Very confused about changing int time zone meds

[MaryK]

Hi All-- I just got back from Japan... just a few hours ago. It was easy to adjust meds when we went, but now it is Monday about 10 am in Japan and
Sunday about 6 pm here. So I long finished my Sunday pills while in Japan and on the plane, but it seems like I should be doing another Sunday of drugs?? Does this make sense to anyone? I am so jet-lagged and confused and tired. Any help appreciated. It just seems like there is no way I can wait until tomorrow.
Thanks,
Mary

 

[epileric]

IMO, if you've taken all you're supposed to for Sun then don't worry about it.

You might want to get up earlier so that you don't have to go too long without taking tomorrows meds, even if you just take them & go back to sleep.

 

[LJ-Bain]

Do you take your medicine twice a day or three times a day? Welcome back home! I hope your trip went wonderfully well! I hope you didn't have many seizures while away...and that with you being so tired and jet-lagged that you are not too vulnerable.

 

[MaryK]

That is what I was thinking too, except there is a 20 hour difference between Japan and USA... I left Japan at 2 pm on Sunday (13 hour flight), but arrived at 10:00 am on Sunday.

 

[LJ-Bain]

Almost a whole day...maybe just go by how many physical hours it has been since you have taken your medication (forgetting for now about the time change) until you can check with your doctor and then worry about the time change and adjust gradually? I'm not sure though of course...I hope someone else has been in this situation to advise you!

 

[epileric]

If you take your meds twice a day that's not too big a difference. If you only take them once then I would probably take an extra dose so that you don't have to go longer than 24 hrs without.

 

[MaryK]

Thanks everyone... it is my phenobarb and it has an extremely long half life, so I take 3 times a day even though I could take once a day (makes me toooo tired) so if I did the physical every 8 hours it like there are a couple extra doses, but think I will just take 1 and 1/2

 

[LJ-Bain]

good good good

 

[katzy]

When I went to India last year, I kept a wrist watch that was EST. I followed the time here in the US, so it wasn't difficult for me. So next time remember to keep a watch.

 

[AngelwithDentedHalo]

If you wear a watch, most watches have more than one time you can set. Whenever you go out of the country or anywhere where the time is different, set the second time for where you will be going and leave the other where you live, then when you get home, it'll be what time it is now and you'll see the difference in when you should take your meds after coming home.

If you have one, you can also have the time zones on your Ipod or Iphone or Ipad or whatever you take.

 

[KarenB]

We have the same problem going back and forth to Asia. Jon gets his drugs approximately every 12 hours (7 a.m. and 7 p.m.), so when flying back, we make sure he gets a dose every 12 hours, no matter what the time is where we currently are. This works out ok if going from, say, China to the east coast USA, because there's a 12 hour time difference (well, sometimes 13, because of the stupid daylight savings thing).

But it gets a little hard keeping up if we stop over in California for a few days. Then he ends up having to take meds at wierd times, so if this is the case, we just adjust the time back by a couple hours.

But basically, you can't go by what pills are in your container, because you'll end up missing a half days' meds. You have to track the actual time lapse between pills, which gets really confusing when you're crossing time zones and tired and jet lagged to boot (and jet lag is always far worse going from Asia to US.