Meds three times a day: How punctual are you?

[CD68]

I take my meds at 6am, 2pm, 10pm.

I wake up late and take the morning med whenever I wake up..I am not employed, I've got a passel of kids at home--I'm not eager to set an alarm clock.
Sometimes I don't pay attention to the clock in the afternoon. I need to get a watch with an alarm or something.

Are you really punctual with your meds? How do you do it?

 

[daisy_dueller]

I'm horrible at taking pills...so I don't set specific times...I take them when I get up, when I get home from work, and right before bed...it seems to work for me...although I tend to forget the nighttime one. I wanted to get a watch with multiple alarms, but never did...I still think that would work for me, but I'm too cheap

 

[My Butt Hurts]

I have to take my pentasa 4 times a day, so I take it before I leave the house in the morning, then with lunch, with dinner, and before bed. I rarely forget, but if we eat dinner late, then I can't go to bed early because the doses will be too close together.
I think most meds should be taken 4 hours apart minimum, so maybe you could do breakfast, dinner, bed instead of the 2PM one.

 

[CD68]

No pun intended, but I'm trying to figure out how anal retentive I need to be about taking my meds on time. I remember to take them three times a day, I'll be off by as much as two or three hours though.

 

[Colt]

It depends on the medication. Some meds like anti-seizure medications for epileptics or insulin for diabetics really need to maintain a certain level at all times. Going too much one way or the other causes problems. Most meds are not a problem though. You just need to generaly take it at the right time. Professionaly we have 1 hour in either direction to give the med so a 2 hour window and that's with rather strict professional standards.

As for how far apart they need to be it depends heavily on the half-life of the medication. Generally the pill bottle will give you a good idea of how long that is when it says tak every so many hours.

If you want to ask about specific meds I can answer those questions for you.

For me I take some of my pills at hs (within the hour before sleeping) and my tramadol I generally take 3 times a day and am very loose with it. I take it when I first get to work and then when I feel that it's worn off I take it again. So I end up taking it every 4-5 hours for the first part of the day and then none in the evening. Taking it in the evening isn't necessary because I don't really need to use my joints much.

 

[daisy_dueller]

Hey Colt! I posted in the treatment section for this as well...I'm on Imuran...150mg 3 pills a day...on the pill bottle it says 'take 3 tablets daily'...does that mean all at once, or at intervals?? Right now I'm on intervals, but it wouldbe much easier to remember if I could take them all at once! Thanks for your offer of help

 

[theone]

I only take 4 Pentasas twice a day and believe me, I forget at least 3X per week

 

[NatalieMT]

I always take my medication at random times, I'm really bad with it actually, I should set specific times and stick to them. I have a whole host of pills in the morning, about 3 at lunchtime, 5 with dinner and then another massive lot right before I go to bed. I do have one of those pill boxes and have them all counted out for the day though, because I am also forgetful.

If I'm in more pain or the D is getting bad I have stuff I can add in as well, so that's randomly timed too I suppose.

 

[Serafina]

When I was on the Pentasa x4 twice a day, I made sure there was at least seven hours between the morning and evening doses, but otherwise I didn't stress about it. Sometimes the morning one would be at 6am, sometimes at midday; and I'd time the evening dose based on that.

 

[Colt]

Hey Colt! I posted in the treatment section for this as well...I'm on Imuran...150mg 3 pills a day...on the pill bottle it says 'take 3 tablets daily'...does that mean all at once, or at intervals?? Right now I'm on intervals, but it wouldbe much easier to remember if I could take them all at once! Thanks for your offer of help

You can take it once a day. That's what the prescription was for. Prescription language is VERY specific. Taking it 3 times daily isn't bad at all though and if the side-effects are rough on you it might reduce them some because you'll have less of a spike and trough in your blood levels.

 

[teeny5]

I take my meds the prilosec when I get up, then the rest with breakfast, lunch and then with dinner. This is the only way I can remember to take them. I know that I have to take pills every time I eat.

 

[D Bergy]

I take LDN once between 10:00 and 12:00 PM.

I probably forget about once a month on average. I also take supplements that I will miss about once a week or so, usually because I am away and I do not carry them with me. I do not worry about missing the supplements for a day, but the LDN I try not to ever miss.

I also am usinga homeopathic remedy which I try to take all the time, but in reality I am missing more than I should. It is hard to add something and not miss. Especially when the time I take it does not jive with anything else I take.

Dan

 

[Cog]

Good luck once a day I can cope with, twice a day is possible, 3 times a day I start missing and 4 times a day is a lottery. I am lucky at the moment only needing to take meds once a day. Good luck

 

[danman]

My God Colt, do you take Tramadol 3 times every day?
That stuff makes my head spin, I only take it if I'm in a lot of pain, and deffinatly not if I'm driving.

I tried taking it at work, but I was useless all day after taking it, so I don't touch it at work any more.

 

[Jax]

Crap! I just realised I forgot my lunch meds. Good thread!

I have the odd bout of forgetfulness but I am only on salofalk at the moment. The worst is trying to take it half an hour before food. When I was on pred I had a few scary times when i couldnt remember if I had just taken it or merely thought about taking it. i used a pill box then. Of course it helps when one remembers to actually fill the pill box...

