Take Pictures of Your Medications As You Take Them
If you’re on a scheduled medication, you probably have a system for remembering what to take and when, whether you’re using an app or something low-tech like a pill organizer. But for those occasional doses – like the Claritins I take every couple of days during allergy season – just take a picture of the pill bottle.
This one quick photo gives you a few pieces of information you may need later. Have I already taken medication? (Yes, I have a photograph in my film.) How long ago was that? (Check the time stamp on the photo.) If there are multiple options, what pills have I taken? (Look at the label you photographed.)
If you need to know the dose – maybe sometimes you take four ibuprofen and sometimes you only need two – just adjust the photo to show four pills in your hand and a bottle of pills elsewhere in the frame.
So I know if I took my last 24 hour allergy pill 24 hours ago, or if I got it mixed up in my mind last night and this morning. (I used to accidentally override Claritin doses and only realized my mistake after wondering why I was so terribly exhausted all day.) If you are dealing with severe pain and your doctor has advised you to alternate ibuprofen and paracetamol, this is the easy way. find out which ones you had the last time and at what time.
If photos don’t give you enough information or you need a more reliable system, an app like Dosecast can help you manage things better. But for those impromptu doses of drugs that are “taken as needed,” photography provides a quick alternative. What if you don’t like these photos cluttering up your film? If they are more than a day old, you can delete them.