After my husband’s father passed away in 2013, we were faced with the daunting task of cleaning out his house. Steve’s sister handled most of the clean-out since she lived in Florida near where his home had been, but we did a preliminary clean during our last visit. One of our tasks was getting rid of the medicines. When I say task, I mean TASK. We’re not talking about three or four pill bottles neatly arranged in a cabinet. There were shelves, drawers, baskets, tables filled with medications.
We knew Dad’s medication system had some shortcomings, but I’m not sure either of us appreciated just how chaotic the situation was until we unearthed all these drugs. We found current and expired medications for existing and past conditions: Arthritis, blood pressure, hip replacements, heart attack.
Medication management probably tops the list of problems for seniors and their families. It’s a process that has many steps. You need to remember to take the medication at the prescribed time, you need to take the right meds, and you need to actually get them into your body (not just to a cup on the table or in your mouth momentarily). Any or all of these parts can be incredibly stressful for a family caring for an aging loved one.
Missed medications is a common issue, but we’ve also seen clients who take their medications too frequently (and end up sleeping all afternoon) and clients who get the pill to their mouths but then just suck on them or have trouble swallowing.
The first step, if you’re a family member trying to help make sense of the chaos, is figuring out what pills Dad’s supposed to take and when. Go to the doctor with him, bring his medications, and set up a system for organizing them—pill reminder strip for weekly meds, pill drawer for clearly labeled meds (label the tops of the bottle if you can’t see the side labels)—and discard the medications you’re not currently using. (For instructions on how to dispose of medications in household trash, see the town’s instructions for recycling and trash disposal. The Swampscott Police Department annually participates in the National Prescription Drug Take Back Day, which is September 26 this year.).
Throwing out old meds can be tough—for all of us. I admit to holding onto a bottle of prescription ibuprophen “just in case.” But the better, SAFER choice is to get rid of all of it. If you need a medication again, your doctor will prescribe it; taking something old may negatively affect something new you’re on now.
That was our big worry with my father-in-law. Every time he’d come home from the doctor, he’d cart in a new bag of drugs, never disposing of the old. I’m pretty sure his physician had no idea all the meds he was currently taking—or how and when he was. It had gotten to the point with his medications that we didn’t know where to start, so, like so many things, we put it off. Going back, I wish we’d had a drug purging party every time we visited.
If remembering medications is a problem, use a medication reminder alarm or locked dispenser that only opens when the alarm goes off. Your loved one’s pharmacist may be willing to pre-fill the dispenser each week so you don’t have to. If you’re the family member trying to manage someone else’s medications, a daily checklist might be helpful—especially if you’re administering medications in different forms (pills, syringe, liquid). It’s easy to forget one step or one medication if they’re in different forms, and a checklist will help other caregivers know just what medications have been taken.
Maybe organizing and remembering medications isn’t a problem, but your loved one has a problem actually taking them. Sometimes, it helps to put hard-to-swallow pills in applesauce or pudding, but always ask your physician first to ensure the food won’t negatively affect the medications. Same goes for crushing—you can buy a pill crusher at any pharmacy but you want to make sure you’re not crushing something that’s meant to be time-released, for example.
Proper or improper use of medications can have a major impact on all aspects of your loved one’s life and on yours as their caregiver. Many challenges that seem to come along with aging—incontinence, confusion, anxiety, depression, agitation, fatigue—can actually be tied to the misuse of medicines, so getting a handle on Mom’s medications might help you improve her life in many ways—and it will likely improve yours, too.
Molly Rowe owns FirstLight Home Care with her husband, Steve Rowe, and lives in Swampscott with their two sons. FirstLight provides non-medical in-home care to adults in Swampscott, Marblehead, Nahant, Lynn, Salem, Peabody, Danvers, Beverly, and Lynnfield. For more information and help caring for your loved ones in the comfort of their own homes, please visit FirstLight’s website at www.salem.firstlighthomecare.com or contact Molly at 781-691-5755/[email protected]
