I had to take an anti-migraine pill every night for about 15 years. It is surprisingly hard to do that reliably and consistently. In the first week, you remember doing it, because it is a new thing. By the second week, the pills fall into the general background rhythm of your life. After a couple of months you don’t even notice you are taking them any more. That’s when adherence became a problem for me. Did I take the pill tonight, or do I just think I took the pill? Eventually I learned how to take my prescription reliably and with help from our friends John and Stephen, I was able to use what I had learned to help Michael with his meds. Here is a description of our technique.

pill boxes and alarms

Our technique has two components: pill boxes and alarms.

• Get two pill boxes, ideally the type with seven removable strips (one for each day) divided into four separate compartments (to allow for taking meds at different times of the day). On Sunday morning, fill the empty pill box with a week’s worth of meds. By using two pill boxes, you make sure that you always have at least one full week’s meds already in a pill box.
• Put an alarm on your mobile phone for the time (or times) when you should be taking your meds. When the alarm goes off, stop whatever you are doing and take the meds.

That’s all there is to it.

Because the pill box holds each day’s meds individually, there will never have any confusion about whether or not you have taken your meds. If Tuesday evening’s compartment is empty, then you have taken Tuesday evening’s meds. If it isn’t empty, then you haven’t. It also makes life easier if you have additional short-term meds to take – simply add them to the appropriate compartment in the pill box.

By always taking the meds at the same time, and having an alarm to remind you, it is much less likely that you will forget.

helping your partner

If there is a job to be done and one of us finds it difficult and the other finds it easy, then the one who finds it easy does it. This is the essence of partnership. Like many people living with HIV, Michael sometimes finds his meds overwhelming. As his husband, I do what I can to help him. I look after his meds for him. When he brings a new batch home from hospital, I put it into the HIV medicine cupboard. On  a Sunday morning, I fill the pill boxes for him. There is an alarm on my phone for 10:30 each evening, and when it goes off, I stop what I’m doing, and I get Michael a glass of Coke and give him his meds. That way Michael doesn’t have to worry about his meds, except when he has to take them. That is a large burden that I’ve lifted from Michael’s shoulders, and it is very little work for me.

That is what works for us. In other relationships it may be the negative partner who is overwhelmed by the medication, or you might be in a relationship where you are both OK about the meds. Whatever your situation, if you are finding adherence difficult, I hope you find our technique useful.