I Can NOT take pills

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I used to have difficulty swallowing all pills but have taught myself to be able to swallow them by essentially starting with the smallest size pills using a drink of either milkshake consistency or pop(soda for Americans), putting the pill in the front of my mouth, sucking which sends the pill flying back to my back of my throat then swallow. I slowly moved up to larger pills when I desensitized my psychological gag reflex(I have a really strong gag reflex).

My advice is NEVER use just water, water alone doesn't lubricate your throat enough and just causes pills to stick, and if you gag on a pill it will reinforce your gag reflex setting your progress back. If you have to swallow a capsule, again start with the smallest possible, align the capsule so its not facing horizontally in your mouth and is instead facing the back of your throat.

There is orally disintegrating pills for some medications you could look into, but if you are going to try with swallowing pills, ask the doctor each time for the size of the pill and specifically state your difficulty with swallowing pills. Some pills can easily be cut into smaller pieces, that's another option(as long as they aren't extended release medication, those usually shouldn't be cut).

I did and he still got that.

He wasn't listening.

I hate coffee. I'm having it. I can swallow it. But it tastes exactly like coffee.

Hot chocolate with extra sugar tastes of coffee...

Update:

Can take it in hot chocolate

Tastes exactly like coffee which I don't like but it goes down fine and doesn't make me nauseous.

In future, watch something that doesn't make me annoyed (a favourite tv show or something) so I'm enjoying myself. Then drink it as a hot chocolate while telling myself I'm drinking coffee.

Have you tried a suppository?

GREAT!!

But please check before you mash a pill up to take it. With some pills that would be bad thing to do.


Hmmm...I've only had relatively minor endoscopic procedures, where I could breathe for myself. I preferred the times they just medicated me into not caring about anything...if an option I recommend that, it is more interesting.

-- First time I was chatting with the technician in the operating room while he was setting things up and all of a sudden he started putting things away! I was surprised and asked if there was a problem...turns out they had completed the procedure even though I didn't know they had started it.

-- After one the compress they put on my wrist afterwards was too tight and my hand turned purple--my bride and the recovery room nurse got very agitated but I didn't even find it interesting.

-- Worst experience remaining conscious: I wished they had put cartoons on the monitor because what they did have was like the world's worst, most boring documentary on spelunking.

It's a powder so it's already mashed up except the plastic coating.

Basically combining one powder with another.

Probably OK...but I believe there are some fancy capsules that control the rate the medicine is released after you swallow the pill. They do their trick inside your stomach. I don't know how obvious it is that a pill is one of those fancy pills if you look at it. Some info on that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified-release_dosage.

You probably didn't get one of those fancy pills but please check the packaging to make sure it doesn't say it has to be swallowed whole, and the next time you see the doctor please double-check they are okay with what you are doing. It would be a shame if a nice person like you was made sick by something that was supposed to make you feel better.

P.S. Maybe you should keep working on swallowing pills, though. (Sorry.) As you've already discovered, the doctors assume you can. And, unless you are one of Professor X's X-men, you will likely see the doctors more often in a few decades.

P.P.S. You said you already tried practicing with M&Ms? I'm curious, did your subconscious spit them out before you could swallow them?

I used to suffer exactly like you're describing KT67 but gradually I got over it to the point I can swallow a handful without any issues.

Maybe you need more enjoyable pills to take?

The directions for one prescription said, sprinkle over applesauce

(I am not a pharmacist but I play one on tv)

Next year, I will be able to go and talk to a doctor.

I don't think even an NT to NT, British person to British person, conversation would work well on the phone for this kind of thing.

He didn't want me to come in if I could possibly avoid it. But I find it really hard to communicate over the phone. I don't think he was listening, I think he was distracted. I also am not 100% sure English was his native language and I'd rather have spoken to my regular doctor.

I think a proper doctor's appointment would have not resulted in pills. Not without at least a conversation about how to have them. Proper doctor's appointments (pre and post covid, irl ones) tend to be pretty open ended in my experience with proper solutions found to any questions raised. I think I'd have been fine with either liquid medicine or even just a cream.

When all this is over, I think it would be wise to go to a doctor and say that although I'm glad my verbal dyspraxia is not at the levels it was when I was a kid, I still struggle with things like taking tablets, sucking boiled sweets etc and ask the doctor if something can be done about that. Ideally when I don't actually need pills - ongoing physio or something like that to get my throat muscles/tongue used to working properly in a way that feels safe.

I'm not really sure the difference between crushing something up and putting it in an M&M (which I've not tried) and crushing it up and putting it in hot chocolate (which I've tried). I think that's just fear mongering.

As long as you are not violating any of the cautions, warnings, dire threats, legal disclaimers on the packaging, that sounds like a reasonable plan to me.
Oooh! I have been unclear!

I am not suggesting you take the M&M in any way together with the pill. I'm trying to suggest you use M&Ms as crash-test dummies while you try to teach your subconscious to swallow pills, that is, see if you can swallow an M&M (or some candy as small as your pills).

It seems likely one of three things might happen:
You spit it out--a terrible waste of chocolate!
It melts in your mouth--yum, chocolate!
SUCCESS!
Just please avoid:
You choke on it--so maybe have a glass of water handy.

And this is just an uneducated awesomely non-binding thought. I really do not know what I am talking about!

Good luck, no matter what you choose to do.

Yeah, what would happen is the choking thing.

I don't/can't swallow anything (except trying to with pills) unless I've chewed it a lot.

I'm annoyed with him cos he didn't (or maybe couldn't?) listen. My only way of not being annoyed with him sounds like I'm a dog whistle racist brexit type which is 'maybe he doesn't understand English cos he's a foreigner'.

I want my old doctor and I want to be able to go for proper appointments But I don't want mum to get Covid Or anyone else

Also I wasn't clear myself.

Reason I posted in here was cos I was wanting 'that sucks' responses or other verbally dyspraxic & taste sensitive autistic people to say 'yeah me too'. Not a bunch of people offering solutions. If I wanted that then I'd use the main forum.

OK. Sorry. That sucks! Good luck with however it turns out.

Thanks.

UPDATE

It wasn't the doctor or pharmacy at all.

Mum did the phone call with me there.

Stepdad picked up the pills.

Woman at the counter said 'do you want the liquid medication or the pills'

Stepdad asked for the pills cos he thought the other one was my mental health medication.

It's just anti-biotics btw.

My stepdad is so utterly out of touch with the family But apart from that, it's fine and I get the liquid meds tomorrow!

At least some good came from this weekend.