I have a pill container for daily pills at breakfast. Just writing that sentence made me realize special circumstances and guests made me skip my morning pills today. I just took them.
I wanted to look into the history of pills and pill-taking. A recent routine visit to the doctor emphasized that having Lynn follow written notes of what I should take has given her a good knowledge of what I take but not me. I had to ask her repeatedly if I take X. We agreed that it was time for me to put pills out into little compartments for each day of the week. But the first couple of times I tried looking the subject up, I kept getting history and discussion of "the pill", oral contraceptive pills, which were mentioned as the famous pill that was typically called "the pill". When our daughters realized that Mom took a pill each morning, they asked her why. She said it was to avoid having a baby. They said,"Mom, what is it really for?"
I also have a pill container for pills at night. I imagine that many of my friends take a medicine regularly and I wondered when the practice began. The most on-target article I found was from the LA Times and was written by a reporter named Rosie Mestel:
https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2002-mar-25-he-booster25-story.html I was surprised to read that pills go back to 1500 BC.
I have only done both pill containers all by myself once but in a year or so, I may know what I take. Test-makers and psychologists know that recognizing is a bit easier than recalling. If you ask me if I take a statin, yes, I know that I do. I don't remember my parents taking pills but I know my grandmother took nitroglycerin pills for her heart.
