Since age 15 I’ve had my own pharmacy.  Okay really I just keep the pharmacy in business.  I take a large number of pills a day to help keep everything in order.

There are allergy and bipolar disorder medication along with simple fish oils and Vitamin D and my inhaler take up a good corner of my nightstand.  I even have the old lady pillbox to help keep them all in order.

After 15 years of medications I’ve developed a systems that works, most times.  Alarms on my phone; my grandma pillbox; same bat time, same bat place for taking the medication; and carrying an extra dose on my key ring.

Ninety-nine percent of the time this method works.  But super busy days, staying out of town, early mornings, and anything out of the ordinary throw off my routine and occasionally leads to missed dosages.

Anyone who regularly takes medications knows skipping doses medication can lead to problems.  In a day when we all seem to be attached to our smart phones – yes now me too – a reminder application for medications, no matter how many you take, can be extremely useful.  Because there’s an app for everything there’s an app for this too.

Pillboxie is the best solution I’ve found. I’ve been using it since the day I bought my iPhone and find it invaluable. You don’t even have to be connected to a network for it to work.

What I love about Pillboxie:

• The patient section keeps track of all information you want a doctor to know.  Add a list of your diagnoses in addition to the medication list Pillboxie maintains.  Extremely helpful if you are unconscious in the ER.  Also this list can be emailed to anyone (spouse, parent, new doctors, school officials). Hunni has a copy for easy access.
• Medication name and a section for the reason for taking and other instructions.  Perfect for someone like me who takes medications traditionally used for other things.  I also include instructions like not cutting extended release medications or which cause sleepiness.  But also they need to be taken with food or without.
• Options for medications color and shape to help with visual representations.  Mix and match the colors and shapes for it to represent your medication.  Fantastic so I know the little green pill is for anxiety.
• Drag and drop the medications into a pillbox at the selected time.  Nice for medications taken multiple times a day.
• My Pillboxie reminder music is completely unique from the other reminders on my phone.  I use the settings to push reminders to the main screen and the reminder bubble stays until I take the medication. I enjoy the process of checking them off like a to-do list.
• The developers are extremely sensitive in listening to users of the app, making updates so it is even easier to use. I emailed with a problem and received a response the same day.

The downsides:

• Not all shapes/types of medications are represented.  I use a nose spray have to represent it with something similar. *It seems they are working on these issues because the latest upgrade included multiple capsule color combinations.*
• It lacks a tracking calendar to look back and see if I’ve missed dosages during the week or month. This would be helpful in understanding symptoms and talking to doctors.
• There is no way to set a start and end date – as with pain medications or antibiotics.  The only option is to set medication and “not currently taken.”
• Dosages are not listed.  If you take differing doses throughout the day there is no way to distinguish without creating a separate medication.
• The snooze function can malfunction.  This is a new update but sometimes continues to ring after you’ve checked off the medications.  I leave it off.

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