How do you store your medication?

[Jace]

I'm an Industrial Design student working on a storage system for medication, specifically for people who do regular injections. The idea rose out of my own experience of struggling to keep track of all my things. Like my sharps container is in one place, my syringes and needles seem to end up changing places every time I get them refilled(and never next to my testosterone), and everyday my other prescription meds are on a different shelf. There are other organizational med boxes for pills, but I have yet to find one for injections.

So I have a few questions on this subject.

Does anyone else have this issue and if so what have you done to fix it? Do you ever forget to do your shot? How do you keep track of it if you do have trouble? Alarms, planner, etc? What size of sharps container do you prefer?

How would you feel about a medicine storage system that helps with keeping track of when to take your medicine? If you take other medicine besides hrt, do you keep it in the same area or somewhere else? If you keep them in different areas, why?

I would really appreciate any replies. Don't feel like you have to answer everything, I'm mostly just interested in other people's experience with this.

[Kylo]

I store it in the same place as my coffee, and leave it in the bathroom. I don't take shots but use gel, it just has to be stored below 25C. So kitchen or bathroom is fine. I'm sometimes forgetful about taking it same time every day so it's best leaving it close to the same place I do normal morning routine.

[Julia1996]

I keep my vials of estradiol, syringes and my spiro and provera pills in a kitchen cabinet with my dad and brother's protein powders and weight lifting supplements. I use a 7day pill dispenser that I keep with the coffee pods so I never forget to take them. My brother gives me my shots and he always remembers when I'm due for it which is good because I do forget once in a while. I use the same size sharps collector they have at my Dr's office. When it's full I take it back to the Dr office and they give me a new one.

[widdershins]

I rent a room in a house with several housemates, so I have to keep my medication in my bedroom. I keep my vial, needles, etc. all together in the brown paper bag the pharmacy hands them to me in, and I keep that on a shelf next to my box of important documents. I don't have room for and can't afford better furniture with drawers, so that's about as organized as I can get. But because everything is together in the same bag, I've never lost anything. My "sharps containers" are just empty jars of tomato sauce or whatever else I have handy.

My other meds are in a different, more accessible place, because I don't want to have to be digging around for them when I have a blinding migraine, and because they're in plastic bottles that aren't going to get damaged if they're knocked over.

I inject every other week, and I'm noticeably tired and irritable a day or two before I'm scheduled for another shot. The feeling of my T levels being low is pretty distinct, different from lack of sleep or coming down with a cold or whatever. Because of this, I never forget it's time to do my injection. In terms of my other meds, though, I've had a lot of success with those lids with timers that tell you when you last opened the bottle. I'm terrible at keeping up with planners or forcing myself to do something as soon as an alarm goes off.

[Ryuichi13]

I use a gell form of T that I keep in the linen closet in the bathroom.  When my alarm goes off, I sometimes don't remember or (since I apply it at night) am too tired, I put the bottle on the bathroom sink to remind me the next morning.

I also turn my bottle around to tell me when I last took it.  UPC code label forward on odd-numbered days and non-UPC code label on even-numbered days.  That way, I know at a glance if I applied it or not.

Ryuichi

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[Megan.]

My pills are in a high kitchen cupboard out of reach of my children. I've not forgotten once yet in 2 months. I take them with a drink first thing in the morning.

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[rose]

I hide them in close closet away from anyone to find them
I always make sure the place is dry and cold

[Jace]

Thank you so much everyone! Your answers are very helpful.

[Katie Jade]

Hi
I had multiple PE's several years go (not associated with this journey, but helped start it), and for a week or two I had to self inject into my stomach area (very painful and left large bruises for months) and then onto pills which for some reason I am still on (good as I have INR taken every 4 weeks and reduces a lot risk of clots). As I'm a little absent minded, I kept med stuff below the family calendar with some of the syringe bits attached to it, with a small alarm. As they were daily meds I use the calendar to tick off when taking them and the alarm to reminded me - all in one place (no refrigerated items though), and I got shouted at by kids and wife if I didnt turn alarm off..
Still work well for me, but alarm gone now and I take meds regularly as no one wants to go back to the alarm days so I reminded by everyone every day.
Katie T

[Bari Jo]

I keep mine in a drawer in the bedroom.  I also keep the daily doses in a pill box on my keychain.  I'm sure this isn't the most ideal, but it works for me.

[Sarah_P]

I keep the two sets of pills in their containers on my coffee table, right next to my daily vitamins & claratin. No one is ever upstairs were I live unless I'm there, too, so I'm not worried about them. While I've often forgotten to take them at my self-designated times (I split them over the day), I've always remembered before going to bed. Though, one day I couldn't remember so I had to count them out to see if I had. I've thought about getting a dry-erase board or something to help with that.