I used to be one of those people who never took medications. If I had a headache, I would lie down and rest, drink water and wait for it to go away. If I had a cold, I stayed hydrated and ate well and let it pass. In hindsight, I'd say I was proud of my immune system and trusted it to work properly.
Not any more.
Today I wake up and take two Motrin, four 1mg of prednisone, a calcium tablet and a prescription strength folic acid tablet. I take three calcuim a day and later I take more Motrin. On Saturdays I take six 2.5mg of methotrexate. Once every other week I inject Humira with a thing I fondly call a Torture Injection Pen.
I know I'm lucky. The drugs work for me. The let me be myself and face the world and care for my kids and be a good wife. I know what it means to not have that, I watched my mom struggle for years taking asprin and a serious of horribly ineffective and sometimes damaging treatments. But I still hate that I have to take all these medications. I love them for what they do, and I hate that I need them.
OK. so add Celebrex to that routine and I could swear your in my shoes.. I was just like you too.. never took medication for anything!..
How did you finally get in to a groove of remembering your meds?.. I find myself in this rut.. I hurt, I remember it. but the minute I feel like my old self and I am forgetting a dose or two of the Celebrex and Boom I am knocked on my butt again... I think this is the hardest for me. and my Rheumatoligist just says "well, remember to take it and you are fine" that's not so easy!
I have even tried setting alarms on my cell phone with no luck.
Hi Gizelle,
I've always had a hard time remembering to take my meds too. The only thing that works for me is to take all of my meds immediately after I brush my teeth in the morning, even the ones that say to eat before taking the medication. If I stick them in my pocket I forget about them. If I have to take something later in the day, I always, always forget, and usually forget to take my Enbrel shots. Friday is a bad day to have to remember to do it. You'd think after 32 years of this I'd be able to train myself. :o)
I have gotten one of those stupid little pill boxes, you know the ones with the days of the week on the covers? This helps me tremendously. Friday is my Mtx day so that one is a bit heavier.
Besides remembering to take my medicine, I also would have the issue of not remembering if I HAD taken my medicine and then I was afraid of accidently over dosing! Now I put my paranoia to bed and just check if today's pill box is empty. Then I know I have been a good girl.
I used to think thoses things were so silly or just for really old people with memory issues. Huh! Ain't karma just a kick in the head! So far I've only needed the kind with one compartment for each day, but you can also get the big honkers that have "mon a.m, mon afternoon, mon p.m." etc. I know it seems like something we maybe ought to be able to remember... but I tell ya', I've got a limited amount of space in there what with all the other stuff I'm supposed to remember to do, you know like feeding the children? So get a pill box and put it somewhere you will trip over it if you ignore it. It helps!