How do you keep track of your medication refills?
Every person in my household takes a daily regimen of prescription medication and/or supplements. We keep ending up in situations where we run out of something because we don’t have a good way to keep track of our remaining supply of each thing. We need a better system for managing this!
We each use a 28-day (4 week) pill dispenser box which helps somewhat. I refill the dispensers when they are empty. The problem is, some of the medications run out in the last week of the dispenser. At the time I fill it, it’s way too early to call the pharmacy for a refill. But by the time the supply runs out I’ve forgotten about it and have to scramble to get more. I hope I’m explaining that clearly. It’s complicated because every medication runs out on a different schedule.
If you’ve got a solution to this problem please share it!
Folks who have ADHD medicine and other "controlled" type medicine aren't eligible for auto-ship and other mail type options. Which is hilarious given that it's the ADHD folks who need the auto-ship. If y'all know of one that can do it in Canada let me know.
If you guys can manage to scrimp and somehow do without for a few days until everyone gets everything at the same date, that might help. otherwise just digital calendar recurring event with repeating alarm until you do it.
I have this issue with my ADHD medication. To try and help me remember to order, I set a reminder to go off when I have 7 days of medication left and then again at 5,4 and so on.
It's very annoying, don't get me wrong, but I'd rather that than have to go without my medication.
Could you place a little note or other reminder (something small that is obviously not a pill) in the pill box of the day when you should remember to call for a refill?
That, or you could create a calendar reminder for each prescription. Google Calendar lets you set up recurring events with multiple reminders if that's what you'd prefer. I'm sure the other digital calendars do similar.
Talk to your pharmacist. Your options will depend on what the medication is, where you live, and where you get your prescriptions filled. Some chains will help you set up automatic refills or can work with your doctor/insurance to fill smaller or larger amounts to get refills on a more manageable schedule.
See if your pharmacy can sync your prescriptions. I know CVS offers prescription sync. Then everyone and everything is refilled at the same time.
I have one prescription that can't be synced and can't be on auto fill. Ive missed the refill a few times as well. I've been thinking about getting removable stickers of some sort to be able to mark the day on my 31 day pill box so I know when to refill. I haven't looked into it yet so I don't have any product suggestions, but it's been on my mind as well. Maybe some kind of sticker or marking system so you know the one with the mark is the day you need to refill.
I use an app on my phone called Tasks.org to set up repeating reminders to order refills each month. You can find the Android app on F-Droid.
here's what I do for household items that I want to make sure I never run out of, such as toothpaste. you could definitely do this for the non-prescription supplements, and depending on your pharmacist it may be possible to do it for the medications as well.
keep a "backup" of each item, stashed in a cupboard or somewhere. buy more not when you run out, but when you use up the main and switch to the backup.
for example, I'm about to "run out" of toothpaste, in the sense that the tube on my bathroom counter is running low. when I use it up entirely, I have a full tube sitting in one of the bathroom drawers. when I pull that tube out of the drawer, I add toothpaste to my shopping list. the newly-bought tube goes straight into the drawer, becoming the new backup.
I highly recommend Pillpack, now owned by Amazon. They handle all the refills, mail everything to your door, and there’s a small packet for each days meds, so it’s easy to keep everything straight. Look into it. Very cool.
My perscriptions tend to run out at about the same time, so I simply look in the bottle and put in the order the week before I would run out. Usually they're ready by the next day.
A lot of bigger pharmacies have an automatic service, especially if you're willing to have it mailed to you, where they will figure out how many days your prescription will last and they'll ship based on that.
I use a 7-day box, and that makes me look at it weekly instead of every 4 weeks. When I have less then 2 weeks of supply, I order refills. I think a 7-day box might be better than a 28-day box in your situation.
I also take one injection that I take every 2 weeks and pharmacy refill every 4 and doctor refill every 12. For that I use Google Calendar.
In England I told my GP that I wanted all of my medication on a single prescription form, and that I wanted all the refills to happen at the same time.
My 28 day prescription is sent electronically to the pharmacist I choose. I visit the pharmacy and collect my meds, and tell them that I need the same meds next month. (I don't even need to do that anymore - they auto get it each month).
Once per year I have a long-term-condition review from my GP, and once a year I have a medication review from the pharmacist.
As for the meds: I just take all the meds in the evening.
When I was taking chemo and chemo support meds I was given the meds I needed. Some of these were "take as needed" and some were "take according to this very strict timetable". I set android alarms for the timings, and I had a paper schedule listing what I needed to take and when I needed to take it, and this was pinned to my wall with a pen on a string pinned next to it and I crossed off the ones I'd taken. That schedule also had space for me to write in the meds I was taking PRN (as needed). I was having an infusion once every 28 days, and I was having weekly meetings with an oncology nurse specialist. My onco nurse was asking about concordance so I was able to tell him what meds I'd taken, and when. He needed to know about the "as needed" meds to make sure sickness was under control. (It wasn't, really, so we added something called aprepitant which was just three tablets per month).
Keeping on top of the meds you take is really important, but it's also a VERY COMMON problem. Lots of people struggle with it. EG, this from 2011 in the UK:
https://www.gov.uk/government/news/action-on-medicine-wastage-and-improving-medicine-use
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/8/1/e016982
Studies have found that paying full price for meds, or getting meds for free, does not make much difference to concordance. They've also found that the severity of the disease doesn't make a huge difference - one of the biggest reasons for donated-organ failure is because people can't keep on top of taking meds.
[EDIT here's an old, 2006, source for the above para: https://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/science/casenotes_tr_20060509.shtml ]
It's a massive problem, and anything that can fix it would be welcomed.
There were things like "Flo", and I guess AI tech bros are looking to give Flo a more conversational tone.
https://www.health.org.uk/news-and-comment/featured-content/power-of-people/flo
https://www.health.org.uk/article/overview-of-the-florence-simple-telehealth-text-messaging-system
Too early? Why?
When I notice there are only a few pills of a supplement left, I just go to the pharmacy to buy more. With prescription medication it's the same. In my country a prescription can be valid for the entire year (with the exceptions of narcotics).
lmao my ADHD medication's prescription is only valid for 6 days after writing it. But my country doesn't even do refills on medication, so I have to go to the doctor and get a new prescription every time I'm about to run out.
That's strange. But then again, each country is different. Here - an antibiotics prescription is valid for 7 days and we also don't do refills.
To ease up on visiting doctor, I'd ask 'em to write the maximum amount of methylphenidate, or whatever you're taking, possible.
oh yeah he writes it for two bottles of my meds instead of one. But there's ofc scrutiny if he writes more than that.