Happily sitting here on the computer while my washing machine did its thing. When I realized I had not taken my medicine today. Good grief. Here I am, nattering away to people about how to manage PMR and pred tapering and my own pred is still in the bottle. 🙄😀
Why don't I ever learn?: Happily sitting here on... - PMRGCAuk
Why don't I ever learn?
Written by
HeronNS
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65 Replies
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OH MY!!!! This is one of my biggest fears!!!! That I'll forget to take them... or not remember if I took them or not!!!!!
THAT is why chemists sell dosette boxes - then you can at least see if you forgot them. And phones have alarms. You can even get dosette boxes with alarms...
in reply to PMRpro
.... I am sooooo not that organised.
You only have to be organised once a month: sit down quietly with the monthly dosette set, dole out all your pills for each day and then reward yourself with that glass of wine you promised yourself for a job done. And your phone gets set once.
Just a quick query. Is alcohol allowed? I definitely would not consume any a couple of days before blood test however I do like my Kahlua and milk some nights.
In fact it's that fact my vitamins were still in the dosette box, or whatever they call them here, which confirmed I really hadn't taken pred. I wouldn't be without that organizer. But I think you have to leave pills in original bottles when travelling across borders or through airport security?
I carry both - no-one has ever said anything to me about it.
I'm tempted to fill the boxes, but take empty containers with me in case of questions, then throw the empties out when I get to destination.
I usually have a week of pills in boxes and the rest in their original package plus the repeat prescription but have never had a problem. Saying yes to the drugs question when entering Australia gets you through immigration in record time. Just asked if they were for medical use and waved through every time.
I take my meds in dosette box with script and I’ve never been asked about them
in reply to PMRpro
Me too l have a weekly one & only put my Pred in it, the rest are in original boxes apart from the current week(s) which are in the indestructible Red Bag!
Ooops. 😂😂😂 glad you remembered.
I’ve done similar onmore than one occasion Heron. Then I wonder why the aching gets worse as afternoon progresses.
Maybe it’s a good sign? That we feel well(ish) and can forget PMR for a while.
Of course I'm four hours earlier than UK (Atlantic Daylight Time) so it wasn't as dire as you across the Pond might have thought!
DorsetLadyPMRGCAuk volunteer
We’ve all been there!
The art.....is not to do it again! 😏
I started using a dosette box when medicating hubby as well as me!
Unless you have tablets in a foil strip with days on...and only take one of those tablets a day you’re stymied!
Add in more than one tablet per dose and Pred head ........😲 nightmare.
The pred is next to my vitamins which are carefully organized in what you call a dosette box but I think it has another name here. If the vitamins are still there it confirms pred hasn't been taken either....
You called me?
Hey, listen, I was doing that all the time until I started setting alarms on my phone for everything I need to take. I use the especially annoying "old phone" alarm for doses I should be taking when I might be asleep.
Personally, I've lost track of my "internal clock" that was once so reliable. I could tell within 2-3 minutes what time it was (no matter where in the world I was) without a clock or a watch. Now, I can't always tell whether it's noon or 5PM.
One of the pred side-effects, I expect.
Some days I have to look at daily newspaper to find out what day it is.😟
I look at the tray on my laptop. 3:43 PM 2018-04-11. Yikes, where is April going?
I work retail. I never know what day it is.
It comes back - I know probably 95% of the time when it is 4.25pm and time for my afternoon pill. Still on pred.
I split my dose. Rheumatlogist said as I go to 8mg to take it all at once to minimize side effects of Pred. Your thoughts? I listen to you over her!
No point minimising side effects if it doesn't work for you. That is the criterion. If he doesn't like it - don't tell him...
in reply to GOOD_GRIEF
Me too 're internal clock. Never had to wear a watch. Now like you I set alarms for everything.
I think I missed yesterday. My routine was disrupted by noisy building work starting very early in the morning in the vacant house next door. I couldn’t believe it when I saw 7 mgs sitting in their Tuesday box. I felt pretty ill yesterday with ear pain and scalp pain, I put it down to a virus. I cautiously took an extra 5 mgs today on top of 7 mgs for Wednesday. I still can’t believe I did it. I have just felt like sleeping today - could be the virus. Don’t know whether to take the 2 mgs? I was stomping around ranting instead of concentrating I guess. These builders have been a nightmare, different faces all the time, no communication, very on and off for over a year.
A tiny part of me thinks I may have taken them and then refilled all the daily boxes. It won’t kill me though.
Ooops! Hope you feel better tomorrow!
Thanks HeronNS, I hope you’re ok. If I was hoping for a zippy day, it didn’t happen, so I guess I did forget.
in reply to SheffieldJane
Disruptions to routine are memory blockers.
in reply to SheffieldJane
My friend has builders in next door and they are removing the chimney and changing stairs round etc. Our other friend was visiting and the vibration almost threw them off the chairs. I have offered her some ear defenders. She is 82 coping with a 6 month building project. Just glad it's not me. I had enough when my building work was done.
Hope you have found a pred level that suits.
This current home is the first brand new one - was wonderful! No more building projects - done enough of them! Or if I do, I won't be living there...
SheffieldJane in reply to
It’s hard to tell. I’ve got an odd selection of seemingly unconnected symptoms, like, sore eyes, sinus pain, stomach pain and nausea. PMR seems to be sitting back.
