When you take medication do you have to wait for it to work?

I guess it depends on the medication and the mode of delivery. I do not often take meds for an acute problem but things like Demerol given intra muscular seem to work very fast - and iv meds work tremendously fast there is an anti emetic med that I can not recall the name, something like fenegrin that works instantaneously on me, only not in a desirable manner... instead I get intense sharp stomach pain followed by violent throwing up!

My medicine usually takes about an hour or an hour and a half to kick in, so no it's not just you. My mom always says that if you drink milk it helps medicine wear off faster, but I'm not sure if that is just an old wive's tale or if it is true.

I become antsy easily. A couple of years ago my husband went away to see his family for a week, maybe 10 days. The night before he was supposed to leave I was majorly freaking. One of the reasons was because I hadn't spoken to him in a day or two and when I called that night he was not home at 10 o'clock at night (leaving at 5am the next day). So I was uptight. I took my medication and had a hot bath but they didn't help me sleep. What helped me was distraction. I sat down and wrote a poem to my husband and then I spent an hour on the computer trying to fit the poem into a fancy heart pattern. We know that these situations are psychological so some medications, sleeping medications, may not even take affect because our minds are still going a million miles a minute. We need to be able to relax and LET the medication work. A little off topic, but still on medication affects. The other day I found myself battling heartburn. All morning and afternoon I was battling it. I said to myself, did I forget to take my medication this morning? When I finally got home and checked my medicine box I found that I had indeed neglected to take my morning medications and vitamins. I took the Prevacid and within half an hour the heartburn was gone. It is at times like these that you realize how well a medicine is working for you and that you really do need it. Good luck to you and your ex.

ctrtmuziklvr hi I always take about an hour for my sleep medsto work. also I dislike warm milke ugh and it never seems to help me anyway. I have found however that my allergy med which I take at night in combo with my sleep med really does help me to get sleepy. also I have found that my glyburide that I take at breakfast works better by noon. Iguess some of us just do not'absorb it as fast or something like that.i can imagine the stress you have over your ex having his triple by pass surgery. waiting for relatives surgeries is always awfully stressing its, just as much as it would be waiting for your own it seems like to me. hang in there. good luck and God bless.