Swallowing pills

[masterjen]

I take so much medication at night for seizure control that it is dangerous for me to get up in the night. Three or four times a week I do have to use the bathroom at night, and I have fallen or almost fallen due to legs not working right and feeling like I am floating. This has been going on for a while, but really got to me when I fell hard night before last. This on top of a daytime bad fall 2 months ago in which I sustained a concussion and injured two teeth. I manage the daytime now by simply not going for walk in the 2-3 hours after I take the dose, plus the daytime dose is smaller anyway, but night of course is different: when you gotta go, you gotta go! I called the neuro who does not want to reduce the night time dose as my seizures have reduced to about once every 6-8 nights from once every 3 or 4 nights so this improvement is huge. She also does not want to change the time I take the medication (evening dose is just before I go to bed, around 10), and I agree with this also, so that I am "covered" as best as possible for the time-frame when the seizures typically will occur. Her recommendation: don't drink fluids after dinner time. I felt a little silly asking her how I am supposed to swallow 8 pills (4 that sometimes take two swallows to get down) at 10 pm without later getting up to use the toilet. So, I pose the question to the folks here, in hopes you don't think of this as silly a question as she probably would. What do you do to swallow pills to minimize fluid intake??

 

[petero]

try putting them all together into a cup and "drinking" them first, before drinking a fluid

the "drinking" motion can get them all to fall into the back of the throat

placing each pill into your mouth and drinking each one down goes through a lot of liquid just to get the pills un-stuck from the inside of your mouth/tongue, and then down

also I recall that drinking fluids during pill-taking is only a necessity of function of swallowing and not a function of drug interaction - i.e. water makes the pill go down easier, it doesn't help the pill metabolize, because the chemicals will use the water already in your system to metabolize)

practice on pills that are horrible to swallow - FISH PILLS
we should be having fish pills anyway, 2 per day at least - they are good for nerve health - but those damn things are massive aren't they?
additionally, there are some fish pills that have a powder on the external surface (presumably a non-stick for the other pills in the bottle thing) that are a real pain to swallow.
But the fish pills will get you more used to pill swallowing while training your ability to sustain the gag reflex.

Warning - the gelatin coating of fish pills does cause some dehydration (making them slimy right after a moment of hydration) that may make them harder to swallow (once in your throat) - I do not recommend swallowing fish pills without a liquid... but TRYing to do it can help you to train your gag reflex, allowing you to get more mass and volume into the back of your throat, making it overall easier to swallow pills.

I often use a 7-day pill container. I'll uncap it and "drink" the pills out of it, and for 7 1/2 pills it really makes it easier. Once salt-based pills (most epil. meds) hit your system they are absorbed easily. Don't think of the liquid as a necessity for your Rx to metabolize - just think of it as something to basically get past your gag reflex.

Also, eating a protein (ex. cheese, a protein shake - which is also a liquid!) or a carbohydrate (ex. popcorn - which also helps you sleep!) will help to occupy a lot of water in your system as it is used to metabolize the chemical makeup of the food. Same with drinking a natural fruit juice. The fluids are absorbed differently by the body.

 

[masterjen]

Many thanks, Petero!