Taking Random Pills

Mum discovered one day that Dad would pick up any random pills he found lying round the place and take those. 

I’m not actually sure if he knew what his pills were for, he just knew he was supposed to take pills.  So, if he came across a bottle of tabs, he’d ponder if he’d taken his today, decide no, and take what was on hand.  

And what was on hand?  Mums’ pills, past their due date pills, tabs from old and changed scripts.  And, according to hubby's memory, a very old bottle of my grandmothers pills – and she’s been gone for a while.  I have no idea where Dad had been scrummaging to find those.

When mum went on her holiday, there was a bottle of Dads pills on a shelf in the kitchen. Mum had pointed them out before she left.  I presumed Dad took them as a daily routine, he was, as far as I knew, still capable of that.  My presumption may have been a little off track.  One day when Dad found a bottle in the bathroom and returned it to the spot on the kitchen, he was perplexed as to why there were two bottles there.  Plus the one’s on the table in the lounge, next to his chair.  He queried which ones we thought he should take.

Which ones are yours Dad?

These I think

Is your name on them?

Oh, that would help wouldn’t it?

I looked at what he was holding.  The label on one bottle, the one he was more focused on, was so worn you couldn’t read it and the edges were coming unstuck from the plastic.  Using deduction I suggested he take the newer tabs, the ones with his name on that you could read.  I should have biffed the other ones, but didn’t.  Instead I put them in bathroom cupboard with the rational ‘these must belong to somebody’.

When mum got back from her trip and we told her about his crying she told us Dad often got upset over things, but not as extreme as we were describing.  She took him to the doctor who decided it must be his blood pressure playing up, so changed his pills.  That’s when we mentioned the pill story to Mum and she recounted her tales of catching him taking her tabs, or roaming around the house with tablet containers of unknown origin, or taking more tabs when she’d already given him his daily dose.

It’s just as well we aren’t a seriously sick bunch up north – well, not physically anyway, or lord knows what he’d have been taking.

It was time to empty the house of all unnecessary, unnamed, out of date pill bottles, because there were a few lying around.  Coincidentally, the local health promotion team were spreading the message to check your pills and clear out any non-current scripts.  Timely.  The chemist also organized for blister packs, complete with current dates, so mum could tell whether Dad was keeping up with his meds.  

These were good strategies as far as managing his medication and reducing the taking of random pills was concerned, but I don't recall it helped him much...Dad kept crying.