3 Steps for Reducing the Stress of Prescriptions

If there’s one thing that those of us with chronic illness know, it’s dealing with pills. It seems that our lives are nothing but pills at times. Keeping up with our pill schedule, knowing if we’ve taken the right pill at the right time can add a huge layer of stress to an already stressful situation. There are two main things I’ve found that make a huge difference in decreasing the amount of stress surrounding medications.

1.  One Source For All Your Meds –
   Early on I tried to play a numbers game, calling around to various pharmacies to try to find the “best deal” on different meds. At the time I was paying out-of-pocket for all my prescriptions and getting reimbursed so it kind of made sense. Then I realized I was just adding more stress to myself. So, I picked one pharmacy that had good service and decent prices and I stick with them. Now, they know me when I walk up to the counter. Whether it’s in-person or by mail keeping all your meds coming from one source will help you keep track of what you are taking, and what needs refilled.
2. Get Your Pills Organized –
   Nothing makes me feel older (or sicker) than loading my pill boxes every week. Every Sunday I load two Extra Large pill boxes with all my meds. I take most of my meds at two times during the day (breakfast and just before bed). If I had to go through all those bottles every day and make sure I took each pill I’d never be able to keep track but doing it this way I only have to think about it once. I do have a few pills that I take at “off” times and those are the ones I’m most likely to forget to take.
3. Use Your Phone for Reminders-
   If you have a hard time remembering to take your meds at the correct times, set reminders on your phone. Some pharmacies have apps you can use to remind you to take your meds, otherwise you can just use your standard alarm app and set your own reminders.

Recently, I was contacted by a company that offers to make it easier to do both of the first two things, actually they do it for you. For the record, I’m not being paid for this post, I just thought this was such an awesome service that they were providing that I had to share it. PillPack is an full-service online pharmacy offering both prescription and non-prescription medications. Available in 32 US States they do more than just ship you your medications. They sort them for you. No more pill boxes or sorting or wondering if you’ve taken your meds. Need to take your meds with you on the go? Just grab the pack and throw it in your pocket or purse and go.

They charge a small fee for packaging and mailing your pills but their rates for your actual medications are comparable to a local pharmacy. For your prescriptions you’ll pay your usual insurance co-pay. I checked the rates on the supplements I take regularly and they were very reasonable. The only reason I didn’t sign up right away is that I just filled all my scripts for 3 months. However, when it’s time to refill again in a couple of months I will be giving it a try and I’ll give you an update then as to how it plays out in real life and if it’s as good as it sounds. If you’ve used this service (or something like it) I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Would you pay $20 to have someone sort and time-stamp your meds for you? What do you do to make handling multiple prescriptions easier?