As part of the aging process we get to experience all sorts of interesting ailments. If you go to see a doctor about these ailments I can almost guarantee you will be prescribed some sort of medication. (I do know some Senior Citizens who manage to avoid all medications but those folks are few and far between.) Most of us old folks have a list of medications as long as the Gettysburg Address.
This is true of both The Man and myself. And because we are both going to doctors on a regular basis,(usually two or three times a month), we need to have that list of medications with us at all times. Being the Type "A" personality that I am I have put these lists into my computer where I can up-date them regularly. I carry with me a print out of both his and my medication list so that any time we see a doctor I can just hand them the list and they can make a copy. So much easier than trying to remember them all.
My list of medications has five (5) items on it. I consider that a lot but hey, if they keep me alive and relatively healthy I'll take what ever the doctor tells me. (Except for Statins for cholesterol medication. I REFUSE to take that because of all the side effects.)
The Man's list of medications is considerably longer . . . Because he has heart and lung issues he takes many pills and has many inhalers.
And here lies the problem. The Man gets all his medications from the Veterans Administration. (VA) When he starts running low he makes a call and within days pills show up in the mail box. But because he has VA doctors in both Michigan AND Florida there are pills crossing back and forth in the mail when ever we change location. Then there are the times when The Man forgets to call when he is running low so he has to make a "panic" phone call to have pills Fed-Ex over night. With all these pill bottles coming and going he has a difficult time keeping track of his medicine.
Now, I have mentioned, on occasion, that The Man has problems getting rid of things he no longer needs. Not only does this apply to furniture and stuff but it also goes for his medications. He may have not fewer than twenty-seven bottles of the same pill stashed throughout the house. (Well, maybe 3) Open any cabinet in the kitchen or any drawer in the 2 dressers in the bedroom and you will find bottles of pills. They could be pills that he was prescribed forty-seven years ago or they could be pills that were his wife's. (She died 10 years ago). As far as I can tell there is no rhyme or reason for any given pill to be located where it is. He just seems to stuff the pill bottles in the nearest open space and then panics when he can't find them. I have tried to get him to organize the pills but that is a loosing battle. The Man insists that he knows EXACTLY what pill is where. I have my doubts.
Anyway . . . today we sat at the kitchen table because it is Tuesday and Tuesday for The Man is pill day. I DID get him to start using one of those pill organizers that have a compartment for each day of the week. Once a week he sits down and sets up his daily pill intake for the coming week. This way he only has to search for the pill bottles once a week rather than daily. As he started his filling of the holder he decided to count pills to make sure he would have enough of all of them until we got back to Florida. All was going well until he realized he had THREE bottles of the same medication and each bottle contained a different dosage pill. One was for 40 MG pills, one was for 20 MG pills and one was for 10 MG pills. This totally threw the poor guy into a panic. "Which bottle has he been taking pills from?" "What dose should he be taking each day?" It was a major crisis !!!
Thankfully we had his medication list stating that he should be taking 20 MG each day. BUT . . . he had cut some of the pills from each bottle in half. Why ? Because they are large pills and hard to swallow. Just to make sure we had this dosage right I got out THE BOOK which I take to all his appointments so I can take notes. I learned early on that twenty minutes after seeing a doctor The Man will not remember a single thing he was told. This way we have it in writing as proof that I am not making up anything. Upon checking THE BOOK I found where it said, (I had highlighted this), "take 20 MG DAILY AT BEDTIME!!!" You would think that would be the end of it but NO . . . The Man then decided he could combine all the pills. NOOOOOOO !!!!!!!! I "gently" explained that because they were different amounts he had to keep them all separate. I took a black magic marker and wrote across the front of each bottle exactly how many pills to take each day. Then to be sure he didn't "F" it up I put the two bottles that were 40 and 10 MG doses away in a bag in a drawer in the dresser. I went so far as to write on the bag, "DO NOT TAKE !"
Would it have been easier to throw out the 2 bottles . . . of course . . . BUT . . . Well you know we can't throw anything away.
When The Man kicks the bucket who ever moves into this house better have it zoned for "business" because there will be enough pills here to open a pharmacy.
Move over CVS and Walgreens !!
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