(Part 3) Best pill dispensers & reminders according to redditors

I have a pill organizer with individual lids. Everything is sorted by brand, size, etc. All the lids are labeled with those details and the jewelry itself sits in the compartments in small ziplock baggies that are labeled with those details as well.

Long time lurker, thought I’d contribute by sharing some organizational stuff i’ve found useful.

I’ve been using these plastic desk organizers to keep my small collection of picks together with easy access at my work bench. They’re pretty light weight, so I drilled small holes in their corners to zip-tie to the wire shelves they reside on.


Keeping pins in these pill cases is also quite convenient.

I recently paid mine $100 for 5 days, but they came by two times a day for the cats and the fish.

Leave out the bottle of SeaChem Prime with a pipette and tell her to put in three drops of Prime in each tank, each day, just in case there is a spike.

Pro Tip: Use one of these for the bettas: https://www.amazon.com/Organizer-Compartments-Container-Medication-Supplement/dp/B07C917FKM/ref=sr_1_fkmr1_2?keywords=two%2Bdaily%2Bpill%2Bminder&qid=1550088060&s=gateway&sr=8-2-fkmr1&th=1

I would check with your local pharmacies to see if they can set her up with blister packs like these: https://www.amazon.com/Refill-Weekly-Monthly-Blister-Monthly-Large/dp/B078C7751S/ref=pd_cp_121_1?pd_rd_w=N97UO&pf_rd_p=ef4dc990-a9ca-4945-ae0b-f8d549198ed6&pf_rd_r=BYXSGVMX2BE3V42TW95K&pd_rd_r=acc50ffc-7aac-11e9-825e-f767610a7f33&pd_rd_wg=158Pb&pd_rd_i=B0786MN71Q&refRID=BYXSGVMX2BE3V42TW95K&th=1

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I would recommend those over a pill organizer because they can pop open and then you've got pills all over. There are pill organizers taht lock, but when I tried it with my neighbor with Alzheimer's ,she couldn't remember how to open them.

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I saw this Hero pill dispenser at a Parkinson's convention, but dont' know anyone who has used them. They are $400, with a $30 monthly fee. They are nice because they will talk and tell the patient it's time to take meds, and will call you if she doesn't take them. https://herohealth.com/

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More info here: https://www.unforgettable.org/blog/taking-medication-when-you-have-dementia/

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If she has a smart phone, there are apps that will "shake" the phone like a pill bottle, and then call her if she hasn't taken them within a certain amount of time.

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Also check out this list of medications that people with PD should avoid: https://parkinson.org/sites/default/files/P135-PF-003-E-FactSheet-2017121.pdf

And explore this whole Aware in Care section: https://parkinson.org/Living-with-Parkinsons/Resources-and-Support/Patient-Safety-Kit

Having a hard time getting back into the daily grind after coming back from vacation last week (Vancouver and Victoria, BC are amazing!), but going away definitely made the wait for FET#2 go by faster. I also got this cute pill holder that I'm using for estradiol and vitamins. Tomorrow is PIO shot #1 at the ungodly hour of 4am, in anticipation for transfer this Friday.

You could possibly try out one of these. I mean you would have to disperse your prescription into the device once you've had it filled, but this could help with your abuse.

Pillsy - Smart Pill Cap and Bottle, Medication Tracker with Reminder Alarm, Bluetooth w/Free Smartphone App https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076L3WRRQ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_vMQWCb9W9PJSR

This one has Bluetooth.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07R8Z5YVG/

I have a medication reminder app on my phone (I love Round Health; it gives you two rounds of reminders) AND I picked a rather obvious pill organizer (this one) and keep it right on my nightstand and/or desk. It helps a lot.

I'm the same way. Even if I leave pills/supplements out on the counter, can't recall sometimes if I took them or not. Easy solution.

https://www.amazon.com/BUG-HULL-Organizer-Detachable-Supplements/dp/B0787CNWWF

I got it from amazon. It has an obnoxious alarm but it really helped me taking my meds.

Lithium was actually the least scary for me in terms of side effects! I’m still on it now and I truly believe it keeps my moods from reaching the super highs and lows, although I am on other medication as well. I also started low and adjusted up as we did blood work.

For me the biggest thing is to ensure I’m drinking enough water. If you think you’re drinking enough add one more cup/bottle/drinking vessel just to be sure. This helps to stop dry skin and I honestly didn’t notice any more hair loss/acne than I would normally through my menstrual cycle.

Also, I also have a huge med aversion, what really helps me: my sister got me a medication case for my birthday. this one here . Because I can set it up for the whole week I just need to remember to bring one container with me throughout the day, if I go away for two I grab the two. Not needing to see pill bottles every day has been such a life saver, honestly. The bottles themselves are overwhelming and trigger too much anxiety.

I also set up the Medisafe app on my phone, the reminders just say “hello” and the visual of the pill box is cute 😆

Edit: I was a little dizzy/shaky when I first started lithium, it wasn’t too bad and was an adjustment period. Oddly enough if I ate a little salt it helped

This is behavior hacking! You need to (1) remove obstacles to success and (2) set up rewards and punishments for your behavior.

(1) Remove Obstacles

Stumbling Block: Too many bottles to open when I’m tired
On Sunday evenings, when my husband is ironing shirts and I’m going over my doctor’s appointments for the week in my calendar, I also put my pills in a weekly pill sorter. I had to try a few to find which one worked best for me.

Stumbling Block: Mid-day meds forgotten at home
Right now I’m on AM/PM only but when I had mid-day meds, I put them in a separate, smaller pill sorter that went into my purse since I am often out mid-day.

