#medication things

I apologise, because I did manage to get up and get my water, and consequently missed this. So I missed it for the right reasons, but I still missed it. And then I checked Tumblr on my iPad and still missed it because of the random way the app displays notifications…

(I have honestly no idea how you’re supposed to keep up with things via mobile apps without purposefully looking. None.)

I can’t dry-swallow pills, unfortunately. It actually took me well into adulthood to be able to swallow pills at all without gagging or choking, something I had to learn to survive, well, mental illnesses and chronic pain and migraines and vitamin deficiencies and… I can do it now, but I absolutely need water.

(For anyone who struggles with pill swallowing: water in the mouth before, not after, the pill. I was always taught to put the pill in the mouth first, and that’s how you choke on it and develop a debilitating fear of swallowing tablets. Also, try practicing on cut-up pieces of gummy lollies, and work your way up to increasing the size. If your practice item is soft and squishy, you’re less likely to get that horrible panicked-choking feeling as you swallow it. I swear that this works, because I’ve gone from being unable to swallow something as tiny as a Sudafed tablet to being able to swallow long naproxen tablets without batting an eye. Now, if my family had taught me this as a child, and not just screamed at me to swallow the tablet, my health today would be a great deal better…)

I’m actually going to tuck a sealed bottle of water (the storebought kind) underneath my desk and see if that works for those days when getting up is difficult. I may not remember it’s there, but it’s worth trying. It’s got to be easier to just reach down and grab, right?

Somewhat off topic but whatever: I think today (it’s late Saturday morning) is going to be a good day because I managed to swallow all my morning pills with one glass of water. Spoonies feel me on this, yes? I’ve had to add two extra morning pills and this is the first time in two weeks I haven’t had to go back to the sink to refill my water glass. *dances*

fuzzballsheltiepants replied to your post “Does anyone have any brilliant pill-cutting techniques they’d like to...”

This is a weird suggestion, but it might work: animal nail trimmers. The kind that look like pliers or scissors can work. We split pills at our clinic for clients, and we use pill cutters for some but they make some pills shatter. The nail trimmers work great! The size you need will depend on the pill size

I’m sorry for being so slow to reply to things--the clonidine has done nothing for the art of being awake.

(My psychiatrist informs me that it won’t impact my concentration. No, it hasn’t, but when I’m yawning every ten seconds and can’t keep my eyes open, I’m not exactly functional, either. I am noticeably less anxious on it during my few periods of alertness, so I’m praying it’s just an acclimation phase...)

My psychiatrist tag-teamed with a new pain specialist on my trialling clonidine to see what better managing my anxiety does for my pain, with an eye to later tramadol reduction if this works. (They were really enthusiastic about this. I’ve never seen two medical professionals so into prescribing meds.) No problems there, but my blood pressure is on the lower side of normal so a whole tablet is not in question, at least to start with.

So does someone have any advice for easily cutting up a tablet into two equal pieces? It isn’t the end of the world, I am told, if they’re not, but my body is pretty sensitive to changing amounts of any medication (seriously, increasing and decreasing doses is just not good for me) so I’d like to take consistent amounts each time to see how I react to it and if the side-effects have an acclimation period. Because I do think I feel fractionally less stiff than usual, but the sleepiness isn’t a fair trade off. Not as bad as starting tramadol, but still making it hard to do things.