This is making me mad!

[kellyt]

      For the second time this week on my morning dose of Prograf one of those tiny little capsules has stuck in the pill box and I didn't notice!!!!!  I just now saw that one was still in the box from this morning.  arrrgh!         I need to be more careful.  Those are the smallest and lightest capsules I have ever seen.  I went ahead and took the capsule with my evening dose of BP med.  I was going to wait and take it with my 9 p.m. dose of Prograf, but just took it now.  Do you think that's okay?  My last level was done on the 27th and my Prograf level was 7.8.   Just a reminder I take 2 mg at 9 a.m. and 2 mg at 9 p.m. and about two weeks ago they switched me to 2/2 from 3/2.  Any advice?

[monrein]

That's happened to me too Kelly!  I wouldn't worry too much...lesson learned, just remember to check every time from now on.  A small blip is very different than consistent inconsistency.  Relax.

[natnnnat]

Gregory occasionally doesn't take his morning tablets and goes to work.  He takes them when he gets home.  He doesn't do it often.  It seems to be fine.  Sometimes he feels the lack, and lies down a little while after taking the catch up tablets.  As Monrein says, you can probably relax.

[kellyt]

I would feel worse if I missed an entire dose, but just missing 1 and then taking it later seems ok.  I was taking 3/2, so I just pretent (for the night) that I'm taking 1/3.   ha ha  But it just makes me mad.  Since transplant I usually pour them into my hand and I literally count them and say "prograf, prograf, cellcept, cellcept, pepcid, acyclovire", but I guess I'm starting to just pour them out and pop them in.  I need to go back to my old ways.  No, I know what it is.  At my 9 a.m. dose I'm usually just getting up and the room is dark.  I need to just sit up completely and turn on a light to take them.  I'm usually up late, so I sleep until my medication alarm goes off.

I was told something like "If you miss an entire dose, say your a.m. dose, and you remember within 6 hours just take it.  But if it's more than 6 hours you have to double up" or something.  Can someone confirm?  I think I heard this here, too.

[jbeany]

My team said take a missed dose within 4 hours, or just skip entirely and resume regular dosing schedule.  Don't double doses ever. 

I missed my morning meds for the first time ever today.  I'm soooo ticked at myself, even if running on 3 hours of sleep today after spending all night dealing with a family crisis is a reasonable excuse.  Phooey.  Off to bed to do better tomorrow.

[kellyt]

   jbeany.   Thanks for clarifying the missed dose thing.

[Chris]

Kelly that happens to me too with the Prograf in my pill container that is also white. Sometimes they stick to the bottom for some reason. The one bad thing I have done was to have my pill container in the kitched on a glass cutting board while cleaning the kitchen and then move the cutting board under running water to get loose dirt off before washing it and forgetting my pills are on there. That ruined a whole days worth of pills even with the tops closed and it was hard to clean out with damp meds and OTC meds.
 
The way I was told about missing a dose is to take it immediately unless next dose is due soon. There was a reason I was told, but have forgotten it. I should reread my transplant binder given to see if it is in there.
 
 

[cariad]

This has happened to me twice already and I've only been on Prograf 2 months.

It actually occurred in a slightly worse way. I take the lemon yellow capsules with the orange script, about the size of a grain of rice. I tip my meds out into my hand and take the lot all at once. I did this one day, took a shower, came out of the shower, sat on the side of the bed, looked down and saw a capsule on the carpet. Uh, was that from  just now, two days ago, a month ago? I decided I shouldn't take the capsule because I could not be sure it was from my latest dose, so I put it back in the meds box and within a week my Prograf dose was raised, only to be lowered a couple weeks later. This happened one other time, but thankfully I was in a room where I never take meds and was almost one hundred percent certain that it was from my latest dose. I think what happens is that the capsules are so light and have a certain static electricity that sticks them to the plastic of a pill box or a hand. It is annoying and I rarely remember to check to for stragglers.

[Chris]

I lost my pill container with pills on the train, dropped a pill while at my doctors office and nowhere near home also. Due to pets, any pill that falls on the floor I throw out due to possible contamination from hair.

[kellyt]

I keep extra Prograf in my purse just for that reason.  The one thing I like about the small capsule and it's light weight is that a couple of times I've been caught in the car when my alarm goes off and I have nothing to drink and no possible drink in the very near future.  They are easy to swallow if you can get enough spit in your mouth.    It's gross, but sometimes necessary.

[Chris]

Kelly that is how the doctors wanted me to take my pills the day of my knee surgery, dry, just use saliva. However that is hard to do if the pills are tablets and not capsules.
 
The next day was a problem though. I took my pills in bed and when I got up after an hour, I ended up    and don't know if my pills came up too sinc I couldn't see due to severe watery eyes and the need to just lay back down. I didn't take another set of meds till my next dose was due in the pm. Wasn't sure what to do, so played it safe and acted like they did make it down in time to work. Something that has never happened to me before, you?