It’s such an excellent idea for people who miss meds. I tend to go through phases where I mess up my meds for days at a time. It’s really dangerous sometimes. I will use this idea if I feel one of those phases coming on. It’s also a fantastic idea for traveling.
Julie-I too had a hard time remembering to take my meds. I set the alarm on my phone to 6:30am and 8:00pm to remind me to take my meds. It’s worked great. The only thing I have to remember is to bring my evening dose with me if I’m not at home at 8:00.
Alexis
Good ideas about remembering to take meds. I use alarms too and I separate my doses of meds and put them in a large pill organizer. It can store about a month’s worth of meds, if you don’t count huge vitamin pills or other oversized pill monsters like some of those antibiotics. The pill organizer has a tray with four boxes in it. Each box can be taken out and can fit in a purse or fanny pack though if I’m traveling, I might put a piece of tape or something on them to make sure the lids don’t open. This can be a problem if the organizer is older but they’re not that expensive to buy and replace every so often.
Each of the rectangular pill boxes has four compartments, one labeled “morning” one “noon” one “evening” and one “bed”. If your med schedule differs, the compartments can be re-labeled. There are different kinds of these things. If you don’t need a monthly one, they have weekly ones that are similar that contain seven boxes. Sometimes they will be labeled with the day of the week at the top.
What I’ve found good about these is that you can buy them at pharmacies like Walgreens and you can even buy them pre-labeled in Braille or large print. Since I am a Braille user, I find this to be extremely helpful. I know a number of blind people who have bipolar disorder and other mental illnesses who take advantage of this and some who do not know Braille but who can use the kind that also have large, raised numerals on them.
There have been times when I have not used a pillbox kind of thing, when I’ve labeled each bottle and lined them all up in a row in a cardboard box. When I did that, I would have the bottles labeled in Braille. I would work from left to right, top to bottom, and the minute I’d taken a pill I’d put the bottle back in the empty place, pick up the next bottle and proceed until I had completed the number of bottles for that period. I separated the bottles so I had different places for morning and evening meds. Sometimes that meant putting meds in smaller bottles but I always Braille labeled those. Still, I like the pillbox idea better.
If you’re traveling and only need to bring one dose with you, there are pill boxes that snap shut securely and can fit into a pocket. They can hold some pills, enough for a dose for most people. I’ve never seen them labeled but if it’s only for one dose, you take out the pills from the labeled boxes or bottles in advance and put them all into the little box. I still don’t like to take some of the meds I have to take. There are so many and I sometimes don’t like thinking that I’ll have to take them for the rest of my life. In addition to that, they are not the complete solution, only a big part of the whole. Hope I could contribute some helpful ideas, especially if there are any blind, visually impaired or other print-disabled people who have any kind of medical conditions, particularly bipolar disorder since most of us who read the blog either have bipolar disorder or are supporting someone, a partner, other family member or friend, who has the disorder or who are mental health professionals or other medical professionals. Now the next thing I have to do is try to figure out how I can get Julie’s materials put into Braillle and other alternative accessible formats.
Happy Thanksgiving to all and I know I’m thankful that I have access to a computer and the very expensive adaptive technology that is required for a blind person to access it.
Laura
I found a great website http://www.moodtracker.com that sends me text messages throughout the day to remind me to take my meds. You can set it up with your specific times and the message you want to send. I also have a text reminder to set up to have me track my mood each evening.
This has worked great for me especially for those middle-of-the-day meds that I always get busy and forget.
Setting an alarm is a great idea but what if you continue to put it off? I am becoming notorious for not taking my meds around the holidays-I realize now that I’ve done it several years and counting. My friend commented that it’s probably because I want to be all up and energetic to be able to keep up with my huge holiday plans and schemes. This year I have to be extra careful because every time I go off my meds it takes longer to re-establish my stability. Any ideas for what would encourage me to take those meds even when I really don’t want to?