to ask about medication dosing?

[VeganFromSveden]

If the GP has prescribed (for instance) a course of antibiotics, four per day over a seven day period, do I spread the four (of twenty eight) capsules over the "waking" day, OR, over 24 hours.

I can't ask my GP, as it's now the weekend.

I took my first one at 5am, so is my next one in six hours time, as that would be the method of dividing twenty four hours into four, or do I take my next antibiotic sooner?

I'm probably being unreasonable to ask, but I admit to being confused.

This is because when I need to take painkillers, I'm advised to take those every four hours, and not every six hours.

I hope it's not just me that's puzzled.
Maybe the infection has addled my brain 🤪.....tia...

personal choice to some degree, sleep is important for healing.
if you routinely get up to go to the bathroom it's easy enough to take that "middle of the night" dose. so stick to 4 in 24 hours; 6 am, 12 am, 6 pm, and maybe 10 pm vs midnight.

Nobody expects you to take meds over night.

Just split them through waking hours.

When ds has been in hospital they have never woken overnight for oral antibiotics. They have always just given around his wake times.

some medication it does matter but on the whole with antibiotics it’s not critical. Check with your pharmacist this morning though for you individual case

How bad is the infection? If its really bad I would be inclined to wake up to take the fourth dose, if its your every day run of the mill infection then just spread them out as much as you possible can.

I would do 9am, 1pm, 5pm and 9pm then sleep. Spread 4 hours apart 8 had to do this before and that's the timings I did.

I spread them over 24hrs and set the alarm for the dose I need to take.

Seriously even if you were critically unwell in hospital having intravenous antibiotics, they don't come round in the small hours of the night.

7, 12, 5, 10 (or shifted if you wake earlier or later) is well spaced out and should be achievable for most people.

I would not dose x4 within 12 hours and then have a 12 hour gap as a pp said.

Waking day. Every 4-6 hours generally.

The drug will usually be dosed at high enough levels that it will hang around whilst sleeping so wouldn’t be critical to be perfectly spaced. Also, your body has quite a lot of variation in the way in distributes drugs, depending on whether you are awake, asleep, have eaten, are walking around etc. So even if you did time it to the minute, it might not make it perfectly consistent. Stick broadly to the instructions and you’ll be fine.

What? Yes they do! They do obs every 4 hours when critically ill

Have a chat with your pharmacist when they open and see what they recommend. Mine normally say "some people do X, but i can't tell you to do that" if its against the "rulee".

I only ever space my antibiotics out over waking hours. Hope you feel better soon!

Yeah in hospital a 4 times daily med would be prescribed at 8:00, 12:00, 18:00 and 22:00. Though even this is imprecise as they have to do the whole meds round for the ward and it takes time.

just take one when you wake up, one just before bed and then spread out the other 2 in between.

Um….yes we do.

If your critically ill treatment doesn’t stop because you’re asleep!

Thank you for all the input...

I'm gonna spread it out over 24 hours.. to be fair, I'm in too much discomfort to sleep properly anyway, so no alarms needed.
I'll be so glad to finish the course and get back to normal me...

It's a kidney/bladder infection, and apart from the physical discomfort... sometimes pain, it seem to affect my brain too, as I've become very irritable.

Apparently it's one of the joys of ageing that produces that affect (or is it effect?) I'm soon to be seventy, so I guess I'm considered to be "old"....

When I'm not unwell, I still feel like a teenager.... well sometimes!

I just had antibiotics from the hospital and the nurse wrote down the exact times I should take them. They weren’t anything special, just bulk standard antibiotics. I was a little surprised (and just spread them over my waking hours).