Missing medications

This happened about a month ago, but I still think it's rather funny in its own strange way:

I take about 10-11 pills a night, all of them good for something or another. And while I hate taking them, I still have to.

Well, normally I keep my daily doses in the standard 7-day pillboxes, but if I have forgotten to fill the pill box, I just go and take out the ones I need, temporarily storing them in one of the empty regular pill bottles as I dispense them.

This one night I was feeling pretty miserable. I couldn't sleep, I had wicked acid indigestion, my pain was bad, and the neuropathy was flaring up. I just couldn't get anything right. I was exhausted, but the body kept telling me it didn't want to sleep, even when I tried to make it sleep. And aches, pains and whatever kept popping up to make sure I didn't get the rest I needed.

I finally got to sleep--at about 5 in the morning. For about three hours or so, at least.

I saw I'd left my pill bottle on the table, and picked it up to put back with my pills and stuff, and then found out exactly why I'd had so much trouble with all the problems that night--I hadn't taken my pills. They were all in the bottle waiting to be taken, but none had passed my lips the night before.

And so, I thought about it--I take these meds for reasons. It's not like I'm a hypochondriac or something, which some people tend to think when they see someone who doesn't "look" sick. I've had that kind of intolerance with my fibromyalgia for a long time, but nowadays, I've got multiple problems which are chronic or debilitating, even though on the outside I still look "normal" (whatever "normal is supposed to look like). Having many of my problems flaring up on the one night I didn't take the pills and thought I had, shows that they're not "all in head" as some might think, but quite real and definitely nasty.

I did laugh, though. It's kind of funny because I'm getting a lot of those "senior" moments, even at my age (I'll be 52 later this year), and I have to keep finding ways to keep my mind sharp. My sister in law has been going through hell with losing her memory and needing to write things down, but I play games, mostly word games and such trying to keep myself thinking better, but sometimes I grope for a word that I would have easily thought of a few years ago, but now have to look for it with some effort. My vast vocabulary is now slightly lessened, though I think I still out think the average college grad at this particular task. :)

than the average Freep does with all his faculties.

I always know when I've forgotten a med because there are consequences for all of them, mostly involving pain.

Prednisone is the worst. The headache is the first glimmer that something is wrong and it's a terrible one. Then the temp spikes up and the joints start to scream. It's at that point that I figure it out and take a double dose for a few days to cool it off before I go back down to maintenance.

That way, I can keep track of what I have taken.

About a year and a half ago, I had a strange incident where I woke up in the middle of the night and took another day's worth of pills, convinced that I had not taken any earlier. I don't take any sleep medication, but I may have been sleepwalking at the time. I will never know.

Anyway, when I started to feel ill, I realized what I had done. I was able to check my pill box and see exactly what I had taken. I went to the emergency room.

The memory loss is terrible, isn't it? Groping for a word or name in the middle of a discussion is embarrassing. I think it is a good idea that you have, playing word games. I like to do crossword puzzles and to read. I have always liked logic puzzles, too. They take longer for me to do these days, but I think they are helping my memory.

I have a friend with the same problem. We understand each other perfectly. I can say to her, "Do you remember when we talked to what's her name, last week, about that thing?"

My friend will say, "Yes, just before what-ya-ma-callit's birthday."

We know what we mean.

I always know it and feel it the next day. :(

As much as I hate the pills, you're right, we take them for good reasons and we need to take them.