I may have forgotten to take my preds today!!! Help!!

[isabella2015]

Oh dear I don't know if I have taken my preds today, normally I am well organized. No idea! What shall I do, have a busy day??? Please if anyone has an idea? I normally take 15, I know I know silly me!!!

[DorsetLady PMRGCAuk volunteer]

Hi Isabella.

Suggest you take 5mg now. Then if you feel unwell later you can take another 5mg. If you have taken your Pred already - then another 5mg won't do any harm.

Get yourself a tablet box from chemist or on line, choose a quite time to sort your tablets for the week - and it won't happen again.

[isabella2015]

Dearest Dorset lady, Thankyou Thankyou!! I have a medicine box but had taken out today's as I was breakfasting with a cousin here in Spain which was early for me so as to take them after - too long a boring story sorry!! Will do as you say and be much more careful I hope!!!! Xx

[Patricia157]

Sorry I can't help you as regards today's pill problem but I am sure someone will suggest a solution.

It is quite easy to forget things, I know I have. Now I have an App on my iPad called ' Pill reminder'. It not only let's you tick when you have taken your pills but will remind you when you should reorder more. This is assuming you set it up with the number of pills you have and periodically keep a check.

Another way is to get a weekly pill box from a chemist and fill it up weekly. Or keep a note on your calendar as to how many Prednisolone you have when you get a new supply.

Maybe as the day goes on you will recall whether you did take them or not.

Best wishes

[isabella2015 in reply to Patricia157]

Patricia157 Thankyou! I'm surprised or am I to realize I'm getting dopeir each year and actually I thought when I started on preds a couple of months ago my memory was improving!,

[PMRpro Ambassador]

Taking a double dose once won't do any harm - you'll just have an extra good day with a bit of luck!

To a great extent it does depend on how bad your PMR is - if a much lower dose would be enough you will be fine for one day, especially if the antiinflammatory effect is long for you. If it were only at the 12 hour end then you would have realised by now you hadn't taken them I'd have thought. I used to take a double dose every second day for a long time and it worked fine for me - it isn't recommended generally for PMR though.

[isabella2015]

Wow so so helpful xx gracias - muchas!

[Hidden]

Try an indelible marker and writing days on the blisters holding the tablets in. Like they print on The Pill. Then you can check at any point in time what day should be empty!

[HeronNS in reply to Hidden]

Your pills are in blisters?

[Hidden in reply to HeronNS]

Yup, as in strips of foil rather than loose in a bottle.

[HeronNS in reply to Hidden]

That seems a bit environmentally unfriendly.

[Hidden in reply to HeronNS]

You're right. Will ask at the chemist when I go for a top up. Everyone else gets them in bottles/tubs then?

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to Hidden]

It depends on who the current supplier is and how they supply them. I was on enteric coated pred in the UK and initially the pills were in blister packs. Then I got new batch - I was living part time here in Italy at the time so got 6 months worth at a time - and they were in bottles.

I don't know whether it was coincidence or not but the 5mg batch were dodgy in some way - either it was a different manufacturer with different fillers that didn't agree with me or they were counterfeit - whichever, they didn't work. I was fine on the same dose using the 2.5mg pills but of course I used them at twice the rate.

The blister packs are partly to protect the tablets from the environment - damp doesn't do them any good and many people keep their tablets in the bathroom in a cabinet. It is also more obvious if someone has tampered with them. I find them easier to get at - I detest child-proof containers. Most children can open them, I can't!

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

I enjoy the option of getting a non-childproof cap. Also I reuse the bottle, they just refill the empty container and slap on a new label. I keep the bottle in an airtight ziplock bag. As I'm taking 4 x 1 mg tablets daily I shudder to think how much plastic and foil I'd be going through!

[PMRpro Ambassador in reply to HeronNS]

Having been unable to get my anti-coagulation med sorted out (my INR swung from 1.3 to over 5 for no apparent reason when it should be between 2 and 3) I have been started on a new one. It comes in capsule form, is very sensitive to humidity - you can't even dispense it into a dosette box - and comes in an ENORMOUS thick foil blister pack. It is assiduously put into the metal recycling!

[HeronNS in reply to PMRpro]

I completely understand that sometimes the packaging is necessary. And it's also useful for OTC meds which might be used on an occasional basis, hence take many months if not years to use up. But where I'm galloping through hundreds of these pills in a relatively short time it does make more sense for me to receive them in the loose format. Considering what all this prednisone is probably doing to our water supply, I'm a bit silly to even care about the package it comes in!

Most blister packs here, unfortunately, are mixed metal and foil and we can't recycle them.

[HeronNS in reply to Hidden]

As Eileen indicates, you may not have the option. I just didn't know until recent conversations about pills that some areas do distribute them in blister packs. And her points about potential problems with loose pills are well taken, although I believe I manage mine well.

[PastMeBest]

Hi isabella2015 you can get an App for Android or Apple phone/tablets that will remind you to take your medication. They call it Medisafe. I use it myself and find it very useful. Just tick when you take your melds then you can't get mixed up. You can also put in Appointments, Doctors details and more.

Regards. John

[isabella2015]

Past!MeBest Thankyou! Will find it!

[Grants148]

I sometimes cannot remember whether l have taken the preds or not ,this is usually because l have something else on my mind and l am not concentrating enough on what l am doing.l also take levothyroxine and the pills look the same as the preds, l keep them well apart as l would not want to overdose on the levothyroxine and l am probably stupid enough to get them mixed up ,which could be a disaster. They both come in blister packs which look exactly the same.The medisafe app is a brilliant idea,thank you Past! My Best, and being so forgetful l am definitely Past my best.