pill popping

I went to the doctor about a week ago about some persistent foot pain. She diagnosed it as tendonitis, and prescribed 600mg of ibuprofen, to be taken three times daily, with food.

My biggest problem with this is that I don't usually eat three times a day. I've actually taken to getting up earlier and trying to get to work in time to eat breakfast at 10am, so that I can take my pills earlier in the day. Unfortunately, I still have to adhere to the 4 hour rule, so I can't take another set of pills until after 2pm, and I have to wait until I eat again, which is generally at dinner time.

Also, 600mg works out to 3 (over the counter) tablets, which means 126 tablets over two weeks. I've already finished bottle I had lying around (expiration date: January 2005), and am now raiding the first aid cabinets at work.

I never understood before why people talked about it being hard to keep to a medication schedule, but given my difficulty with a two-week regimen, I can only imagine what it's like for victims of chronic illnesses.