those who separate, so that you can take your medicines with you wherever you go. You can find a good selection in your local drugstore, supermarket or online.
Combine your medication routine with an easy to remember habit
New routines can be easily forgotten in itself. But when you connect them with a habit that is already a solid part of your day, it can take the trouble to remember.
Meals are, for example, a perfect time to associate with your medicine schedule. They not only help to ensure that you take your medication with food or liquid, if necessary, they also offer a consistent time of the day that it becomes easier to remember your medicines more easily.
But if meals do not work for you, you can choose another daily habit, together with taking your medicines. Brushing your teeth, brewing your first cup of coffee in the morning, watching the first commercial break of your favorite show – all these and more are excellent events that match your regular medicines.
Use memories – on notes, on your phone and with your friends
For some, placing notes in the vicinity of clocks, in the bathroom and in other noticeable areas in the house, helps to retain real medicine routines. For others, to set regular alarms on clocks, smartphones and other devices helps. If you have a friend who also regularly takes medication, you can remind each other with daily call-ins.
The key is to keep your memories fresh. For example, notes that have been left in the same place can easily be ignored over time. Every few weeks or so, you change notes and notifications so that you do not fall into a pattern that helps you to forget more than it helps you to remember.
Another key to a successful medicine routine is to ensure that medicines have to be used. Keeping track of your prescribed fillings and your stocks OTC drugs and supplements is essential to make everything work.
For example, if you fill your pill organizer every week, keep track of how many medicines you still have. If it looks like you only have two or three weeks to stay, it is a good time to get a filling or struck in the store.
If you use a calendar or weekly planner, another good way to remember to set a reminder immediately after you have filled your prescription for 30 or 90 days in the future (depending on your medication stock). You can also see if your drugstore can send UE -mail or SMS reminders when it is time to refill your recipe. Some pharmacies, including our pharmacy for mail order, even offer automatic refillings – when you start running low on your medicine, you only have to pick it up from the store or see if it will be delivered.
Keep you and your medicines safe
While keeping your schedule, it is important to save everything to need you to keep you healthy and your medicine effective.
Save your original prescription bottles
While filling your pilorator, you keep the medicines and supplements that you do not use for the week in their original bottles. These contain essential information that can help answer questions and keep everything in place.
Do not combine medicines
Apart from your pillorator, you do not mix different medicines together in non -labeled bottles or those with different labels than what is in it.
Keep your medicine cool and dry
Heat, light, humidity, moisture, air-the world outside a pil bottle or mail order package may not be nice for your medicine. To keep it fresh and fully effective, keep your medicine in a place that is cool and dry as soon as you receive it. Try to keep your medicine in your kitchen or bedroom and away from the warm, damp environment of your bathroom.
Secure your medicine
If you have children or pets in your home, it is best to keep your medicine in a place that is out of reach and out of sight. Even better, keep it in a cupboard with a child transmission or lock. If you take regulated substances that can be misused if you are stolen, it is also a good idea to secure your medicines in a closed cupboard.
Know what to do if you miss a dose or not remember if you have taken your medicine with you
From time to time, almost everyone forgets to take their medicine or he cannot remember whether they did it. It can be tempting to double your doses the next time you use your medicine, but this can be dangerous and usually not recommended.
When you fill your regulations, your pharmacy usually contains information about what you should do if you miss a dose, along with other details about your medicine. OTC medication and supplements must also include this information on their packaging. Consult those instructions for help, or you can always call your pharmacy or doctor with questions.
Have a plan if you accidentally take your medicine twice
The severity of taking a double dose varies per medicine. When you fill your regulations or buy OTC medication or supplements from your local pharmacy, ask your pharmacist what to do if you accidentally take the dose twice in one go. If you are not sure and it happens to you, call your doctor or pharmacist immediately. If you can’t reach them, the poison centers of America are available 24/7/365 on 800-222-1222.
Special considerations for older adults and people with dementia
Many drugs can be dangerous if they are taken incorrectly, off-Schedule or accidentally. That is why it is important to pay extra attention to the drug routines of older adults and people with dementia.
Start by talking to their doctors and care teams to get recommendations about how you can encourage your loved ones to take their medication regularly and at the same time protect their medicines. With personal advice you can take the right steps to help the people you care about, follow the recommendations of their doctors naturally.
If you have questions about the medicines you use, your doctor and pharmacist are both ready to help. From advice about recipes and how they handle information about how medicines work, your doctor and pharmacist have the knowledge and resources to give you the answers you need. Medication therapy management (MTM) Pharmacists are also available to help you navigate multiple medicines, answer your questions and give advice.
You can also browse through our health information library And receive answers for a wide range of prescription and OTC medicine questions. But for information tailored to you and your health, it is always best to talk to your care team, including your doctor and pharmacist.
