Biaxin; regimen

[cjsmith]

Yes Biaxin causes stomach upset. Yay.
Yes Biaxin causes (or exacerbates) insomnia. Sleep aids, coming right up.

Regimen, for those who like to point and laugh:
Morning - 5 pills vitamin D3, 1 injection vitamin B12 (also inject kitty with insulin)
8am - 500mg Biaxin, with food
2pm (as far from the Biaxin as possible) - probiotic
8pm - 500mg Biaxin, with food (also give kitty insulin and 1/2 tablet Enalapril for blood pressure)
8pm 1x/week - fluconazole
Bedtime - hormones, sleeping pill

There's no way to keep this organized without little pill minders, so I'm carrying those again. I'm really not supposed to be this old yet. I was supposed to get a decade or two of middle age.

Comments

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I use a little mini pill reminder/organizer system to help me remember my pills: Timex Daily Medication Manager (http://www.amazon.com/Timex-80041-Daily-Medication-Manager/dp/B000FNJO8Q/ref=pd_sim_dbs_hpc_img_3). I call the voice "The Pill Lady", and thank her for her reminders when she says "Take Pillbox 2!". My sister said "Doesn't that voice get annoying?", and I said "Not really, what's really annoying is the forgetting.". Whee. ;)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

"Not really, what's really annoying is the forgetting."

Yes indeedy. I find I'm pretty good at remembering to do things if I concentrate and focus. (When we go to Great Britain, I drive.) The challenge right now is to focus, unfailingly, for long enough that habit begins to kick in and help.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I also find it very helpful that The Pill Lady has a voice and talks about pills. That way when I'm not awake I can tell the difference between a wake-up alarm and a pill alarm. The simplicity of The Pill Lady telling me what pills to take is a great help when my brain is rather determinedly asleep.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Ah, nice. It hadn't occurred to me that sleep schedule would make a big difference to pill schedule. My sleep is fairly regular (well, when I'm getting some, *snort*) so that's one less hurdle in the path of doing something at 8 twice a day without fail.

If you don't mind my asking, what's your med regimen? I don't recall you talking about it in LJ, although I might have just missed it.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

It's relatively simple now, just a bit fussy.

Morning: Levoxyl 75mcg & Low-Ogestrel ("birth control", skipping placebo pills)
Evening: Ranitidine 300mg (stomach stuff, can interfere with Levoxyl, *sigh*)

I take my morning pills between 7:30 & 9:30 AM (and set The Pill Lady for 9:25 AM). The evening pill is less fussy, but I try for 7:30-9:30 PM (with The Pill Lady at 9:25 PM in case I forget). It's tough for me, because I have lotsa trouble with insomnia (I seem to have a greater-than-24-hour circadian rhythm), so I often end up with an erratic sleep schedule. I've learned to roll over when I hear The Pill Lady, take the two li'l pills, and roll over back to sleep. When I've been dead asleep it's very easy for me to get back to sleep[*] after simple quick pill-taking. The Pill Lady lives in my bedroom, since the evening pill is not so strict, and I'm generally at home for the morning pills.

And the 7:30-9:30 windows are my feeding times for mira_kitty. She gets food supplements with her morning wet food (lite, cans or wet packets) -- Dasuquin powder (a glucosamine/chondroitin plus misc supplement) and a squirt of Welactin (an omega-3 supplement. These supplements are supposed to help her with her hip dysplasia, and they seem to work Really, Really Well!!! :D Evening is easy, she gets lite dry food, carefully measured. She's a serious overeater, including a social eater (will grab a bite if she can any time I visit the kitchen) so I've had to stop free feeding.

[*] I have what I call "sleep inertia" -- "a body at rest..." -- you get the drift. It sounds like a joke, but it's also the literal truth, which I've lived with all my life.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I skip placebos too, which is one of the best things that's happened to me in my entire life. (Seriously, I can count on one hand the things that have been that good to me: graduating from MIT, Rob, and getting my abdominal pain under control.)

That's cool that you can get back to sleep afterward. I have sleep-maintenance insomnia -- I can GET to sleep, but if I wake up any time after four or so hours of it, I usually can't RETURN to sleep no matter how tired I feel -- so that'd be tougher for me. But hey, we each have ways that work for us! :-)

I'm also glad to hear how well the supplements are working for Mira. That's awesome.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Yeah skipping placebos is way up there in big life pluses! Makes me feel whole and human and not "down for periodic maintenance" (and ridiculous pointless misery) way too often.

And it *is* really quite tough to properly manage regular pills in my irregular life. But, with the help of The Pill Lady, I mostly manage. Not always easy.

I have sleep initiation problems (and waking problems), you have sleep maintenance problems. We each get dealt our challenges. Such fun... or something. ;)

It makes me extremely happy that the supplements are working well for mira_kitty!!! I rejoice every single time I see her walk into the bedroom and leap up onto my bed directly instead of choosing to use her kitty stairs on the other side of the bed. She used to use them *all the time* to get onto my bed, then she'd occasionally leap directly, but now she leaps directly almost *all the time*!! Though she usually uses the stairs to get down from the bed. But, wow!!, what a wonderful improvement and state of happy-mostly-healthy-catness!!! You can make a note for your future vet practice that this stuff can be *amazing* for kitty arthritis.

BTW, my sporadic LJ-visiting means I missed commenting 'bout Duchess' situation. I'm so sorry to hear she's going through such a difficult and scary time. I worry (but really try to not obsess) about when Mira will face big health issues (again). It's part of why I celebrate every single time I see her leaping or doing happy-cat things. I'm glad you said that Duchess didn't seem personally miserable outside the seizure episodes. At least that is a comfort. I wish both of you the best luck with dealing with it, and offer *HUGS* and *kitty-purrrrrrrs*.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

"Ridiculous pointless misery" is exactly the right way to put it. Ugh.

Yeah, I think Duchess probably feels just fine most of the time (although confused and disoriented when this hits) and me, I'm the worrier. Thanks! Hugs and kitty-purrs make a lot of things better.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Hugs and kitty-purrs (and maybe some cheese) could save the world if we could just figure out the distribution problem!