I remember not too awfully long after my father died (maybe a few years I can't remember) I would take my mother out to the marine base in our city, the one that my dad worked at when he was active service - the very one that brought us to "the middle of no where" Arizona, way back in the mid 1960's, so that she could go to the dispensary there to get a refill on her medications. One of the perks that my mom and dad got since my father devoted most of his adult life to the military in one form or another is to get their meds for free as long as they refilled them at the military dispensary. Occasionally she would have to get something out in town, because the military dispensary didn't carry it, but basically I think that most all of it she could get on base.
I remember sitting in the car waiting for her to return with her booty and watching her walk out of the doors with, sometimes, two paper bags full of medications. I remember her complaining sometimes that she just hated taking all those medications. I am not sure how many she was on at the highest point, but there were a lot of bottles in those paper bags. When she would mention how tired she was of taking them, I would silently think, but you NEED to take them, the doctor would not have prescribed them if they weren't needed!
At some point a few years ago, I think she got to chatting with her sister ( my Aunti), who was a nurse in her career, about this whole prescription dilemma, and I think they both came to the conclusion if she wanted to stop then it is her right to do so. (Disclaimer: I THINK this is how it went down, since my mom reads my blog I am sure she will correct me if I am wrong and if she requests I will post the correct details here)
So She stopped them all, every last blood pressure, postassium supplement, female hormone and just about anything else you can cram into a brown papaer bag. I thought to myself - this is NOT good. But I have always had the opinion (contrary to what some others in my family believe) that my mother has a right to do as she wants to do, just by virtue of respect of age I think she is owed that at least, and so when everyone else is yelling at me to get her to do or not do something ( take her medication) I ignore it and defer to her wishes. There might come a time when that is not a good thing to do, but she is quite cabable of making her own decisions now and so that is what she should do - at least in my eyes.
So as I was thinking, Oh no this is not good, I had to temper that with "if that is what you want to do mom, then do it" and she did.
So here it is some years later, I don't think she takes anything prescription - if she does she has a doctor somewhere who will hand out scripts without appointments to check on her, I KNOW she has not been to see a doctor in quite sometime...and she is none the worse for wear it seems. Oh she takes the occasional over the counter med for one thing or another, but she is off all the so-called life saving medications. What she did, seems not to have harmed her, at least in the short-term, long term who knows? But for pity sake the woman is nearly 83 years old. At this point old age will get her before any of the medical conditions she is diagnosed with - I think.
Now here I am 50 years old and I found myself walking out of the pharmacy the other day with two plastic bags full of prescriptions ( they did away with paper bags at some point - brown paper seems to be an antiquated notion, unless you are buying a bottle of Thunderbird at the local liquor store, then I think they will give you a paper bag to hide the contents from prying cops eyes) and all I could think of was my mom and how she must have felt and I haven't even been taking my pharmacy full of meds as long as she did!
It seems like every time I go to the doctor she is adding yet another medication to my list - I used to like to go see her, now not so much. She is nice and she has very valid reasons as to why she has me on one thing or another, but wow, enough already. True though, I am diabetic and that has its own sets of issues, and truthfully at least half of the meds I take are in relation to diabetes, so I don't think that is a negotiable deal...I don't take my medications for diabetes I am setting myself up for a system wide failure that is not reversible.
The latest medication added to the growing list is blood pressure medication. My BP is not astronomically high, in fact I think it is within acceptable ranges for the most part, it runs a bit high at the doctors office, but when I do it in Walmart or some other BP station is is always pretty good (120's/ 80's or so) the last one in the docs office was 145/94 so she put me on an ace inhibitor which has a two-fold effect and she explained she sometimes puts her diabetics on it anyway (high BP or not) because in addition to keeping BP under control it has the effect of protecting your kidneys from the damage that having diabetes might have on them. Well ok sounds reasonable to me.
Next appointment we will be going over my 3 month labs and if at that time my cholesterol has not improved she might put me on one of the cholesterol reducing drugs. Oh goody.
Right now I can't have my husband get my pills for me, used to be he had them memorized. I have a set now I take in the AM and a set for the PM. He is losing track with all the new additions, so if I am lazy and ask me to bring me either set, he has to read out the name on the bottle and I tell him yes or no. IF/when I get alzheimers I will be in real trouble, of course I think they have a pill for that now too so it might help me to remember to to take it.
Now that is a vicious circle, if you have Alzheimers you have to take a pill to help you remember to take a pill for it. I think I need one of those now.
