Scarleteen

Hello
I've read some posts and everyone seemed to be helpful.

I tend to worry so just wondering about a question. I always have water near my bedside table. I keep my bc pills in the bottom drawer. I somehow knocked the bottle of water over, the top came off, and water spilled. I don't think it got on my pills, but I can't remember if the drawer allowed any water in. I checked but it was also when I was very tired. I keep the pills in the blister package. Would I know if water got on them? The pills don't look mushy but I am still worried.

Thanks

Blister packs of pills are sealed so that absolutely nothing - not water, not air - can get into each little pocket with a pill in it. So, so long as all the seals are still intact and not broken - which you'll be able to see easily from looking at it - your pills will be absolutely fine. You could spill a bottle of water directly on a blister pack of pills and they'd be fine.

I'm sorry, one more question. I took my bc after a meal and got a stomach ache shortly after...30 to 40 min. I had diarheea. I don't want to be tmi but it wasn't straight water but very loose. Will this affect my pill? It was one time and about 12 hours ago.


Also I'm at the last pack of pills, I had the very same issue in week one (one time after I ate). When I begin my next pack will I need back up for a month, like I did when first beginning the pill?

Last week* not paxk

Diarrhea is at least 3 very loose stools per day for multiple days; one loose stool won't change the effectiveness of your pill. Since your pill hasn't been compromised, you don't need to use a back up method for the first week of the next pack (although using two methods consistently is really ideal and offers the best protection possible).

Thank you. I'm hoping this is the last question. Say that I was sick enough to have a missed pill those few times. Should I wait until I finish the next pack to be completely covered? Because the month of March was inconsistent, would April be as if I am starting the pack for the very first time?

If you figure you weren't covered in March, then you want to wait at the very least until you've taken the first week of April's pack to be covered. If it makes you feel more comfortable though, you can absolutely wait longer. (The instructions that came with your pill should also cover this; if you don't still have the leaflet you can look up your specific brand online and see what it says.)

Ok, it said 7 days. But I remember when first starting, my old doctor said use protection for a month if it's your first pill pack.

Backing up for the whole first pack is the usual best advice for a brand-new pill start, for a couple of reasons:
- people who don't start taking their first pack within one week of starting their period (so, at any other time in their cycle) need to back up for the whole first pack
- people need some time to get used to a new routine or habit, and for any medication, people are more likely to make mistakes and forget when they first start using it. Backing up for the first month covers people for those early mistakes.

Because you've already been taking the pill - and you're asking about a few maybe-missed pills throughout the month, rather than a big gap in taking it - you'll still have some level of hormone from your pills in your system, so backing up for 7 days should have you covered.