Travelling with pills and keeping records

Pill Boxes

White and Colours

The compartments might be transparent or white. I prefer those which are seven different colours. A different colour for each day of the week.

Compartment Numbers & Sizes

 You can buy a pill box to hold a pill a day for a week, with seven compartments. They may be labelled Monday to Sunday. You can see that the box for the day is empty and you have taken the pill

More elaborate pill boxes have 28 compartments. They are designed for you to take four pills a day for a week. They might be labelled morning afternoon evening night. Or breakfast, lunch dinner spare.

Labels

Morn, noon, Eve, bed.

Usually there is enough space for you to insert two or more pills in a compartment, depending on the size of your pills.

Keeping Written Records - DIY

Pill box. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Another system is to keep a written note, or write a checklist with columns.

I tried writing down the times at four hour intervals, in pencil. When I took the pill, I wrote the time in pen, and ticked it.

Written Records - Printed Grds

You can buy a grid of tick boxes. The cost is under five pounds, with free postage, delivery in a couple of days. You might look for next day delivery.

Temperature Control of Pills

What about keep in the pills cool? 

I keep my pills in the fridge or a cool box. Only one pill is left out, on the table or by my bed on the bedside table. (Americans call this small table, with a drawer and shelf below, a night stand.

Search Words

Look for pill dispensers, pill oraganisers.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CLLFYY5N/ref=sspa_dk_detail_0?

https://www.boots.com/safe-and-sound-7-day-pill-box-

More on ebay and estsy and TEMU

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Travelling with pills - Temperature and Loss

 1 How do you remember to take them with you on a day trip, or pack them on a longer trip?

2 How do you keep them at the right temperature when travelling?

3 How do you keep them at the right temperature at the hotel or conference or relative's home when travelling?

4 How do you buy pills in small quantities when you stay longer and run out?

1 Add a note to your packing list. Write a note on your breakfast table. Put on a note on your suitcase or handbag. Pack spare pills in the suitcase in advance. Pack an empty pack and the written prescription to show a foreighn pharmacy, to explain the pills if stopped at customs.

2 A pocket in your blouse or shirt or inside jacket pocket may be too hot alongiisde your body. Likewise a belt bag. Keep in the original container, or inside a small plastic box in a tote bag. Are you sure it is safe inside the lid of a suitcase? If the suitcase is inside a car in a gated compound in cold winter weather, but remember to take a pill out each day.

Campanile bedroom in Montpellier, France, in January 2024, had a fridge, but not at a low temperature for leftovers take away from a restaurant, food broguht from London, and my vital pills. The temperature was was colder, around the magic 5 degrees, in our car boot.

Our large room in the hotel was chilly for us, but okay for my pills. 

3 Check if the hotel room has a fridge, write in advance, or ask on checkin. At a Campanile hotel in Montpellier, France, the bedroom fridge was not cold. When I queried it, they said it was simply to chill drinks slightly, not fridge temperature (which is supposed to be plus 5 for food which might go off, such as milk. I was told that I could leave pills in the fridge in the bar at reception. I was afraid I would forget and leave them behind. The bathroom was cold and I thought the pills would not be overheated there. 

To save space and weight and bulk in my bag and pocket, I sometimes take out the pills when travelling. 

Pill Instructions

However the silver wrapper is designed to keep pills protected from heat and light. Often the instructions or box tell you to keep the pills in their original foil. Somewhere in the leaflet or box or both will be the required storage temperature temperature. 

How To Check Temperature

You might then check the temperature inside the car or outside the car in your car on the dashboard.

Bedroom Temperature

You can check the temperature in your bedroom on the heating or air con thermostat.  If it is switched off by staff, who open windows, this might affect medicine or food if you leave it behind in your room. 

Weather

If you take your medicine with you, you might want to check the temperature for the day in the newspaper or online. 

Restaurants

If you are offered a choice of indoors or outdoors at a restaurant, what is the temperature? 

Carrying and taking pills

Pill boxes. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Useful Websites

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Personal-Pill-Organizers/b

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