What's the biggest challenge about keeping on top of your medication? Share your thoughts for a chance to win a £200 voucher

Me and my husband have to take tablets both underactive thyroid I take vitamins also and husband has to take warfarin tablets and depression tablets this one particular day I was sorting them mine and his separately I was really tired and got distracted and accidentally took my husbands tablets I did inform the doctor who told me what to look out for so now I do husbands first once he's taken his then I do mine

Im pleased to say I don’t have this problem as I don’t take any medication and try to keep it that way.

Making sure that Local Surgery and Pharmacy computer systems are talking to each other Had lots of monthly prescription requests that have not been put through.

Both parties blame each other and their respective IT systems

Ensuring that l don't lose or inadvertently throw medicines away.

The biggest threat to remembering to take my medication is a temporary change in routine. I don't have an issue unless it's routine related, having someone to stay, being on holiday or having a change to my routine to fit in an early start etc can all lead to a forgotten pill.

henetha

Why is it that I never forget my morning tablets but have trouble remembering my evening ones? I really must find a way.

My husband takes one evening tablet and there is a message from Alexa to remind him to take it.

Mine are delivered each month by my local chemist.

My morning blood pressure tablets are in a rotating dispenser and my evening ones, for restless legs, are in a pink zip up case.

The main problem is having to wait at least 4 hours between taking paracetamol, by which time my legs are driving me insane. I often have to get up and walk around for a while, before I spray them again with magnesium oil, and rub in magnesium cream.

Only take two a day so no big problem for me

I take supplements so no biggy if I miss.
Bottles are kept next to my mugs in the cupboard so I see them at breakfast and lunch.

I take a cocktail of prescribed tablets and supplements every day and a small number in the evening. Remembering in the morning is no problem -Blood pressure tablet when I wake up, on an empty stomach then the rest with breakfast. It's the evening I struggle with as I sometimes forget to take them. Fortunately I don't seem to have suffered ill effects when I have forgotten. I'm also on weekly Ozempic injections. The syringes need to be kept in the fridge so not by my other meds so I sometimes forget when it's due. Again it doesn't seem to be a problem if I miss and take it a day late and if I'm going away for a week or less I adjust the days so I don't have to take it away with me! It was fun travelling to visit my DD overseas for 3 weeks as I had to pack the syringe with a freezer pack and faced lots of questions at Heathrow!

What most irritates me is the way the pills and their accompanying boxes keep changing in size, shape and colour from one month to the other.

My biggest problem is very small pills in blister packs that are difficult to open if you have any issues with manual dexterity.

My medication comes in a blister pack because I have Parkinson’s and need to take my pills every four hours all through the day, then at bedtime I have to take two slow release tablets that see me though the night.

I take two tablets each morning. Fine if I am in a routine but going away or anything unusual disrupts this unless I am very careful.

I take a huge amount of medication weekly. I have five containers with the days of the week that I fill up weekly. It takes me most of a morning . I have to be very careful that I get this correct. I just hope I can continue to be compus meatus as I'm heading towards bring an octogenarian. No one will know if I get them wrong though.

Many people do the same I know, but my husband takes a lot of medication and couldn't really manage without the box that holds his week's pills. He reloads them every Saturday and it serves the dual purpose of daily reminders and also a check on whether he needs a new prescription.
I agree that it is different if the appearance of the pill is changed, but at least if you are methodically stacking your box once a week it is simpler to keep track of what you are taking.
I only take statins which I believe are recommended to be taken at night, but I find it easier to do it at breakfast time when I take my vitamin supplements. Petra's idea of leaving the evening pills on the pillow is excellent and I may try it though.
The pharmacy buys different brands all the time, but I'm sure that I'm like most others in preferring the packs which are labelled with the day of the week.

Graphite: I’d be interested to know what records pharmacies keep about patients who need lifelong medicines and whether ordering from pharmaceutical companies takes into account anticipated regular repeat requests.
I ordered my medication early last month because I was going to run out on the day I returned home but unfortunately the GP forgot to sign the request so it was not sent to the local pharmacy. However my pharmacist checked his records and gave me an emergency supply to last me until the GP could send the prescription, and deducted this supply from what he provided when I called in again. This is the sort of service that we can get from a good local pharmacy which we're unlikely to get from a supermarket or national chain.
Our GP has a practice pharmacist who checks my husband's medication at regular intervals and makes adjustments - for example recently two of the drugs were doing the same job and could be adjusted so his regular prescription was simplified.

i use an online service as it is difficult to physically get to the GP surgery and luckily they do give me email reminders.
i do take the tablets in bed in the morning before getting up and when i go to bed. the problem is i do it so often i often worry if i have taken or not.
i did think about a pill reminder container but i take so many they do not fit!

There's a pharmacist at my gp surgery once a week or fortnight, and i had a medication review done by her.
Then discovered that two pills (important ones) had been somehow wiped from my prescription, so had to spend ages sorting it out, and weaning myself back onto the pills.

It was almost impossible to work out which pills were missing, since they aren't described on the dosset box provided, and frequently change as different brands are used.

I did away with the dosset box in the end.
There's no point in me studying six "small white, round" pills and trying to work out which is which.

My biggest problem was just getting a medication (recommended in writing by a consultant who investigated and diagnosed my health condition) put on repeat prescription. For months and months I had to complete the GP practice online triage form every month requesting it. I invariably got a reply saying the issue was categorised as non-urgent and the delay led me to run out before a new prescription was issued. I finally got it put it on repeat when I asked at the end of a face to face consultation about something else, my 10 minutes was up and I saw the doctor's hesitation before he agreed.

Reported