Battle Of The Pills

[pat2604]

I have just won a battle after a long fight!

My prescription tablets - well three of them have got smaller and smaller over the years. Two of them are so small that I struggle to get into the foils, then to get them out the foils and then struggle to pick them up. The other four are slightly larger. I have just boxed them up for the next week, and I am worn out. My fingers are arthritic and shake!! And then I drop the pills and can't bend down to pick them up!! I then have to worry if the dog will pick them up!!

Just phoned the pharmacy and the dispensary at the surgery to ask if this can be done for me. Apparently only if I am assessed by some organisation in my home. Surely lots of people must find this a problem, especially those who are elderly or have disabilities.

I just don't understand why they make pills so tiny and I mean really tiny!

Hubby would do it for me, but his big man hands can't handle the pills and besides that he might get it all wrong and poison me.

End of rant (which is why its in Chatterbank and not B&S)

Fed up and worn out!!

[eleanor2]

I hope you get sorted pat. I have to pierce my tablet packs with my nail. Funny, I was given iron for iron deficiency & couldn't get at em! ;0)

[naomi24]

What do you have to be assessed for, lottie? They know you have arthritis. What a stupid waste of time and money! Do you not have a neighbour who could do it for you?

[THECORBYLOON]

Would something like this help?

https://www.arthr.com/our-products/pivotell-pill-popper

You might be exempt from paying the VAT if

•you have a physical or mental impairment that affects your ability to carry out everyday activities, for example blindness
•you have a condition that’s treated as chronic sickness, like diabetes
•you’re terminally ill

[muskox]

Ask for a dosset tray for your tablets. This will need an assessment first

[Redhelen72]

MIL takes so many tablets that she was forgetting what she had and hadn’t taken!
I had to phone the pharmacy in Norfolk speak to the pharmacist who said that they would speak to the go then sort them into packets for her!

[THECORBYLOON]

You need to remove the tablets from the foil in order to put them in the tray.

[muskox]

Tablets have no foil in dosset trays. You just push through the thin plastic top with your finger.

[muskox]

Each day's tablets are in one compartment mostly

[lankeela]

Our local Well Pharmacy (in Norfolk actually) provides a dosset box for my friend with dementia, four weeks at a time with her three daily tablets in each compartment separated into morning/night. Just press the plastic through to get to them. Still fiddly but easier than trying to get them out of foil.

[muskox]

My dosset box is made up by my local chemist. 4 weeks are delivered once a month to my door

[jennyjoan]

I only take 3 but do know plenty of chemists here in NI - that they actually put the doses in their daily "bits" in a computer. It seems to be the in thing here now.

I have watched it too - a big robot just comes along "reads the prescription" - goes to prescription "picks it out" and does the business and inserts the pills. Fabulous technology.

[pat2604]

Thanks everybody. My main problem is the size of the tablets. I have taken a photo but don't know how to put it on here. I know what tablets to take at what time and have boxes already. If the tablets were bigger I could handle them, but they are so tiny. You can barely see them in the box to take them out or hold them to put in your mouth. It's only in recent times that the tablets are so small and the pharmacists say they don't know why.

[albaqwerty]

I agree with you about the size of the darned things and trying to pick the beggars up.
I've taken to using a kiddies lunch box to store my meds and when popping them out of their home they'll land in the lid, rather than the floor) then use a thumbnail to scoop it/them up if I haven't caught the blighter.

[pat2604]

Hope this works

https://ibb.co/Hn5MgcX

[anneasquith]

Pick them up with tweezers ?

[naomi24]

With arthritis I doubt Lottue can hold tweezers very well either.

[naomi24]

*lottie*

[pat2604]

Even people with no finger problems would find it difficult to handle these. I have decided to get them out of foil as I need them and not put them in a dosset box .

If we go away at any time I'll box them.

Thank for your thoughtful answers. Naomi, we only have two neighbours and they are not that near.

[vulcan42]

when I was in hospital they used to give me the tablets in a small kidney dish which I still use. It means I don't actually have to touch the tablets, just press them out into the dish and then slide them into my mouth.

[THECORBYLOON]

Once you have them out, could you not use a dampened finger to lift the tablet?