Crappy pill splitters and the better Apex Ultra splitter.

Being a haemodialysis patient with antiphospholipid syndrome, I'm on a lot of medication, morning and night. It is more economical to buy higher dose pills and split them.

I have systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), the main thing being that, over time, it destroyed my kidneys. In particular I have lupus nephritis. I also have antiphospholipid syndrome. This means my blood has a tendency to clot. I'm on blood thinning medication for that.

I've done peritoneal dialysis in the past (maybe 6 years of it). I got a very bad infection and went onto haemodialysis. First via a chest catheter and then via a fistula that was surgically created for the purpose of sticking in two large needles (one for outgoing blood and one for returning blood). More on this later...

Here is the list of medications I currently take:

• Metoprolol for blood pressure on non dialysis days (only 1/4 of a 25mg tab twice a day).
• Warfarin for thinning my blood, currently on 2 and 2.5 alternating dose, I use the Marevan brand.
• Citalopram - 1 a day, been on this ever since my transplant failed (straight away!) back in 2015.
• Calcitriol - 1 a day.
• Folate - 1 a day.
• Vitamin B - 1 a day.
• Renagel phosphate binder x 1-2 with meals, snacks and dairy.
• Clexane for when I'm on dialysis to stop clots forming (I have an allergy to heparin).

The warfarin is easy to split in half because it has good split lines. I can do this by hand.

There are a couple of tablets I need to split, the metroprolol and citalopram. The metroprolol gets split into quarters and the citalopram is halved. I can't break either pill with my hand and don't feel confident using a sharp knife on the pills.

I use a pill splitter. My first splitter was the extend care (solid blue one) and it has given me hours of frustration. I've used that the most, but lately I'm just over it.

I decided to purchase 4 more splitters. Not one of them works fantastic. Three of them are useless. Only one was actually useful, the apex pill splitter. I find I am now using this one instead of the extend care.

The apex splitter has rubber wings that hold the pill to prevent it moving around. This works really well most of the time and works better for round pills. As with all splitters, as soon as you close the lid to cut the pill, there is movement and the pill can slip. The clear plastic is useful as you can see when this happens. Still, this has resulted in some disaster cuts.

Here is a picture of my current collection of pill splitters. Sorry about the picture quality, originally I forgot to snap the pink one (why it is by itself). One is also a pill crusher and performs well in that aspect so still has its use.

• The pink one (first photo) is off ebay and is junk. No redeeming features whatsoever.
• The all blue extend car (second pill splitter in the next picture) is the first pill splitter I got, it was from a local chemist used it for years and years so I guess I coped with it.
• The one labeled 'nutritive' (white and dark green) is also off ebay and contains a pill crusher. It works well for pill crushing. 
• The all green one is also off ebay, I've tried it once or twice and have now given up on it. 
• The Apex ultra pill splitter is both clear and blue plastic. It has rubber wings inside it. I only got this late in 2017. 

The pink pill splitter.

Pill splitters closed.

Pill splitters open.

I'm open to tips for better pill splitters. I'd really like to hear from someone who has real life experience using them. I'd be interested in testing pill splitters too.

Post a comment here or drop me an email.



Update January 2018

Having now been using the Apex ultra pill splitter for more than three months, I'm a fan! It is the best pill splitter I've used. The rubber wings hold pills in place for easier and accurate splitting. So far the cutting blade is still sharp. From other internet reports, I've read the blade can become dull.  I purchased mine from Chemist Warehouse. Quite an expensive pill splitter compared to the others I have tried...but worth it.