Teresa:
When taking your meds..how important is it take them at the same time every day? I have noticed that hubby doesnt take his at the same time every night. He usually takes them between 7-10 pm. Should he be taking them at the same time every night?
Thanks Teresa
HIVworker:
That's a good question. The dosing of drugs depends on the active concentration in the blood. If a drug is cleared rapidly, then the drug will drop below it's active concentration quicker and it needs to be re-dosed to get it back to the active concentration. Those sorts of measurements dictake how many times a drug should be taken per day. When you take the drug it leads to a peak value and when it is cleared this gives a trough value.
When you take medication, it is important to keep on a tight schedule to maximize the chances that you will no dip below the trough value. It is actually more important for once-a-day pills as people tend to adhere loosly to the protocol. Once a day does NOT mean once in the morning one day, and once in the evening the next day. That's a gap of 36 hours, not 24, and the trough values were calculated from 24 hours, not 36. So it is important to keep on schedule. While the difference of 3 hours that you describe is not as extreme as my example, it would be better to take them as close to the correct dosing schedule as you can - as this will make them work better.
R
Teresa:
Thank you so much....that helps alot.
Teresa
J.R.E.:
Hello Teresa,
I take my meds at 8:00 Am and 8:00pm. I take one viramune and the Viread at 8:00am, and the other Viramune and the Epzicom @ 8:00pm. This is what works for me.
I always try to take them at approximately the same times. I may vary by as much as 45 minutes either way at times, But usually, I try to be exact. In my case, since there are no food restrictions, I also try to make sure I have a little something in my stomach, to help take the edge off.
The Best-----Ray
aztecan:
Hey Teresa, I take my meds at 7 a.m., 3 p.m. and 11 p.m., with no food two hours before or one hour after. Oh, I throw in a Zetia at about 7 p.m., but that's not as critical as the others.
I found an alarm wristwatch to be a life saver. Perhaps that would help the hubby?