crushing pills and how to take them..

hi everyone. i've got a little infection in my incision, so i've been put on antibiotics called Augmentin. the pills are giganto. obviously i'm crushing them in order to get them down.. but god, they're AWFUL tasting. I put them in my protein shakes, but they make the shakes taste even worse. are there any other ideas that people use to get the pills down? i'm dying here.. i need to take my meds more regularly, but it's so hard.. everytime i smell them, i just gag. kristen

How about mixing them with a spoonful of sugar free jello and just swallowing that. Try holding your nose so you can't smell it.

SF pudding. In the hospital, they were mixing mine with applesauce (gross!!). At breakfast the next morning, they brought me egg custard so I tried that with the meds. It worked like a charm. It doesn't take much, about a tablespoon or so. I eat 1/4 of pudding at breakfast and dinner so I can take my pills. Hope you feel better soon! Hubby was on Augmentin earlier this year for a skin infection we were passing around the house. It worked great for him. Melissa

thank you! i don't know why i didn't think of this sooner. i'm going to try that now! kristen

If it is that bad ask the Dr. if there is liquid or maybe you can get shots? You could always try and put the powder in a spoonful of jelly? Be a trooper and just swollow them??? Is there a reason your not swollowing pills whole yet? Is the infection just surface right now, or has it gone down inside now? Im just full of questions. LOL I dont understand why they are having you put ointment on your wound, my mother had a horrible infection and her wound specialist told her no ointment. The wound specialist told her that the ointment just made more infection. Ask your Dr. about a wound specialist. Dont feel like you are putting your Dr. down by questioning your surgeon, he/she is just human too. You need to make sure you take control of your own health. BE AGRESSIVE, BE-E AGRESSIVE!

my surgeon has us crushing all of our pills for many weeks, so that is why i'm not swallowing these things whole. they're the biggest pills i've ever seen in my life. 875mg of pure antibiotic. easily the size of 3 chick peas put together. we think the infection is just on the surface. i'm not sure why you think i'm putting ointment on the wound.. because i'm nto and never said anything about it.. lol i'm very versed in wound care treatment, having done my own packing of wounds from past surgeries, some incision seperation coming close to 2 inches wide and 7 inches deep. loooovely. but i've never put ointment on those either. i'm not questioning my surgeon.. i'm just questioning how i can more easily take my pills, other than putting them in my protein shake or other liquids. i think i'm going to try putting them in pudding, or maybe even dinner. we'll see. i hope it works!!! kristen

Hi Kristen, I too have a couple of pills I have to crush, I put them in a spoonfool of SF pudding, and it works like a charm. You are right to follow your Dr's orders, we don't want any of these pills getting stuck going down, that would not be good, and by the way, you didn't mention useing any ointment. Hope you get better real soon. Take care, Hugs to you Perry W.

Don't ruin your dinner! What I do is put 1/4 cup pudding in a small bowl (I have some 4 oz custard bowls). Then I sprinkle the ground up meds on top of part of it. I can take the meds, then eat the rest of the pudding. It feels very decadent to have pudding for breakfast. BTW, I did discuss this with my nutritionist while I was in the hospital, he never really considered it either and is going to use it for other patients. He was on board 100%. My surgeon has us grinding pills for 6 weeks minimum also. Its a pain but I think it would be extremely hard to swallow some of them whole at this time. I even bought liquid tylenol to use! Melissa

I just went through this with my wellbutrin...I actually coudln't take it at all because teh taste was so bad...and there was NO hiding it. When I went in to have my tube removed I talked to the doc and he said if the option is cutting it into pieces or not taking it then I shoudl cut it...into 1/4 at this point. I know augmentin does come in liquid and also in shot form...my son was on it when he was a few monthe old.

thank you for the responses, everyone. i've tried putting the pill into SF pudding, and it isn't any easier. If it were half the size it were, I don't think i'd have a problem. but this is about 3 teaspoons of powder to choke down. i dn't know if i'm being a baby about it or not.. so far, putting it into crab dip with a lot of spicy mustard has been the best thing so far. but, it still is gross. so i think i'm going to take Leann's advice and put a call into the doctor to see if I can get this in liquid form. I just can't take it anymore. thanks so much for all the responses!! you guys were so helpful. kristen