Methods for remembering the Pill
 

Well the saga continues (see thread "Nuvaring") and it looks like I'll be on the Pill again. I'm worried because in the past I've been bad at remembering the Pill (that's why i started trying other forms of BC). Does anyone have any good methods for remembering?

get yourself an alarm clock that doesn't "turn off" the alarm fucntion when you stop the beeping when it goes off- it just shuts off the beeper, so the alarm is ready to go the next day. Make it small- maybe even the alarm on your cell phone. Carry this and your BC with you at all times, and when it goes off, you know it's time to take your birth control! And remember, you've got a +/-1 hour window! Good luck, good job for taking control of your body and you hormonal state! :thumbsup:

I have a friend who set her watch to beep everyday at noon. Works great for her. I just keep mine on the nightstand. When I go to turn off my light, they are right there.

1 hour window? Man, I throw caution to the wind. It I can get it around the same 4-5 hour span daily I'm thinkin I'm doing good.

*runs off to buy new watch*

4-5 hour time span? Man, you're really throwing caution to the wind! I highly recommend you go talk to your gyno about that, because that's totally upping your chances of getting pregnant right there- due to the fact it makes your hormones fluctuate more wildly from day to day and thus you have a chance of ovulating somewhere in there, because your body isn't getting the super steady "hey there's too many hormones in here to have a baby"

Every day, 1+/- hour window. :D

Sage, I 've been on the pill, taking it like I do for 20 years. I only ever got pregnant 3 times, each time I had been off the pill for some time & was planning on a pregnancy.
Mind you , with my work schedule...starting some mornings at 3am, and others days at 5pm, my body doesn't have a clue whats going on. I think it gave up.

My SO and I both set our Cell phones for about 30 min before our normal bet time. So, no matter where we are, (If we happen not to be home) "WE" won't forget. It's a team project to remember.. :)

i use a digital watch with an alarm function. works well. except sometimes you get into the habit of automatically turning it off and forgetting to take the pill. :P so get into the habit of turning it off and take the pill.

I set the alarm on my cell phone to go off at 10pm every nite, unless I turn it off, I won't forget...that just my 2 cents :)

edit: Sage had said that there's a +/- 1 hour window....I took my last active pill about 2 hours later than I should have. I've heard everything from 1 hour to 6 hours being safe, reading that post makes me a little worried :confused:

Talk to a gyno about the time window if you're worried.
I take a ton of pills, all right when I go to bed. And since I do that pretty much every night, I'm all good. :p But when I go over to someone else's house i have to cart my damned pharmacy with me...And some of my drugs have bad withdrawl if I happen to miss a night, so I have been well trained.

Yeah, go on some anti-depressants...the dizzy spells will remind you it's time to take your pill.

No, seriously...I always just took it before I went to bed and made sure I went to bed around the same time every night.

I agree with owl....I go to bed about the same time every night, and its just part of my ritual: wash my face, brush my teeth, take my pill. I guess if I had a fluctuating schedule it might not work as well.

Off subjects, but effexor did the same dizzy thing to me (missed work from vomiting,etc). Never had any of the other 5 antidepressants I have taken do that to me. Scary stuff.

I think that the alarm clock is a good idea.

Thats exactly what my SO does :) works great.

I have my alarm set for 8am. Every day. I keep my pills and a bottle of water within arm's reach. That way, I don't even have to get out of bed (or wake up all the way) to take my pill on time.

I'm very careful with my pills, but I used to forget them so easily. I'm an incredibly distractible person. I would set an alarm, then turn it off and think "Just after I do this one thing!" and then forget until at least three or four hours later. Incredibly irritating.

However, I've managed to only take one or two late every few months, thanks entirely to my digital watch. Allow me to explain:

I bought my current watch when my old one stopped working entirely (which wasn't out of the question, since it'd been running for at least seven or eight years). Of course, that happened while I was in transit between somewhere and somewhere else on holiday in Scotland last October. I badly needed a watch to be able to meet my busses, so I just grabbed a relatively good but fairly cheap model from some jewellery store along the way. I inattentively skimmed through its features--something about three alarms? Who needs that? Whatever, I didn't really pay attention until that winter, when I started taking the pill.

I began taking Ortho Tri-Cyclen that January and discovered what I've been doing ever since that's helped immensely: my watch has three alarms that you set to go off every day. I take my pill after lunchtime, so I have one alarm set at 1:00 PM. I usually remember to take my pill right then. However, in the frequent case that I tell myself "Just after I look at this one last webpage!", or in the case that I'm actually unable to take it that moment and just forget to do so later, I have another alarm that goes off at 1:30 PM. And just in case I turn it off and forget again, I have my third alarm that goes off at 2:00 PM.

Sometimes I even forget it after that, but it works out that I take maybe one pill late per package!

I'm not sure if that helps, but it's something that's been a great help for me.

By the way, I think this is my model, or close: http://www.casio.com/index.cfm?fusea...t=LW24HB%2D2BV). Casio makes a lot of watches with multiple daily alarms, and I'm sure a lot of other companies do too. God bless technology.

Here's something else I just noticed, for anyone else taking multiple medications of which all or some need to be taken at the same time each day: an alarm clock made specifically for pill alarms, with compartments for pill storage. http://www.casio.com/index.cfm?fusea...ct=TMR200%2D2#. (I hope these links work for other computers.)

I take mine at ten every night. I used to take it everytime a certain TV show would come on and that would remind me. For a while I set my watch alarm, but now I just remember it.

Yeah, the watch alarm thing seems to be the best idea but I already have a watch which I'm sort of attached to (given to me a long time ago by an old friend) so right now Kel and I both have our phones set to beep. So far it is working pretty well. Thanks all!