 

[Colt]

Dan, I've learned the lesson that you should never underestimate my joint pain. I do indeed take it 3 times a day when I work. Because of the drug interaction I only use it while I'm at work as I can't do my job without it. On my 3 days off each week I just relax, try to go easy on my joints, and avoid using it as much as I can.

The pain's bad enough that I've fallen down stairs after my knees collapsed from the pain of taking a step. Using the stairs is extremely important because the elevators are too busy and you'd never get done in time trying to use them. I also have to stop work at times and just sit at the nurse's desk neglecting my patients while I take a moment to recover from walking all over the hospital and holding extremely uncomfortable positions bent over patients. If I hadn't gotten the tramadol when I did I would be using the darvocet and when they ran out I'd just not be able to work anymore.

 

[danman]

My God Colt, that's terrible.
Thank goodness, I don't suffer joint pain that bad.
Mines, is more uncomfortable pain in the joints.

 

[Colt]

Odd how I can be this bad and go to a rheumatologist, and not even get a rheumatoid factor done.

 

[danman]

Is that the blood test for arthritis?
I had that done a few years ago, it came out clear thank God.

 

[MINI Cooper]

I just take mine whenever I eat, which is never the same time every day.

 

[Kev]

"They" recommend that meds be taken on a punctual timetable... your body will learn to expect them that way.. lessening side effects and supposedly increasing the drugs effectiveness. Whether one buys into this or not, let me tell you what I learned the hard way... I usually use a pill calendar.. whether its age, crohns or the effect of the meds, my memory is swiss cheese.. full of holes and gaps. I had the misfortune of misplacing my pill calendar, so I opted to just take my pills from the bottle... until the other nite. I took my pills a bit early as I was exhausted, and didn't think I could stay awake till my usual time to take my last dose.. Fell asleep.. woke about 1/2 hour later, and without 2 clues, took my meds again.. That's 3 full grams of 5-ASA (2/3 of a days dose) in less than an hour. I'm lucky to be breathing.. Learned my lesson. Get a calendar, set a schedule, and stick to it. Bad enuff to have this disease without accidently dying from an overdose.

 

[Colt]

Is that the blood test for arthritis?
I had that done a few years ago, it came out clear thank God.

For rheumatoid arthritis. It's a screening test. A negative or positive greatly affects your chances of having the disease but it's not definitive one way or the other.

 

[danman]

For rheumatoid arthritis. It's a screening test. A negative or positive greatly affects your chances of having the disease but it's not definitive one way or the other.

Yea, that's the one I had.
I was getting a lot of pain in my hands a few years ago, and got scared it was rheumatoid arthritis.

My uncle has had it since his early 20's. He has it really bad. new hips, new knees, the works, all in his 40's. He's only 58 now, but looks like he's in his 80's. Poor man, he's suffered a lot.

I suppose when I got the pain in my hands, I got worried, so I got tested.

 

[Colt]

See what I mean? Apparently anyone can get an RF done but me.

 

[cheeky]

i take my meds (10 mg prednisone and 150 mg imuran) in the evening between 6pm and 7:30pm... i'm good with remembering to take them since i also eat dinner with the meds. i also had a job where i used to administer medication to clients so i'm pretty anal about being on time with meds. (or the 2 hour window as colt mentioned already)

something weird is, i guess it's anxiety but every night when i go to bed, around the same time 2:30 am, i wake up startled and think that i've forgotten to take my meds... i dunno what's up with that. it's really weird. maybe the odd night i don't do it, but usually it happens and i feel scared for a moment then i remind myself that i took them already.

 

[jamie2462]

since I have never taken any pills besides my B.C, I went out and purchased one of those plastic thingies for the morn, noon, even and night - RIght now since I'm just coming off a flare up I have a lot of pills to take everyday so it helps me keep them straight... Can't have this one so many hours before and after this...yadadadaada...after I figured all that out I was alright.

I am not a 100% punctual on the times, like right now I am off work so I take the morning pills around 7-7:30, but once Im back to to work next week it will be at around 6 -6:30....meh...not 100% cast in stone long as I get the right pills at the right point in the day.

 

[Colt]

I missed my elavil last night so I paged my doctor at 3AM and asked him what to do. He said 'Why are you calling me? Forget about it.' *CLICK* I then wrote a 2 page report on what I missed and why and then closely monitored myself and wrote a second report on how it didn't hurt me in any way. I then wrote myself a nasty letter telling me not to do it again and that next time I'll have to make someone stand over my shoulder while I take my meds or even take a class about it.

*Patiently waits to see if anyone gets the joke*

 

[CD68]

I missed my elavil last night so I paged my doctor at 3AM and asked him what to do. He said 'Why are you calling me? Forget about it.' *CLICK* I then wrote a 2 page report on what I missed and why and then closely monitored myself and wrote a second report on how it didn't hurt me in any way. I then wrote myself a nasty letter telling me not to do it again and that next time I'll have to make someone stand over my shoulder while I take my meds or even take a class about it.

*Patiently waits to see if anyone gets the joke*

LOL. I get it. I follow a lot of physician and nurse blogs.