Get your medicine organized

February 22, 2021, Posted in Blogs I Follow, Gigi's Blog, Tips From the Pros Comments: No comments

Thanks to Cindy Bernstein of Aim4Order for this episode of Tips from the Pros with her blog about how to get your medicine organized.

Get your medicine organized for better health

With everything happening in the world with the pandemic, it’s very important to get your medicine organized to stay as healthy as possible. Let’s take a look at how this can happen without putting too much effort into it.

Expired medications?

Prescription and over-the-counter medications have expiration dates. Start organizing your medications by going through everything and eliminating the medicine that is expired or that you no longer take.

Drug disposal

You should not throw prescriptions into the trash or flush them because the medication will eventually end up in the water table. The best way to dispose of prescription meds is to take them to a prescription drop-off location. There are many locations across Maryland that will accept your prescriptions.

Everything in its place

It’s a good idea to keep your medications, including over-the-counter drugs, in one location. That way you always know where they are when you need them. You will spend less time going from room to room searching for that pain pill or ointment when you are not feeling well.

As always, keep like things together. So pill cutters, syringes and any other medical equipment belongs in the same location as the medication.

Did I take my pills today?

People who take multiple medications daily often use weekly pill holders. By using one of these, you can look at the day marked on the container and make sure you took your medication on that day. The pill holders usually span from Sunday through Saturday, so on Saturday evenings each week you put the pills for the coming week in the individual day slots. Then all you have to do is take them on the correct day.

During COVID-19, many of us are spending days at home and one day seems to melt into the next. It’s easy to get confused about whether pills were taken today, or was it yesterday?

It’s easy to check and see if you can’t remember whether you took your pills or not. This reduces your chances of missing a necessary dose or accidentally taking a double dose. If you take pills multiple times a day, there are more elaborate pill holders that will accommodate you.

Medication delivery services

Another way to keep tabs on your medications is to use a service where your medications are sent in packets for each day. All of the pills are in the packet for a given day and time. This is another method to keep track of whether or not you remembered to take your pills.

You send them your doctor and insurance information and they will take it from there. Add vitamins to your packet so everything is there. Amazon Pill Pack is one such service. Amazon says their service is most useful if you take three or more pills daily.

If you take one or two pills a day, you can still use delivery services available at many local pharmacies to have prescriptions mailed to you at no charge when they are ready. This will keep you from having to go into the pharmacy in person. You can stay safe at home.