Sunday, October 20, 2013

Pill Poppin'

Every morning (plus an injection)
It all started with an antidepressant. For more than a decade, I've taken Zoloft every morning. There have been periods when I've tried going off Zoloft or have tried other antidepressants or have supplemented with others, but Zoloft is the one that I've come to accept will never go away.

Then I was diagnosed with diabetes, which put me at the same risk for a heart attack as someone who has already had one. So I started taking a tiny pill for high blood pressure another one for cholesterol, neither of which were too high, but we were taking precautions. And a baby Aspirin.

And three years later, my diabetes kind of went crazy, so I went on Metformin.

And it progressed to this:
Morning and bedtime
Or, another way of looking at it:
Prescriptions on the left, non-prescription on the right.
Yah, I feel old.

Here's what you're looking at:

Prescription
  • Metformin for blood sugar
  • HCTZ for blood pressure
  • Zoloft for depression
  • Simvastatin for cholesterol
  • Tecta for reflux
  • Victoza (an injection) for blood sugar
Non-prescription
  • Vitamin D for depression
  • Vitamin B12 for depression (I think. Or it may be for memory loss.)
  • Ibuprofen for bursitis
  • Claritin for allergic rhinitis (to reduce the number of sinus infections I get)
  • ASA to prevent heart attack
It's gotten to the point that filling my pill boxes takes about ten full minutes once a week. Actually taking the morning pills has to be done in two handfuls.

It sucks, but it's part and parcel of having a chronic illness. The alternative is even less appealing.

4 comments:

  1. Of course you know I hear ya'! I got to the point that I didn't even want to take an antidepressant because it would be one MORE pill (I did later change my mind). I can swallow 8-10 at a time now, even with large chalky ones involved. Of course, I've been practicing since I was 3. I actually have a "pill chest" (or Vitamin Chest) that I bought on Amazon. I like it better than the weekly pill holders because I knew I'd never take the time to fill them up each week (it was also hard to find one with large enough compartments for the size and quantity of pills it had to contain), but it saves a ton of time on bottle-opening each morning and evening. I just grab a pill from each compartment and refilling only involves dumping in a new load of pills when a compartment is empty. Of course, it's not helpful if you forget whether or not you took your pills, but I find I don't have issues so much with remembering IF I took them as much as remembering TO take them in the first place (and discovering a full compartment later in the day or even the following day doesn't do much good anyway).

    I actually didn't know Vitamin D helps with depression! I take large doses of Vitamin D for bone health as I've had some low bone density screenings. Good to know it has other benefits! Have you considered a nasal spray for allergic rhinitis? That's what I do, and it seems to help a lot without the side-effects of the pills. It goes directly to the source and little, if any, is absorbed into the bloodstream (even though the one I'm on is a steroid it was considered completely safe during pregnancy and breastfeeding because of that). If I remember correctly, you do the sinus rinses, so if you can tolerate those, I'm sure you can tolerate a nose spray. I'm always happy to take one less pill! :P

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh! I forgot to include my nasal spray. I don't use it every day, though I probably should. Thanks for the tip about the vitamin chest! That could save me a real annoyance. (I'm often late taking my meds on Sundays because I don't feel like refilling my container.)

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am right there with you. I used to mock my grandparents who took a hundred thousand pills each morning and still died in their 70s but I started a lot earlier and will likely take way more in my lifetime. Karma's a bitch. At least we work on our gag reflexes, right?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. How coincidental is it that I gagged while trying to swallow an Ibuprofen today? Sprayed water all over my desk in the process. Evidently I still need to work on it. Sigh.

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