To be staring at a tablet like it is a mountain...

[BrittaPerry]

I really struggle with tablets. It took a lot of work on my part to get to the point where I can now take my nightly medication (two flattish rounded square pills, largest one 9mm across, smaller one 6mm across) but tonight I started my period so need to take this new period medication and it is HUGE. Oval shapes, the biggest is 2cm long.

I sometimes have to spit out my normal pills because I just can't make them go down, and even on good nights I have to kind of hit myself in the chest and stamp on the floor hard to kind of distract myself.

How on earth will I do this?

I think I am a bit odd with sensory stuff as it is, this is a nightmare.

(PS: don't tell me to just get on with it. I have been in awful pain and even kept in hospital because of this. I genuinely struggle.)

Could you get your meds in liquid form? Or get a pill cutter? Sorry you are having this trouble.

I know how you feel (not with the pain though) i can absolutly not swallow tablets.
I had tonsillitus for a month because i would not under any circumstanes take the pills.
My doctor gave my kids medicine in the end!

For now, can you take them one at a time, slowly? I have trouble with this too

I used to struggle a LOT with tablets - would rather take loads of calpol rather than a tablet. But now am much better, I take lots of meds daily and am ok.

But I started off taking it with fizzy drinks - seems to make it go down easier. Also have lots to drink and just keep drinking and drinking.

circumstances

In mouth with a spoonful of ice cream and swallow the lot together?

I chew some bread til I'm ready to swallow it then pop the tablet in the middle and swallow.
I hate swallowing tablets. I gag so hard my eyeballs hurt but the bread works everytime.

I take a mouthful of water, pop the tablet in and swallow, but I don't have a swallowing issue - for me it's taste and it makes me gag. Could that work for you?

Bizarrely if you put your chin down it open the back of your throat up and it makes it easier to swallow. Seems completely like the opposite of what you should do but this his how dh managed to learn to swallow his horse tablets as he called them!

It is taste, fear of choking, feeling of something hard in my mouth, (huh huh huh) everything.

I can't do ice cream, because my teeth only let me eat ice cream really carefully, because I don't even like the dentist in my mouth.

Sigh.

Random - that's how I do my normal ones! Glad its not just me!

Something fizzy works well as a liquid. Stick the pill as far back on your tongue as you can without gagging and then tip head back as you swallow.

I bloody hate swallowing pills.

I can't do it unless I flap my hand fast while swallowing. 16yo DD can't do it unless she grips something tightly

Maybe try something like that? With a nice big gulp of water

Try putting it under your tongue and then taking a drink. If not many tablets can be crushed up and mixed with jam, peanut butter etc. I'm a pharmacist and if you want to let me know what it is then I can confirm if it is ok crush.

Hmmm can you chop them in half?

Covering them in butter helps them go down easier as well...

swigging the water out of a bottle rather than glass helps DH as well you can be freaks together

I sympathize. I now have my own weird technique. I hold the pill between my first and middle fingers, tip my head back and open my mouth really wide, then stick my fingers in and drop the pill straight down my throat, behind my tongue.

My tongue always seemed to push pills back out when I tried just swallowing them, so this way I bypass the tongue completely!

It works for me, but I'm now taking 24 tablets a day for a couple of different issues.

Normal pills are Lamotrigine, new ones are Tranexamic Acid and Mefenamic Acid. Thanks :-)

Ask if your tablets come in different shape/form. I can't swallo big round flat ones, so get lozenge shaped ones now. Think the shape increases the price.

Mefenamic acid tablets are big. All those you listed would be OK to crush. you can crush them between two spoons and the mix with something strong tasting. Just a note don't try this with anything that is marked slow release, modified release or long acting you could get too much drug to quickly.
Lamotrigine also comes as a soluble tablet which might be easier . Mefenamic acid dose come as a liquid but it is not very strong so 1 tablet is the same as 10 spoons of liquid.

hmmm if you've finished your family I can recommend endometrial ablation as an alternative to take mefenamic and tranexamic acid tablet they are large and unpleasant so you're not being a complete wimp.

I am not bad with them but the ones that taste bad, I can only do as follows... lie on back, open mouth, large gulp of water in the back of throat, drop pill in, swallow.

See my many recent threads about dd and her tablet swallowing imposibility.

Well done for getting to the point where you can swallow your regular ones.

Have you tried Pill Glide? Its a sort of spray which makes them more slippery.

I usually take a huge mouthful of liquid, enough that the normal reflex is to gulp it back.

I second the bread idea. Chew a bit of bread til it's really mushy and then push the pill into it and swallow the mushy bread lump