medication

[Jodie Lucas]

Hello everyone,

Haven't posted in a while. Gran's memory and confusion seems to be getting worse by the week. My mum and I have been sorting her medication out between us going and filling one of those 'week' boxes to help her see when she has taken her tablets. This worked ok at first but over the last few weeks more and more tablets have been left. When i went up on monday to do her tablets, most of her tablets she had not taken. Does anyone know of any other way to help my gran remember to take her tablets? Its getting to the point where we're wondering if someone needs to be there to ensure she takes them, which i'm fairly certain she'd object to as she doesn't really like hte fact we go up each week to sort out her tablets.

Thanks for reading.

Jodie

 

[noelphobic]

Prior to my mum going into residential care we had a lot of problems regarding medication. She had to take medication 5 times a day and my sister and I ended up trying to go there for each dosage, which was very tying and stressful. I have a full time job and we both have children. We then arranged for carers to go twice a day so this at least reduced the amount of visits that we had to make.

How is your Gran with the telephone? Do you think it would help if someone phoned her when her medication was due and reminded her?

 

[Grannie G]

I used to have to go morning and evening to give my mother her medication. Luckily we lived nearby, as I don`t know how we`d have coped otherwise. She couldn`t remember what day it was so how could she remember whether or not she`d taken her tablets on that specific day.

It`s the same with my husband now. I put both our medication out in egg cups, for the day, morning, noon and evening. If I don`t hide them, he`ll take whatever`s out, never thinking of checking if they`re for me or for him.

 

[jenniferpa]

Before my mother had her last strokes, she was already experiencing some memory loss. I took her to her GP and the verdisct was normal aging. It wasn't: subsequently we discovered that she had already had one stroke. The problem was, no one highlighted the fact that this might mean that she might forget to take her regular medication for her blood pressure and heart, and sadly it didn't occur to me (she'd taken these tablets for the last 40 years, why would it be a problem now?) Well it was a problem, poor compliance with dosage was, I am sure, a contributing factor in her subsequent strokes. What I'm trying to say is, don't let this slide! The results can be catastophic.

Jennifer

 

[Linda Mc]

We use a Pivotell Pill dispenser have a look at www.pivotell.co.uk it dispenses the correct dose at the times you set and an alarm rings to remind you. You can lock it too.

Some authorities provide them free (ours did) so worth asking.

Hope this helps.

Linda x

 

[Jodie Lucas]

Thanks for the advice everyone, very helpful as always.

Jodie