Now a serious subject in organizing. Prescription and over the counter medications. They can be dangerous if not organized and taken care of. Note that I have no medical training and that nothing is to be taken as medical information - just how I deal with and make sure our medications are organized and safely stored.
We have no children and none come in the house, so we do not have to worry about children getting their hands on medications in our house, but if you have children who live or come into your house make sure that all medications including over the counter ones are in a location that children absolutely cannot reach. This includes any “day of the week” boxes and children considerably older than you might think. Don’t forget to make sure that pets also cannot take your medications. In medications all things are better safe than sorry.
My husband and I each have several conditions which we take medications for, on an ongoing basis. When husband was diagnosed and given his first pill - he was to take it daily - I went out and bought a day of the week box. I told him that I would put his pills for the week in the box on Saturday nights for him. He insisted that he did not need one. I pointed out to him that sooner or later he would be unsure if he had taken his medication and we would be able to tell by looking in the box - otherwise we would have to know when he started the bottle of pills and then count the remaining pills and figure out if there was an extra pill. This was much simpler - and it works.
Over the years we have progressed to a day of the week box for each of us in our bedroom for morning pills, a day of the week box for each of us in the kitchen for our lunch and dinner pills, and a day of the week box in the kitchen for husband’s bed time pills. That’s 5 separate boxes all together. They are generally filled Saturday night for the coming week - sometimes on Friday if we know we will be home extremely late on Saturday night. I also note any pills which need to be refilled at that time. (If you don’t renew your pills, you can’t take them.) Your doctor and the pill bottle should tell you when to take the pills and if they are all taken at once or spread over the day. It is urgent to take them as you are suppose to so that you have the correct amount of the medication in your bloodstream. Too much could have serious problems. Too little may be of no value. Generally pills which are taken over the day are taken when you are awake. For example, “take every 4 hours” does not usually mean that you need to wake during the night to take a dose - but check with your doctor if you are not sure. I have found that generally pills such as this are intended to be taken over 12 hours - such as every 4 hours,4 times a day or every 6 hours, 3 times a day.
Most of our prescriptions these days come in a 90 day supply - a big bottle for some of the larger pills to deal with, especially if one of us takes multiples of the pill during the day. So I have kept a 30 days supply bottle for each pill and count out a 30 day supply from the 90 day bottle and keep it in the matching 30 day bottle. NEVER HAVE AN UNMARKED OR MISMARKED BOTTLE OF PILLS OF ANY TYPE. One time we had a problem in which what we knew should be full 90 bottles of pills only had 60 days worth. Since then I make a line on the lid of the 90 day bottle each time I take out 30 days worth of pills, so if I run short I know that something was wrong.
Always know what pills you and any one else in your house whose pills you are responsible for are taking and what dosage they are. (One time instead of blood pressure pills I was given an asthma inhaler, major problems would have resulted if I had not immediately known it was wrong.) Know what the pills look like. When you get the pills from the pharmacy - by mail or in person - make sure the name and dosage of the pills are correct, as well as the count on the bottle. Also know and check if your medication is “ER” - extended release as same is different than the regular version of the same medication. (Never cut an ER pill - or any other for that matter - unless you check with your doctor or pharmacist. ER pills are generally in a outer shell which dissolves over time dispensing the medication into your system a certain amount at a time.) Then open the bottle and make sure the pills look like they should. If they don’t bring them to the pharmacy or call the mail order pharmacy and check that the pills are correct. We check our pills before we leave the pharmacy section of the store. If you are taking generic medication the brand can change and the pill can be different in appearance. (One of husband’s pills changed from orange to green with a change in brand.) NEVER ASSUME THAT PILLS THAT LOOK DIFFERENT THAN LAST TIME YOU TOOK THEM ARE THE SAME - ASK.
I know you have heard this before - take your medications as you are told to and take the full amount you are suppose to. If you are told to take a medication for a certain period take it for that period. If you are told to take all the pills in the prescription - take all the pills according to the instructions. If you are told to take the pills and renew the prescription - do so. Stopping some pills just because you feel better can result in your condition getting worse and with others stopping pills all at once can be a problem if you have to taper off the pill. Never give your medication to anyone else, even if they have the same symptoms.
If you are taking pills “as needed” watch the expiration date and dispose of the pills after the expiration date. The current recommended method of disposing of your past due or unneeded pills is to crush them and add them to something someone would not eat - the garbage in general, kitty litty, coffee grounds. It is no longer recommended that you flush the pills down the toilet as water supplies are being contaminated by same.
I keep our 30 day supply bottles of pills in one of my kitchen cabinets - the bottom shelf of the already mentioned cabinet left of the sink. I keep our 90 day bottles in the medicine cabinet of our downstairs bathroom which has no shower or tub. It is recommended that medications not be kept in a bathroom with shower or tub as the room gets steamy and it is not good for the pills. If you have children - remember - make sure the pills are locked in someway to keep them out - small children might think it is candy (never tell a child that your medicine or the child’s medicine is candy) and an older child might be looking to take your medication to get high. Check medications to see if there are any special conditions that they must be kept under - say a certain temperature range.
Over the counter medications are real medications and have side effects. Always check the side effects before buying OTC medications and make sure that they do not interfere with your prescriptions medications - call your pharmacist or doctor if you are not sure. OTC medications should be disposed of, as above, when they go past their expirations date.
Now, we want to have the same OTC medications upstairs and down. I keep the old bottle when the contents are used up or disposed of and redate it with the date of the new bottle. I only do this with the EXACT same medication. I then put half of the new bottle in the old bottle. I put, for example, aspirin in the aspirin bottle and write on the new expiration date. I would never put Advil in an aspirin bottle. Be very careful if you do this. Don’t buy more than you can use before the expiration date, unless it is the smallest amount.
It is urgent that medications be stored and taken properly and kept safely away from children and pets and anyone else who cannot be trusted not to take them - on purpose or by accident. If your medications are not organized and properly stored the wrong pills might be taken, the pills might be taken at the wrong time or in the wrong number, the pills might be taken by the wrong person, you might run out of a vital medication, you might stop taking pills too early or take them too long or too much. Check your prescriptions now and make sure they are correct and set up to take correctly. Dispose of any prescriptions or OTC medications which are no longer needed, used, or past their expiration date. Medications used properly improve or save our lives. Medications used incorrectly can have the opposite effects and can be catastrophic.
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