I was truly humbled by the response to my previous blog. I feel safe in saying we could build a castle out of the pill bottles donated from everyone’s generosity.
While the outpouring was heart warming, I’ll admit it also paralyzed me a little to post again. I sincerely doubt all those so graciously now following my blog, share my same health conditions so would they care about anything I might talk about? But the more I thought about it, the more I realized, it was proof that so much about health is universal, regardless of diagnosis.
If you’re like me, the pill bottles you’re now donating, weren’t just filled with vitamins to try to live longer. You are fighting pain, inflammation, your own immune system, you are in a hard core fight and that quest for health can easily be a full time job. 
Maybe, like me, you found yourself keeping the empty pill bottles as a way to remember all the crucial data on that little white sticker: who gave you what, when, where, for how long, how many refills… change meds even a few times a year and it’s near impossible to keep it all straight. My closet was a pill bottle graveyard filled with information I feared throwing away. Determined to finally clear the ghosts (& the space!) I decided to start writing all the key information off the pill bottle labels and keep them in a file.
After bottle #3 I gave up, shocked and frustrated at how long it took. I went on a quest to find an app to do all the work for me. I hate most medical apps, I find them way more work or cost than they are worth. This app would have to be *free and it would have to truly make this easy for me or the pill ghosts could just continue to haunt those drawers. It took a lot of trial and error but I finally found a solution – that actually works!
CareZone does the work for you & charges nothing!
(Note: so there’s no confusion, the app is free. I get nothing if anyone uses these links to load the app, I am just trying to make it easier for anyone that’s interested)
CareZone for Android
CareZone for Iphone
1. With CareZone, you simply take the camera on your smart phone or laptop and snap a few pics of the pill bottle (or box) label. Start at one side, take a pic, rotate, take another pic, rotate, until you’ve gone all the way around the label.
2. Review the pics.
Satisfied? Is picture #3 redundant or too blurry? Just delete it.
You didn’t get a clear pic of the side effect sticker on top? Add another pic to the file
3. Then hit submit
The photo is sent through recognition software, it takes the text in the photo and converts it into real editable, text in predetermined fields for clarity.
You will be notified when your information has been added into a file in your account.
What’s added? Everything!
*the name of the drug
* generic name
* strength & frequency of the dose
* Doctor’s name and phone number
* pharmacy name and number
* any warning information on the bottle/box
* number of refills
* when the drug expires
~ you name it, it’s added!
What else can the app do:
* remind you to take the meds you entered ( it will pull it right off the pill bottle & create the reminder for you!)
(note: all reminders can be set or turned off easily)
* remind you to reorder the meds
* add notes about anything you want
* create other profiles so you can keep track of what your Mom takes or kids take in case you ever need to tell a Doctor
* keep allergy lists
* current medication list
* want to keep information on a medication you’re not currently taking? Just click “inactive” and it will archive the info for you (I use this one a lot!)
I can’t count how many times I have had to list the meds I am on, what I am allergic to, reference what drug a specific Doctor gave me a year ago, what the dose was that did or didn’t help me on a medication I was taking 3 years ago… it’s impossible to keep it all straight and even more impossible to access it in a 6 inch medical file in the 60 seconds a Doctor gives you to answer the questions. This app has changed that for me and better yet, I now have another huge pile of pill bottles that no longer need to haunt my shelves “just in case” and can be donated!
Ginger Ail 
What a brilliant post Ginger Ail! And what a great FREE app! Going to see how we can get this incorporated into research 😉
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More posts! More posts! More posts!
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I found Care Zone before your site and I could not agree with you more about the ease of use, especially for people with complex medical issues. I think it is a great idea to donate all those empty pill bottles.
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Please allow me to thank you for your support during our recent pill container collection for Malawi. It was a success beyond anything we could have imagined. Before the collections ended we had passed an unimaginable 2 million prescription pill containers. Over 600,000 have already been shipped, and as they are distributed we will post pictures and stories on the website, Facebook, and in the electonic newsletter.
We would greatly appreciate if you would spread the word on social media and in your groups about the end of the program. A large number of people have not received the word that it has ended.
On another note, a life threatening famine is spreading across Malawi. Since harvests take place in April and May, and since last years planting was destroyed in many parts of the nation because of severe weather conditions, large numbers of villages are running out of food. It will only get worse between now and the next harvest. To add to the pain rains in 2016 are also questionable.
Without our assistance many villages are just too far away from the next locally grown food supply. Food can be shipped in from the U.S. or purchased on the local market. It is just that the village people do not have money to purchase it. We are doing both; shipping and buying. That will be our focus for tahe forseeable future. At the same time we will be working to procure more drip irrigation systems and V-Tractors (see our Facebook and web site for more details) to help get them back on their feet with the new planting season. During the disastrous famine of 2001-03 we witnessed the suffering first hand. We will be there again later this year and expect to see much of the same suffering we saw othe last time. However, we hope this time we can gain a great response and make a difference for people who don’t deserve to suffer the hideous situation they face.
Please pray for our success, and please subscribe to our newsletter (see the bottom of the page for contact addresses). This will keep you in the loop with what is taking place during 2016. We have great plans and God willing, many of them will be accomplished that will help stem the suffering in Malawi.
Again, thank you for your help in recent months, and for your continued focus on Malawi and its people.
Sincerely,
Dick
Richard Stephens, co-founder, Malawi Project
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My kitchen counter looks like a pharmacy with all of Nick’s pills. This is an excellent idea and I can’t wait to get home and do this!!!
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I work at a hospital and have started a pill bottle drive. Where do I send them?
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