Next door wish to build an extension about 3 yards sideways from my back bedroom window, thereby cutting off a lot of my light and my view of the sunrise. Of course I have objected to the planning application and incited my neighbours to do likewise. Apparently it’s going to be a therapy centre. That’s a laugh. I’ve cursed it though, it will fail. 🧙🏻♀️
in reply to SheffieldJane
Oh no. We had a planning application stopped for building near ours. Its would effevt Light ,view ,privacy and wildlife in that area. We did letter and posted through doors then got a petition up about community neighbour might not small business. Lack of infrastructure etc etc. It succeeded and they had to stuck to original building. But everyone signed who lived around it.
SheffieldJane in reply to
I’ve done everything except the petition Poopadoop. I just don’t trust SCC after the tree fiasco.
We were planning a single storey addition to our house (cancelled in the end) but one of the first things we did was discuss it with the neighbour whose property would be partly shaded. I had designed the wall on their side so it would look like a garden wall and planned to plant climbing roses or something equally attractive along it.
We have never seen the new owner, just a motley selection of builders who work intensively then disappear for days. I think the plan is to create, for rent, as many therapy rooms as they can. As our area is already over served for this kind of establishment, it’s a puzzler. Rambling roses will be my back up plan or Wisteria which I love. I live in a conservation area ( Victorian) and they want this thing clad in zinc! I am trying to remain calm.😑
in reply to SheffieldJane
Quickly find rare orchid etc ..i withered on about barn owls roosting and hunting mice etc. There was a big family of urban fixes which were lovely to watch. We blocked 3 storey block of flats 50yds from my back door. He tried again and we petitioned again successfully. Eventual they restored the old mansion type house up and it's used as a mosque/school. And I don't have some planner staring at me from third floor. It was parking that did it too .
I love wisteria! And provided you aren't going to shade your own garden and depending on space maybe you could plant some trees which in due course will really hide the new building? I visualize laburnum, but honey locust is another beautiful flowering tree. Or cherries....
Thank you for the inspiration. I will have to get someone to create raised beds for me. I have little more than a walled back yard at present, with pots, a water feature and statues..
That sounds lovely! Yes, I'm sure there is something you can do which will create a visual distraction from the new building.
Keep nattering Heron. We all like it - and it helps 'Us PMR Lot' to know that we're not alone in these frustrating experiences! 
'Uncle' MB 
What PMR Pro said. Only Set the phone twice. I always need a ”backup” alarm.
So glad you wrote as I sit here reading in the US this morning and your post made me remember i did not take my pred.
I use an app on my phone - it's called Medisafe - you can put in all the medications you are using and when you should take them and set reminders. (A reminder to take my Adcal popped up while I was typing this). It suits me because I do spend a lot of time on my phone, i find reading on it easier than print these days. It tells me if I've missed doses too. I didnt want to buy one of those multidose boxes as I associate them with 'old people' 😀 OK at 71 I am old but I'm still trying to pretend I'm not!
I live in the Dark Ages. Cannot bring myself to pay the expensive data plan for a smartphone....
I couldn't either for quite a while but our internet at home is quite unreliable and I needed to access emails. Started paying £7.50 month (SIM only) and its crept up to more like £18 - and I've turned into one of those people who walks round clutching their phone in their hand. ☺It does give me something to do when I've got no energy though
I doubt I could get anything less than C$50 a month and that's for basic service with horrible little phone. If you want a better phone you get locked into multiyear contract.
Wow, that sounds expensive. Here (uk) I think my daughter pays less than £20 a month for an annual contract. There are generally special offers around
Canada is reputed to have the highest cellphone (and probably internet) charges in the world. Although a quick Google seems to say the US is even higher.
Lots of very young people use those boxes for synthroid. (Hypothyroid)
A good phone is a friend for life.
But saying that don’t know why we still call them phones there far much more.
Pocket computer would be nearer the mark. 😜
Kids in the future will be amused and surprised to learn that we once used phones to talk to people.
My younger grandchildren have phones without SIM cards so never use them to talk to people! My husband calls phones telephones and uses the landline so they think that telephone = landline and phone = smart phone!
Oops just reminded me to take mine. It's now all screwed up when I found out that you should not take pred and adcal together or adcal with broccolli or spinach. So now I have a whole lot of alarms set on my phone. I'm now taking turmeric, which I have to say seems to be making no difference to inflammation whatsoever and thats been 3 weeks now. Some people are saying it is wonderful. Hmm
Anyway, down the hatch.
Turmeric shouldn't be taken by people on anti-clotting medication as it has a similar effect. There are some other contraindications, but not, so far as I know, with pred. Referring to supplement form, not the root. I like tea made from ginger every evening (grated root) and feel it makes a difference, but subtle.
I hadn't heard about not taking calcium with broccoli, which is actually is itself one of our good sources of calcium. Spinach is another matter as it contains a substance (oxalate I think) which interferes with us being able to absorb the calcium. Mixed reviews about kale.
Broccoli has a moderately high oxalate level. like green peppers, so portion size becomes significant. It also depends on how they are prepared - cooking changes the oxalate content and cooked broccoli has a higher content than fresh.
But it is horses for courses: it is really only the foods with a very high oxalate content that affect calcium, like rhubarb and spinach. It is when you form stones that the other foods become significant. But the ways cooking affects the content has no logic to it at all - so you have to look it up!
I suppose this is what happens when so many lay people are giving opinions. Some gets lost in translation an misinterpreted. For many solitions you might have a range of opposing opinions and suggestions. I'll look into this one more.
Well, I suppose it's not really an issue for me as I take one supplement at lunchtime and don't eat leafy greens at that meal, rather cheese and fruit. And the other dose at bedtime with milk and yoghurt. It was when I was taking one of those doses with pred that I was making a big mistake! I never quite know what to do about other vitamins so basically just hope for the best and take them with morning or evening meal. Seems to be working for me.
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