Tear along the dotted line

If you know me at all, you know that I am a bit of a Pollyanna, I will always look for the silver lining and I will keep looking until I find it.

Growing old is inevitable, and while some of it is not much fun, there is a whole lot to be glad about. Regular medication is not one of them.

It is very rare to reach old age and not have to take some medications on a regular basis. Some people take a bunch of different pills daily. I believe I mentioned before that my husband was care giver for his mother when she started losing her eyesight. He took over sorting her pills for her when he discovered she was getting them mixed up and taking incorrect doses. He used to spent about two hours once every month, just sorting out her pills into daily containers. He sat at the kitchen table surrounded in pill bottles like a pharmacist. She took pills for her heart, her blood pressure, cholesterol, thyroid, kidney, eyes, osteoporosis, blood thinners and anti histamine for her allergies, pills to counteract the side effects of the pills she needed to take.  I am very lucky that I only have to take one pill a day, for thyroid. 

My husband searched for an alternative way to manage his mother's medication and found it in PillPack - now owned by Amazon. It is a fully licensed Pharmacy and they pack your pills (as the name would suggest) in little paper packages, in a roll. Each package is marked with the day, date and time to be consumed, and the medications it contains. Brilliant! He arranged for his mother's and his own medications to go through PillPack. I only take one pill a day as I said, and I saw no reason to change - to be honest I felt it would be embarrassing to have a roll of one pill a day packages neatly marked with the time, day and date. But my husband thought it was a good idea and eventually I gave in. I pick my fights and this was not worth fighting over.

I do have an objection to the child proof pill bottles supplied by most pharmacies; yes they are child proof, but they are also arthritic proof and while I don't need medication other than the occasional Ibuprofen for pain, my hands are not strong. I did have constant pain in my left hand, then I submitted to LRTI surgery which eliminated the pain completely but the Fiddler's fee was Viking's disease. Better known as Dupuytren's disease. One of the less pleasant symptoms of this is trigger finger which I don't have, however my thumb is useless.

This apparently is hereditary and if you were unlucky enough to have that inheritance in your portfolio, it can be triggered (no pun intended) by surgery - according to my surgeon any surgery, not just hand surgery. The result is that the thumb on my left hand is pretty much useless as the Carpometacarpal joint is seized up, just won't work at all and that hand is very weak. Fortunately my right hand does not suffer any pain and didn't need surgery, but it is still a lot weaker than it used to be.

I do understand perfectly well how to open the damn bottle, my hands just won't cooperate. I really think they should have a way to let you ask for 'old people with no children' bottles. And I do understand that once you manage to get it open, you can switch the cap around to make it easier. It is that first time that infuriated me.

So as I said, I went with PillPack. I actually did think that opening a paper package would be easier anyway. I was wrong. 

It is more plastic than paper, it has a perforated line between each package. Yeah, tear along the dotted line. I try. The only thing that happens is that I get really frustrated because I can't open it, and even on the rare occasion that the dotted line gives in to my frantic pulling, all I have is a sealed package, separated from the roll - the next instruction is to tear down the side - it says 'open here'. It doesn't give in to my attempts and I eventually resort to a scissors. I guess you can't use a scissors on a pill bottle, so that is still better. An interesting thought about this is that I very much doubt a small child would have a problem getting into the PillPack packages.

yeah, it was St. Patrick's day

I feel you want me to tell you where the hell the silver lining is in all of this? There are many. One that I most enjoy is the freedom old age brings. You realize that no one is looking at you - they don't see you; they are way to busy worrying about people looking at them. That gives you the freedom to be yourself and say exactly what you think. I wish I had known that when I was a teenager. Another for me is literally silver. After my hand surgery and the resulting useless thumb, I went to a hand specialist who recommended a splint to help my thumb work - not your ordinary splint, this one is like a piece of elaborate jewelry - and it really works too. On the inside of the thumb, there is an extra piece that works like a lever, putting pressure against the joint that really does encourage it to work at least a little bit. Enough to make it more useful and by making it work, it also strengthens it

Another silver lining is retirement! I know, it took me a while to stop complaining about that but I as I get more practice I am beginning to enjoy it.

I have blogged before about pharmacies, and about 'easy to open' items. To be fair, PillPack is a great idea. Your pills arrive in the mail, you can manage deliveries online if you need them earlier - for instance if you are traveling and won't have enough medication to get you through till you return. It definitely made my husband's life a little easier when he was caring for his mother.