I’m forgetful, y’all. I use my alarm on my phone to remind myself to pick up Smalls from school and so I won’t miss any business meetings. I have to schedule and plan to the hilt so that I look like I might kind of have this whole thing together.
Guess what? I certainly don’t. I forget things all the time. Partially because my Hashimoto’s causes some serious brain fog, and partly because I have two boys (three if you count the husband), plus a full-time job (from home, thank goodness), this blog, and, well, life.
Life gets crazy. I forget to eat if I’m not careful. That does not bode well for taking the many supplements and few medications that I have to keep track of on a daily basis, now does it?
What happens if you miss a dose of medication? Does it matter? In most cases, yes, especially if the medication is necessary for a primary bodily function. Like thyroid medication. When my doctor put me back on a small dose of Armor Thyroid after I had The Baby, I was not happy. I mean, I’d worked really, really hard to get off of medications just years before.
But because I wasn’t always consistent with my supplements (some need to be taken before meals, some with, some after a certain period of time), I understood. My Hypothyroid Protocol is a lot to keep track of. And that’s every.single.day.
When you miss a dose of medication, it can throw your body for a loop. When I was on Zoloft for my postpartum depression (which lasted the better part of 18 months), I found that forgetting to take my medicine made my sluggish and highly anxious. With my thyroid medication, even though I’m working to wean off of them again, my body feels awkward, like it’s trying too hard. I can only imagine what my poor brain and thyroid were screaming at me when I forgot.
The problem is that the information about what to do when you miss a dose isn’t always handy because it’s usually on the information leaflet that came with your medicine. Do you keep those? Me either. Y’all. That is not good.
Thankfully, a few months ago, I received a cool gadget called a PillDrill. It’s a system that was designed to help people like myself stop forgetting to take their medications. My PillDrill has been a true Godsend in my life.
I received a free PillDrill in exchange for my honest review. All opinions expressed are my own.
There are no monthly fees, no program charges, and it connects to its handy app via wifi. It can even alert Ish if I take my doses on time (or don’t, as the case may be).
The PillDrill comes with its base, which you connect to wifi via the app (which is free). Then you get to work. The PillDrill app allows you to dictate the number of daily strips you want to use. This of these like your regular medication am/pm strips. They are portable, small, and all have a scanning ability.
Next, you get a set of letters. I assigned a letter to the medications that I needed to take at a certain time each day, like my Armor, and my Zoloft (before I was able to wean off of this med). Once you’ve set this up, you use the app to set a schedule.
I love this. I get a notification on my phone when it’s time to take literally everything. While I could probably turn it off at this point, I don’t want to. I like knowing that it will tell me when to take “Monday 1” or “Armor Thyroid”.
I also use it for things like my Parafree and Detox & Cleanse.
The last nifty gadget that comes with the PillDrill is a mood cube-now, I probably don’t use this as much as I should, but I think I’m going to start. The mood cube has a number of different faces from “great” to “bad”. You scan the face you most identify with. For me, this will help me explain my mood swings that I’m currently experiencing as my body gets used to functioning without its Zoloft and with the Armor.
While I have not traveled with the PillDrill, each of the strips has a strap that allows you to secure the pods in place.
Overall, I cannot imagine life without my new favorite gadget, and I’ve spend a good portion of the past month telling everyone I know about it. Whether you take a host of supplements to support proper bodily function or you just need to not forget your heart medication, this system is genius.