Pills are strongly related to getting older. More and more types are prescribed or seem like they are a good idea. Lynn does our pills every Saturday morning. Each visit to the doctor or even the emergency room includes a quick discussion of each sort of medicine listed as one we take. I have taken fish oil and vitamin D for a long time, ever since I read about the importance of D for bone strength. Paul Stitt started a bakery because he wanted to have some really good bread available and he wrote some books and articles about nutrition. His son's broken thigh bone was a warning to keep the vitamin D levels high enough, even in sunless days of older age.
More serious prescribed meds for me include a beta blocker (affects part of the heart rhythm) and a statin (also for the heart). Calcium and the controversial glucosamine, which one of my doctors recommends and the other finds pointless. I have experimented with cinnamon and am now interested in tumeric.
The problems with taking pills are basically simple ones: take the dose you are supposed to take when you are supposed to take it, under conditions as specified. Did I take the med? At the right time? In the right dose? With water or food if specified? Not with other not-indicated meds or foods? But that already is five questions and they just pertain to one medicine. When there is more than one, the situation is much more complex. Older people, especially with mental problems or emotional problems or strong tremors or vision limitations may well need help. Sometimes, they don't want help but they might need it anyhow.
Of course, if I am "supposed" to take a given medicine but I don't trust it or like its effects or side effects, I may hold a pill in my cheek and spit it out or slip it into my hand to drop behind the sofa. If I triple my water intake or swallow the med with brandy instead of water, I can probably affect what the med does and when it does it. I am confident that there are plenty of pills in my future and I intend to handle them carefully and consciously. But I expect there will be errors. It is not as simple as just taking a pill.
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Bill
Main blog: Fear, Fun and Filoz
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