I hadn’t reviewed the Pill Suite yet because I’d had issues with the bags. I have since gotten replacements and am now THRILLED with this solution for my meds and want to share.
As most Spoonies, I have a LOT of medications/supplements I take multiple times a day. I have struggled with the standard pill sorters, especially with travel and when I needed to take pills 3 times a day.
I happened on the little zip-lock medication bags at the pharmacy prior to one business trip, and found that it was a MUCH better solution – at least for travel – than the weekly organizers I’d been using. I could prepare as many days as I needed, as many times a day as I needed, and put all of it in a sandwich zip-lock bag in my carryon. It was a royal pain to load them all, though. I first had to sort my pills into the standard weekly sorter, then close all of the lids and open each one to get the meds for that dose to put in the individual bag. Still, better than nothing.
Then I found the Pill Suite on Grommet. The sorter looks like a normal 7-day pill organizer, but it has a rotating lid with a funnel that lets you get just that one medication time’s worth of pills without fussing with individual lids for each day.
For me, this invention alone would change the way I handled my meds. In fact, I had already decided if the rest of the system didn’t work out, it was worth it just to have this handy little dude. I would just use these to sort and load the little zip-lock bags from the pharmacy. I actually bought 2 so I can do a week’s worth of am and pm at the same time, or 14 days of one or the other.
The selling point of the product however, is the sealer and the little recyclable bags that it uses. This is like a tiny vacuum sealer, but without the vacuum.
The bags have a perforated edge that easily tears off in order to get the pills back out. This makes them a one-time use product, but that’s cleaner than a multi-use bag, and they are recyclable.
If you take more pills at a time than will fit in this bag, bless you. My morning regimen currently has 7 pills including 1 horse-sized capsule, and I take a little less than 1/2 of the availble space for pills. (You need to leave room for the sealing process at the top.)
I will note that the first set of bags I got with the system were incredibly difficult to open, to the point of aggravating the arthritis in my fingers and requiring me to pry the layers apart with a tool like a pen once open. I contacted the manufacturer, and they said they’d had a bad manufacturing batch, and offered to send replacements. I’ve had zero issues with the new bags. They open super-easy off the roll and I’ve had no problems with them.
This seems like overkill, I know. And I AM an admitted gadget freak. This might be overkill for someone who doesn’t have a lot of meds, or only takes them once, maybe twice a day. But even at just 2 medication times a day (my current), this system is flexible enough for me to set up 1 week at a time, or a month at a time based on my needs. And if I have to start taking a mid-day dose of something in the future, again that’s easy to do.
Caretakers may find this better as well, as the bags can be labeled in any way needed, and as many medication times/days as needed can be prepared in advance. Morning med packs can be stored in a different place than evening med packs if that’s more appropriate.
Travellers will find this immensely helpful. Of course, check with laws/regulations about needing original labels or other documentation. (I have my pharmacy app on my phone that documents my presciptions and has pictures of the pills for reference, and I always leave controlled medications in their original package.)
Information and ordering are available at Pill Suite and I have also seen the system and refills available on Amazon and it was originally sold on Grommet.
And just so you know – I have received no money or other stuff of value from anyone for my review here. I bought the system full price, and no one asked me to post this review.
