Tag: meds

Over the Counter Meds

My father has a cold. There is an over the counter cold medicine that works for him, but getting it to him is an event.

The assisted living place he lives in has an in-house med staff that comes complete with a pharmacy. The pharmacy isn’t in-house, but it’s contracted some how so they always go through the same place. Residents are not allowed to keep non-prescribed medication in their rooms. Prescribed medications are kept in a safe so the nursing staff can distribute it when appropriate.

So for over the counter meds, they can’t keep them in their rooms without a prescription, and you aren’t going to get a prescription for that sort of thing so… what?

The what is simple. We bring it to him. He takes two doses of this specific med each day. Morning and night. So one of us brings him each dose. On Friday my sister in law brought him both doses. Saturday was my sister. Yesterday was me. Today I brought him the morning dose and my sister will bring him the evening dose. He asked if we could leave him his evening dose yesterday while we were over there for Easter lunch, but that would break the rules and we don’t want to break the rules. We’re good citizens. They take care of my dad, I don’t want to thumb my nose at them.

The downside for today was that I overslept a little. I was planning to get up at 5:00am, get my exercise in, have some water, have some breakfast, maybe watch a Star Wars: Rebels episode or two, then go to his place (leaving insanely early because the morning rush hour might make my 20 minute drive more like 60 minutes) with enough time to get there and back by 9:00am so I can punch in to work on time.

Today though, dumb ass over here slept until 6:00am and then took forever to get into gear and just skipped the whole exercise and breakfast and water thing. I had a protein bar in the car on the way over there. That passed for breakfast. I was able to get my exercise in during my lunch break, which was not ideal but got the job done.

Tomorrow I need to get up on time so I don’t throw off my routine. Wednesday is an in the office day so I won’t have time to deliver the meds. My brother in law will handle it on Wednesday. After that, will he still have a cold? I don’t know. We’ll find out. The moral of the story though is don’t over sleep, dumb ass.

Two Points

I wore a baseball hat today. When I got into bed I planned to sit up for a while surfing the nets and listening to some rock and roll (Nirvana’s In Utero, first listen in ages and it very much holds up).

I forgot that I had the hat on so I took it off and flipped it toward the bureau. it crashed into my little prescription meds stash and knocked one off. It landed in one of my shoes.

Boom, right in the shoe.

I felt the need to document this epic bank shot for posterity.

That’s all.

Stressful Task

I wish I could express how stressful filling the pill caddie is for me. It’s a terrifying experience. Especially when I drop one of the main prescription pain pills. I found it. No worries. Still… fuck me.

Calming Down

For about an hour there it was as bad as the Nana Sitting situation has ever been. It’s calming down now. She went from watching the Sox and eating ice cream to what she described as the worst pain she’s ever felt. I had already given her all the pain meds I am allowed to give. She went to the bathroom a little while ago, which in and of itself felt miraculous as a few minutes before she was unable to sit at all, and I think she fell asleep. I just called out to her to make sure she was okay and I’m pretty sure I startled her awake. She just walked into the bedroom. I can’t see her at the moment but hopefully she’s trying to lay down. Fingers crossed she’s able to sleep through this one.

Pill Distribution (Mostly) Complete

I did my Saturday Nana coverage duty. I filled the pill caddie for the week. Mostly. One med ran out so I technically filled the pill caddie for the next three days, and 99% of it for the rest of the week. The pharmacy should be calling for a pick up on the one remaining prescription later today. No problem.

Similar to last night, she was good until just about 9:00am and then, like a light switch flipped, she was bad. Probably not as bad as last night though. We will see. Hang in their, Mom.