I’m back on Prozac. My doctor had tapered me off of it, in the belief that the Neurontin, Welbutrin, and Lamictal would be enough. They weren’t. Sigh. I suppose a plethora of pills is better than my anxious, depressed, cranky natural state. Pills pills pills.
I heavily suspect many of my other problems are chemical in nature, which means that yet more pills will be needed once we get to them. At this rate I’m going to have to take two pillboxes to dorm with me every week.
It did make me feel kind of old, though. I went from not taking any medications except my birth control pills to taking several, like old people do. I haven’t given in and gotten one of those pill boxes with the days marked on it, though. That would make me feel really old. I know I will probably eventually break down and get one, but not yet, dammit! Rage, rage against the dying of the light, and all that.
One thing you’ll want to be sure of is that your pill containers are secure when you’re traveling. It’s a huge pain in the keister to fish loose pills out of your backpack or purse. You can probably guess how it is that I know that. Safety caps are your friends, here, but they’re not foolproof. It’s best to have the pill bottles in a separate compartment, so at least if they fall out they’re not mixed in with all your other stuff.
I take a bunch (for other reasons like asthma and thyroid and RLS) and yeah, I have the old-fogey pill organizers for AM and PM. At least they’re not one of those HUGE ones the size of a shoebox with
REALLY BIG LETTERS SO I CAN READ THEM :p.
Plus I have (and know how to use) a smartphone with a med tracking app so I’m not old, I’m up-to-date. Right? Right???
I periodically look at the assortment, think I should pour the day’s dose into a bowl with some milk and eat it with a spoon and some sliced bananas. I’d be full for hours.
Those pill organizers don’t look like they’d do a very good job of staying closed in a purse or backpack. Are they actually better than they look? Or do you have to make sure they’re not somewhere they’ll get jostled?
They make locking organizers like this one; mine look slightly different but same basic principle. I actually had trouble finding them in the drugstore, finally ordered a bunch from somewhere online - then the next week saw them at Rite Aid.
So I have a zipper pouch with my inhalers and my morning / evening pillboxes with me at all times.
I use a full month pill organizer because I have so many goddamn pills to take. Five prescribed drugs and three prescribed supplements every day, plus extras as needed. Nothing else can go wrong with me or the pills won’t all fit in the doohicker. I have gotten really good at swallowing a whole handful at once. One benefit of having had tongue surgery a couple of years ago is that now my tongue’s kind of lumpy, with divots for the pills to rest in and not roll off while I pick up my glass of pill-washing-down water, and I bet your doctor won’t prescribe tongue surgery just so you can be like me, so neener neener neener.
I have the old lady pill box. I didn’t KNOW it was an old lady pill box until my husband pointed it out to me. I just thought it would be convenient. There are AM & PM compartments for each day, and each day’s box can be used separately or hooked together with the whole week.
You must be a young’un, noticing you mention of living in a dorm. Hope you don’t learn the hard way what benzodiazepines will do to you. They may be good for short-term anxiety (like if you stress out near final exam week), but when used long-term they will more likely trash your head. Just wanted to warn you in case you didn’t already know, and in case they ever try to get to hooked on them. See www.benzo.org.uk
Between prescriptions and supplements, I take a handful of pills every day . . . plus injections of insulin (twice a day) and testosterone (every 2 weeks). I asked my doctor whether I would die if I stopped taking all my meds. He said, without pause, “Yes, quickly.”
I know what you mean. I just got off of generic Neurontin. I was so exited to only have five pills to take every day. On Tuesday my doctor upped my Effexor from 150 mg to 225 mg. They don’t make a 225 mg pill so now I have to take a 150 and a 75 together.
I keep all of my meds in their original bottles unless I’m traveling. The morning bottles are by the phone so I can see them when I get up. I still manage to forget about once a week, though. The bedtime meds are in a basket at the end of my bed. For travel, I have one of the old lady 7-day pill box things.
True, OP doesn’t mention benzos, but implies that more pills are going to be coming. And if it’s brain pills in general that they’re talking about, then benzos are a good bet to show up sooner or later. So I thought I’d throw in a little heads-up there. I just want to let the whole world know that benzos are problematical. While I don’t know if OP already knows that or not, I just wanted to be sure. You too, emmaliminal.
well, I thank you for the heads-up: I’m currently tapering off them as my doctor directed me. (Short-term prescription, but appreciate the info.) Ignorance Fought! Yay! >^.^< ~
I (I think) was given something in that family during the worst of my crisis last year, but I didn’t end up taking them very much. I haven’t used any since about last January. Don’t worry, I’m not going to get addicted any time soon.
If you’re looking at that benzo web site I cited, and you’re tapering off now, you should especially look at the Ashton document. There are several links to it on that site. But if you only used benzos short-term, maybe you don’t have a problem. Beware of long-term usage, however.
I know exactly how you feel! Before I had my kid I was on just birth control. And then when I was pregnant the only thing I had to take was prenatal vitamins.
And now, after dealing with a wicked bout of post partum depression and anxiety, I’m juggling Lexapro, Abilify (a WONDER drug, seriously), Lamictal, the occasional Lorazepam when I start having serious anxiety, birth control again, oh and some Adderal because I can’t work well or stay awake without it, and not to mention the allergy meds so I can stop sneezing during hay fever season.
My pill case is purple and cute, so I guess I’m not an old fogey yet. I hope. But with all these pills I feel like I’m 80.
I use a locking pill organizer. It has 28 boxes, for one week, four times a day. But I take most of my pills only in the morning, so I converted into a 4 week organizer and refill it every four weeks. All the pills I take are on a 30 day prescription, so it doesn’t quite work, but close enough. Occasionally, I refill it before it is empty, especially when I travel. A few years back, I got a couple pills that also had to be taken with dinner and I simply got a second one. The locks are intended to deter children, but would work pretty well in a purse. Although this 28 pill organizer might not fit in your purse.
I also have a tiny pillbox that I can put a couple days supply of the evening pills and put in my pocket. Funny story. I actually found it floating in the ocean. It looked like a plastic bottle cap and I thought I would do my part to clean the ocean. It turned out to be this little pill box and, mirabile dictu, when I opened it, it was dry inside. I don’t know how long it had been floating in the ocean but I was impressed. I took it home, washed it, dried it and have been using it ever since. It doesn’t open spontaneously either, but it doesn’t hold very much.