Stumbling Block: Don’t want to get out of bed to take meds in the kitchen/supplies were all over the place
My med bottles, heating pad, pain cream and other pain/injury stuff are in a 3-tier rolling cart from IKEA that is by my bedside. I try to keep the top tier clear except for my pill sorters, my take as needed meds and a few other small bits.

Stumbling Block: Started ignoring my alarms
I have phone alarms that have a loud and annoying ringtone to remind me to take my meds. I change it up every few months so I don’t get too used to it. It’s also a different sound than my wake up alarm and my other phone sounds. Some people do better setting a physical alarm clock that is harder to turn off or ignore.

(2) Rewards & Punishments

For awhile when I was struggling to take meds, I had a deal with my sister that I’d text her every am and pm with a picture of my empty pill sorter section that was time/date stamped.
(Note the removing obstacles here by fighting against my instinct for laziness. The check in was twice per day, required a photo and required a time stamp.)

Punishment:
I gave her an envelope with $25 bucks per week in it. If I missed an accountability picture text, I lost $5. If I was more than 30 minutes late with my meds, I lost $2.

Reward:
At the end of each week, she’d tell me my balance and if I never missed a dose, she sometimes put in an extra $5 reward (Never asked her to do that. It was just her being awesome.)
Reward:
At the end of the month, she’d send me the money in the mail since we live a few hours away. We could have done all this electronically, but physically sending her an envelope with $100 in it each month and physically getting that money back (or less money back) made it much more real to me.
Reward:
I also got to reward myself with that money by paying for a massage or pedicure or a nice haircut/blowout.
Penalty:
If I didn’t have enough money for the reward I was working towards, I didn’t get to do it.

This worked super well for me until I got into a better natural rhythm. Now I do it for myself and my husband kind of checks in with me about it.

Here are some tools I’ve tried and liked:

AM/PM 7-Day Pill Sorter, long & flat - nicely sized, has push buttons instead of snaps that hurt fingers, good colors
AM/PM 7-Day Pill Sorter, removable rectangles - nice, large capacity, easy open, secure close, individual squares for each day of the week, 8th container for extra meds

Mid-Day/Travel Med Sorter, rectangle - nice size, secure, removable compartments for different pill sizes, up to 4 sections, nice colors
Mid-Day/Travel Pill Sorter (Round, 7 day) - east to load, easy to dispense, 7 sections, small and well-designed

Did You Take Your Pills? Tool - small card that has switches you can flip for each day and AM/PM to ensure you take meds
Time Since Last Dose Pill Bottle Caps - Of you forget when you last took your meds, check the color-coded caps to see how long it’s been since your last dose. Helpful if you take multiple times per day or struggle to remember if you’ve taken each med. several colors so you can mark multiple bottles.

Good luck OP!

I have never used them myself, and there are many different types. Some just have a timer so you know when to take them, some are actual "lock" boxes that you can not tamper with, which will only allow you to get the medicine when the machine says. However, those kind are several hundred dollars. They can vary in the number of times they can be opened per day, so there are many variables. You can search them by googling timed/locked pill dispensers. Here is one example of the totally locked ones https://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-Automatic-Dispenser-Medication-Reminders/dp/B07C5YDKDL/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?ie=UTF8&qid=1537773493&sr=8-2-spons&keywords=locked+pill+dispenser&psc=1

Doing a quick search, it seems that a device like this could work, too. Its made for cigarettes and such, but only opens when the alarm says. It is much cheaper than the actual locked medicine ones (although I'm sure it's not tamper resistant). https://www.amazon.com/kSafe-Time-Locking-Container-smoking/dp/B00ZDAZFCU/ref=asc_df_B00ZDAZFCU/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=198077890298&hvpos=1o1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=2829421488128976062&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9015297&hvtargid=pla-349905519725&psc=1#customerReviews

Maybe this?

Please do! I'll link below some of the types that i considered prior to finding mine :) yesss, i should be thankful postcards are only up to 15baht and the lowest denomination is 3 baht (i think). i've seen US stamps have 1 cent stamps. O.O!

medicine organiser , screw organiser , organiser with removable dividers the last one i personally like because if you have larger stamps then you can make the slot larger. the one in my picture is actually removable as well but i ended up putting all the dividers in anyway.

Not mildly interesting, lit up awesome fucking best idea I have seen in a while. Simple and very effective, I see it being very hard to screw this up with these. One feature Is add is an alarm on them, or a sync with a smart device to remind you when to take them as well. Call them "Smart Caps".

Edit:
Found something like that,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07F7MQ7TM/ref=cm_sw_r_em_apa_i_lBykDb0HFN06W

I have some great news for you and it is called a Pill cup. These are special cups where you put a little water or whatever you like to drink which is ok with the medication in the cup - don't fill it above the ledge for the pill! - then place your pill on the pill ledge. Bottoms up! You'll be shocked to find when you finish drinking the contents of the cup the pill went down as well.

Discovered these when a doctor mistakenly gave my younger daughter medication in pill form as well as my older daughter and I didn't catch it. The pharmacist sold me one of these and they are amazing. Here is the type I am talking about but there is another sort where you put the tablet inside a sort of lid. That kind is for people usually little kids or dementia patients who you don't want reaching in and messing with the pill before trying to drink it down.

Maybe this one

Just get a weekly pill box with morning and night sections for each day. Fill it every sunday night when you take your final meds of the week
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07TCMX9SJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_w.PsDbXKFNCTP
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B079BNSZTR/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_4.PsDbM9A5VR8

The amount of meds, their side effects, the refilling every week etc etc is a massive pain in the arse, but it's necessary unfortunately