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

I seem to take them on autopilot and it is becoming tricky. As I regularly ask myself if I had taken them.....can sometimes make me adhere on the side of caution and not take the next one. I have to say to myself right pay attention and make a mental note when I take them. Doesn't always work though as depends on concentration levels.

It takes me 35 minutes once a week to sort my pills into a 7 day four times daily dosette box.I sit at a small table on my own with no TV or music.At least one pill will roll onto the floor and depending on the colour will take some finding !!.
The most awkward part is when the manufacturer changes either the shape or colour of the pills or both.
I also chew one calcium tablet twice a day,plus four insulin injections.
Thank god for the NHS and a sense of humour.

My problem is the chemist keeps changing the supplier of the tablets so at present my 100 mcg thyroxine is smaller than my 25 mcg thyroxine tablet. The 25 mcg has 25 on one side but the 100 mcg has nothing and it looks very similar to my candasartan tablet. It would be so easy to take the wrong tablet at the wrong time.

I have a box for a week, so that I load this up on a sunday, from the various prescription, taking them from their foil containers etc. Living alone, this works well , so that I have a routine, and if I am not sure I can always look and check that I am up to date, and have taken the correct amount. I keep the box in the same place, each time.

If I am going away for just a night or a couple of days, I take this box with me and have my prescription in my wallet, so that should I be challenged about any tablets, or need to show them if I unwell. However , if I am going away for longer I also have the tablets in their foil containers.. and definitely if I am going abroad, with a current prescription form with me, to ensure that I have no problem if some medication is not available in another country.

The main problems are - chemists having to get things from various people so that you may not have the same colour /size every time. That so many tablets are just plain white, and it seems a pity that they can not put small numbers or symbols on them so that they would be easier to distinguish.

Liaison between the consultant and the GP.
Why can't they ^ever& sort this out!

I remember when warfarin was dispensed in different strengths each one a different colour. And they were in bottles, not in strips. Patients would leave the doctors room with a bemused look on their face and I’d explain that they had to take 1 yellow, two blue ( or whatever colour they were). It was so dangerous. What concerns me now is that we always had two people checking each prescription and now it’s just one, because mistakes do happen. Prescriptions are never ready at our doctors these days and there is always a queue of angry people, some of whom have been back twice.

For me, the biggest challenge is recognising, and understanding, the long-term side-effects of medications.

If, as we age, more and more drugs are added to the schedule, the side-effects can be profound.

GPs etc cannot be expected to have a complete knowledge of all the drugs they prescribe, so I think it has to be up to the patient to do the research. However, this can be exhausting and time-consuming.

The reason why I think this is important is because symptoms which sometimes send patients to their GP because they think they might be developing a 'new' problem, might well be a lot more to do with the possible long-term side-effects of the drugs they are taking.

Obviously, some side-effects of specific drugs are well-known and GPs might recognise them... but - the long-term effects, not so much.

In my own case, one specific drug has caused immense problems - but it's only because I've done a huge amount of research that I've been able to understand them. And, more importantly, take action to counteract such effects. I should add that I've done this with the approval of the pharmacist at my local surgery who has been willing to spend some time discussing the issues.

However, how many patients are suffering from side-effect, long-term, and don't recognise that fact?

I take four tablets daily. Three in the morning and one in the evening. I rarely forget to take them. They are all in blister packs. Three of them are easy to pop the tablets out. They are plastic blister packs. The other one, a statin, is in a foil blister pack and the tablet doesn't come out easily. If you try to push it out it comes out squashed. I get a knife and cut the foil to get the tablet out. Not a major problem for me but it may be for some.

My husband takes several tablets and sometimes forgets the one he takes in the evening. He now sets an alarm on his phone to remind him. This works when we're at home but is sometimes a bit difficult when we are out. We don't have many problems with ordering prescriptions. It's all very efficient.

As some of the tablets DH takes are cancer drugs, he's specifically told not to decant them into other containers. So he's made a spreadsheet to tell him when to take them and he crosses them off when he has. Morning and evening ones aren't so much of a problem but the lunchtime one can be tricky to remember if we're out.

Personally, I find the blister pack on my statins is difficult to get into - so, like Kate1949, I have to break through the foil, although I usually use a thumbnail rather than a knife. Proper recycling of the packs via the council refuse system would be useful.

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

henetha I set an alarm on my phone.
I use my phone alarm for twice a day blood thinners, other drugs are not so time critical, statin at bedtime, bp pill first thing in the morning.

The biggest problem I find is that some of mine must be taken after food and some before. Also some can't be taken with certain others at the same time. It drives me mad trying to fit them into my day.

My mother-in-law's pharmacy arranged for her medication to be organised into a sort-of blister pack.
Hers had four rows and lasted for a week.
They delivered the next week's pack every Thursday from her local chemist.

It was a free service and really excellent.
I think it's worth asking.

When I say 4 rows, I mean four per day. It had the days and dates already on the pack.

My pills live in a box beside my bed. Two in the morning , two in the evening.just automatic now.

I tried the dosset box from the chemist, but the pills aren't labelled or described anymore, it seems.
So, i could end up with five small white pills to take - except one has to be after food, one with food, one an hour before food, and so on.
I did have twenty five pills to take each day (!) but I've cut out five of them, as they were all blood pressure related, despite me politely telling doctors I don't actually have high blood pressure.

Since I've now "only" got the twenty to take, my present system is two boxes.
As i take one, I put the pack in one box. (Hopefully!) with the rest in the "to take" box.

I've also given up on the with food, without food, after food instructions, and just take my chances.

Medications shouldnt be dispensed un lump sum bottles. The chemist should fill a monthly mon-tues-wed box if requested that way. It should be labelled by the numeric date 1-2-3.

The blister packs used to dispense medications when i was at work were much better.

They described the pills, but the ones i get now are all different shapes and sizes.
I also have trouble getting them out of the foil!
It takes so long, I sometimes forget if I've taken a pill or not.

I ask Alexa to remind me to take my tea time meds and give her a time. Works well for me. I always remember morning ones as take before breakfast but teatime ones I use to forget as busy doing something.

I’m on a raft of medication for BP, blood thinning, bone strengthening, reflux, statin, eye drops for glaucoma, etc, of which I take some after breakfast and the rest after dinner. My biggest problem is sourcing enough paracetamol to treat my arthritis. My orthopaedic surgeon says it should be prescribed by my practice but they refuse so DH and I buy supplies at every opportunity. I don’t mind paying for them but only 32 are allowed per transaction. I’m not allowed ibuprofen which gave better relief but I can use gel containing it.

The blister packs my mother-in-law had made up looked like this but included written instructions and photos of the various medications on the left hand side when the book-shaped dispenser was opened.

This "Dosette Service" made everything so much easier.

My husband had to take a series of medication with/without/before/after food recently like MissAdventure and he was nearly driven mad by it. If he didn't eat at specific times the whole regime went to pot.
There had to be an easier way than this if you have this regime every day!!!

henetha

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

I put mine on my pillow. You can’t miss them when you pull the covers back. Fool proof.

I take 1 tablet in the morning and 3 at night. My biggest challenge is when the brands are changed and the pills look different to what I had before. Also, I hate taking giant pills! So I break them in half and swallow twice.