Go ahead and take my pills?

September 26, 2019 6:48 AM

I can't recall if I took my crazy meds* this morning. Should I go ahead anyway?

I'm on 450mg buproprion, and I take it in the morning. It's such an automatic habit, I can't for the life of me remember if I took it this morning. Should I go ahead and take it, and just deal with possibly doubling-up for today?

I've doubled-up before in the past, but not at this high dosage. I know the side-effects of buproprion, so it's not like I'd do so blindly.

Thanks!

* Apologies if you take offense to the term "crazy meds." I've been taking them for decades now and it's just what I call them. It feels right, in my case.

posted by Thorzdad to Health & Fitness (17 answers total)

Best answer: Call your pharmacist and/or doctor?
posted by mskyle at 6:52 AM on September 26, 2019

Best answer: Having been in this exact situation, I would skip today. Doubling up at this dosage seems like a very possible way to have a seizure. There’s a reason that 450 mg is the max dose. Yes, you may have some mood swings in a few days if you skip today but it’s preferable to the alternative.

You can also call your pharmacy and ask. Mine is happy to answer questions like this.
posted by corey flood at 6:53 AM on September 26, 2019 [13 favorites]

Best answer: My experience when I was taking bupropion was that missing a day felt fine. I had to miss a few in a row to feel any kind of withdrawal. That would incline me farther in the direction of skipping the day.
posted by nebulawindphone at 6:59 AM on September 26, 2019

Best answer: I'd skip it. Also I started using a daily pill organizer when this started happening to me, that way I know if I already took it.
posted by needs more cowbell at 7:02 AM on September 26, 2019 [11 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks all. You confirmed my thinking on this. A day off it is!

...................
Also I started using a daily pill organizer when this started happening to me, that way I know if I already took it.

LOL. Every time I think about using a pill box, my mind conjures up images of my father-in-law's enormous mega-box. It was divided up not just by days, but there were multiple sections for different times of each day. But, I am over 60 now, so...
posted by Thorzdad at 7:08 AM on September 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

When my brain threw that bullshit at me, I got a decorative pill organizer case, which seems ridiculous but it totally worked, and now I feel like a sophisticated grownup instead of a decrepit nutcase when I pull it out.
posted by nebulawindphone at 7:26 AM on September 26, 2019 [23 favorites]

Some good pill boxes here. Other similar ones on Amazon if you hunt.
posted by dancinglamb at 7:45 AM on September 26, 2019

It was divided up not just by days, but there were multiple sections for different times of each day. But, I am over 60 now, so...

I have one of those and I'm 31! And when I use it, my medication compliance goes waaaaay up.
posted by showbiz_liz at 8:40 AM on September 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

Those metal pill cases for me did not hold up very well with staying closed in a bag, although they're fine if you're just going to have it at home, obviously. What I have now are a bunch of Humangear GoTubbs, which is a very dumb name but they stay closed and there's a space to label them, if you wanted to stay on the practical side but still have something that doesn't look quite like it should belong to your parents. I have no idea how they work, but I've had them in my bag for months now and haven't had a spill, despite the fact that I can get them open instantly when I want to.
posted by Sequence at 8:45 AM on September 26, 2019

I use an app called Medisafe to remind me to take mine, and I can mark I've taken it. Much cooler than a pill case, but not as fail-safe.
posted by girlpublisher at 8:52 AM on September 26, 2019

Yeah, the stash box style ones don't work for me either — no organizing by days, for starters. I use this kind of thing, which you can find in lots of different styles. These are also cool.
posted by nebulawindphone at 9:10 AM on September 26, 2019

E.g. birth control pills come with their own pill organizer built in to the packaging because "uh hey did I --" is such a common human brain lapse. I've still screwed up ("wait, today's Wednesday? I just took Thursday's pill") but it does help.
posted by Lady Li at 10:23 AM on September 26, 2019

I completely hear you re: older relative's mega pill box. Even a normal-sized one-week box drove me batty and legit made me feel anxious...and then I found a tiny one like this. It's only 4.5 inches long! It's really just for normal people like you and me who have a totally minor pill which isn't any big deal at all! We're not Grandpa Joe with his 58 meds! (Well, not yet.) Good luck. :)
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:55 AM on September 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

When I needed to take meds at three different times of day, and fairly close to specific times, I used both a pill organizer and the Way of Life app. Now we have morning and evening checklists where one of the adults will ask, did everyone take their medications?

Interestingly, birth control pills didn't originally come with a week of placebo pills. You had to remember to start taking them again. My mother didn't.
posted by JawnBigboote at 10:59 AM on September 26, 2019 [2 favorites]

A friend of mine just told me about these newfangled caps with an lcd clock that record the last time the bottle was opened. That might be easier than a pill box.
posted by umbú at 11:05 AM on September 26, 2019 [1 favorite]

I resisted getting a daily pill box because I felt silly, but I had one too many "did I take it?" days and I wasn't reliable enough about checking it off as a task on my phone for it to work as absolute confirmation that I had or hadn't done it. I ended up getting a small box like this -- for me it has to have the seven compartments with the days on them, or it will not effectively serve the purpose.
posted by kite at 11:43 AM on September 26, 2019

Just realized I meant "a weekly box with a spot for each day" when I said "daily, " but yeah, what everyone has said above.
posted by needs more cowbell at 12:41 PM on September 26, 2019