Did I take the drug?

Did I take the drug?

Photo: Ron Lach / Pexels

The danger of forgetfulness in taking our prescriptions.

I was supposed to take the drug (amoxiclav for an infection) at 8: 00 am, after a meal—the prescription said. By around 11: 00 am, I was asking myself:

Did I take the drug this morning?

I remember taking a drug at 8:00 am. Was it today?

Or was it yesterday?

I decided to count the number of tablets left to help me remember.

My mind was not very clear, so that didn’t help.

By that time, I was getting really uncomfortable.

If I take it now, will it be late? I asked myself.

Or what if I took it in the morning?

I turned to Google on my phone:

If you miss a dose of a prescription drug, do you take double at the next dose to compensate?

I was supposed to take a drug at 8 in the morning. If I forget, is it okay to take it 3 hours later, say at 11: 00 am?

The battle kept raging in my mind and on Google. I later found an ‘amicable’ resolution of the issue.

Such moments are scary, to say the least, and it wasn’t the only time it happened to me. On a few other occasions, I took the wrong drug when I was given more than one drug in the prescription.

Truth be told, if we want to rely on our memory for prescription schedules, we could be making a huge mistake!

Counting pills at 11:00 in the morning might also be adding to an already stressed mind.

Google can offer suggestions, but it cannot help you after you forget a dose; neither can it prevent you from forgetting a dose.

After facing this drug scare, I concluded that I needed a real, practical reminder that I could use any time I was required to take drugs.

And that is why I created the Medication and Prescription Tracking Sheet.

This is an easy-to-use printable PDF that you can reuse at home to track:

  • What specific drug or drugs you were given at the hospital.

  • What times the drug or drugs must be taken

  • The drugs already taken and the ones left, by checking boxes every time they are taken.

     

    With the help of a timer, we can use this tracker to stop the guessing and protect our health with a simple, stress-free routine.

[Click to see my full story here]