I rattle when I walk, and it appears this is going to be a way of life for me for sometime to come...well at least as long as I have insurance and perscription coverage. If the day comes when we don't, I can't afford to take any of these medications...at least not at this point...but enter Obama to save the day! HAH.
I remember sitting in the car waiting for her to return with her booty and watching her walk out of the doors with, sometimes, two paper bags full of medications. I remember her complaining sometimes that she just hated taking all those medications. I am not sure how many she was on at the highest point, but there were a lot of bottles in those paper bags. When she would mention how tired she was of taking them, I would silently think, but you NEED to take them, the doctor would not have prescribed them if they weren't needed!
At some point a few years ago, I think she got to chatting with her sister ( my Aunti), who was a nurse in her career, about this whole prescription dilemma, and I think they both came to the conclusion if she wanted to stop then it is her right to do so. (Disclaimer: I THINK this is how it went down, since my mom reads my blog I am sure she will correct me if I am wrong and if she requests I will post the correct details here)
So She stopped them all, every last blood pressure, postassium supplement, female hormone and just about anything else you can cram into a brown papaer bag. I thought to myself - this is NOT good. But I have always had the opinion (contrary to what some others in my family believe) that my mother has a right to do as she wants to do, just by virtue of respect of age I think she is owed that at least, and so when everyone else is yelling at me to get her to do or not do something ( take her medication) I ignore it and defer to her wishes. There might come a time when that is not a good thing to do, but she is quite cabable of making her own decisions now and so that is what she should do - at least in my eyes.
So as I was thinking, Oh no this is not good, I had to temper that with "if that is what you want to do mom, then do it" and she did.
So here it is some years later, I don't think she takes anything prescription - if she does she has a doctor somewhere who will hand out scripts without appointments to check on her, I KNOW she has not been to see a doctor in quite sometime...and she is none the worse for wear it seems. Oh she takes the occasional over the counter med for one thing or another, but she is off all the so-called life saving medications. What she did, seems not to have harmed her, at least in the short-term, long term who knows? But for pity sake the woman is nearly 83 years old. At this point old age will get her before any of the medical conditions she is diagnosed with - I think.
Now here I am 50 years old and I found myself walking out of the pharmacy the other day with two plastic bags full of prescriptions ( they did away with paper bags at some point - brown paper seems to be an antiquated notion, unless you are buying a bottle of Thunderbird at the local liquor store, then I think they will give you a paper bag to hide the contents from prying cops eyes) and all I could think of was my mom and how she must have felt and I haven't even been taking my pharmacy full of meds as long as she did!
It seems like every time I go to the doctor she is adding yet another medication to my list - I used to like to go see her, now not so much. She is nice and she has very valid reasons as to why she has me on one thing or another, but wow, enough already. True though, I am diabetic and that has its own sets of issues, and truthfully at least half of the meds I take are in relation to diabetes, so I don't think that is a negotiable deal...I don't take my medications for diabetes I am setting myself up for a system wide failure that is not reversible.
The latest medication added to the growing list is blood pressure medication. My BP is not astronomically high, in fact I think it is within acceptable ranges for the most part, it runs a bit high at the doctors office, but when I do it in Walmart or some other BP station is is always pretty good (120's/ 80's or so) the last one in the docs office was 145/94 so she put me on an ace inhibitor which has a two-fold effect and she explained she sometimes puts her diabetics on it anyway (high BP or not) because in addition to keeping BP under control it has the effect of protecting your kidneys from the damage that having diabetes might have on them. Well ok sounds reasonable to me.
Next appointment we will be going over my 3 month labs and if at that time my cholesterol has not improved she might put me on one of the cholesterol reducing drugs. Oh goody.
Right now I can't have my husband get my pills for me, used to be he had them memorized. I have a set now I take in the AM and a set for the PM. He is losing track with all the new additions, so if I am lazy and ask me to bring me either set, he has to read out the name on the bottle and I tell him yes or no. IF/when I get alzheimers I will be in real trouble, of course I think they have a pill for that now too so it might help me to remember to to take it.
Now that is a vicious circle, if you have Alzheimers you have to take a pill to help you remember to take a pill for it. I think I need one of those now.
I rattle when I walk, and it appears this is going to be a way of life for me for sometime to come...well at least as long as I have insurance and perscription coverage. If the day comes when we don't, I can't afford to take any of these medications...at least not at this point...but enter Obama to save the day! HAH.
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