Medical Monday: Medication Tips

Before we dive into more medication tips, make sure you’ve entered this contest for a pill organizer (it ends tomorrow!) and have checked out the tips I have for managing your medications.

Some of the medications that we have to take aren’t pleasant, from infusions to shots to nasty tasting pills.

I’m looking at you, prednisone.

Here are some of the tips I’ve acquired over the years regarding medications.

1. Don’t try to take all the pills at once.

Oh, it seems like fun when you get it right, throwing the eight pills you take in the morning in your mouth in one go.

When it doesn’t work, though, you can actually choke.

Personal experience.

Please don’t.

2. Do consider taking pills with not water.

Some pills are easy to get stuck in our mouths. Drinking something slightly more viscous than water like moo juice can really help.

3. Prednisone should basically be taken with yogurt.

I’ve been on pred enough to know how nasty it tastes when it gets stuck in your mouth or throat, which it almost always seems to do.

Taking prednisone pills inside yogurt will help eliminate that while giving enough viscosity that the pills don’t get stuck.

4. Ice your tumtum while letting a refrigerated injection warm up…

So hey, let’s talk biologics.

When they’re cold, it hurts like all get out to inject them, so most docs recommend letting the injection sit out around 15 minutes to warm up.

This gives you perfect timing to gently ice the injection spot beforehand which will help lower the pain from the needle going in.

5. And ice right after you inject.

Injections hurt. Your body is already pretty full of body stuff, so piercing the skin and adding more goop isn’t always comfortable.

If you ice for a few minutes post-injection, it can help with any bruising AND pain.

6. Just rest during infusions.

Many have great ideas for being productive during infusions, bringing work or homework with them.

A lot of that anticipated productivity goes out the window, though.

Infusions suck. They make you tired, even if they’re just saline.

Please just rest. Bring a blanket and your laptop so you can watch Netflix and chill.

7. Take a deep breath.

It can be really easy, especially when starting a new medication, to be very worried and anxious. While it’s important to watch for potential side effects, it’s also important to try not to freak out too much.

Yes, I do realize the hypocrisy in my saying that.

I thought Enbrel or Humira were going to turn me into a hamster… and there’s a video on my youtube channel of me basically having a panic attack pre- and post-injection.

Try to do some meditation beforehand.

Take a shower.

Do whatever calms you, and remember that you’re not alone.

 

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