February 4, 2009

• A sign of getting old?

  I always marveled at how old people tend to take a lot of pills.  Until I became one of them.  Now it’s just something that has to be done.  Most of it is because of my lifestyle, things I probably could have avoided had I been living with healthier habits.  But I went to Medic Alert yesterday to update my medical info.

  • I’m taking 4 prescriptions for diabetes (two types of insulin, Januvia and metformin)
  • And although type 2 diabetes can probably be avoided, it was so strong on my mother’s side of the family, it’s likely I would have gotten it even if I had been the healthiest person on earth (everyone in her family was diabetic.)  Strangely enough, though, out of six kids in the family, I was the only one who inherited the gene (at least, so it seems, so far.)

  • 1 prescription for GERD
  • (hiatal hernia)

  • 1 prescription for Allergies
  • (they seem to get worse every season)

  • 1 prescription for blood pressure
  • (my blood pressure is normal, this is just a preventive measure)

  • 1 prescription for cholesterol
  • (tried vegetarian and vegan diets, and cholesterol went up instead of down, so it’s likely my body just creates too much of it.)

  • 1 prescription for depression
  • (with all these other ailments, who wouldn’t be depressed???  LOL

  • Plus I take
  • a multi-vitamin,
  • calcium supplement,
  • fish oil capsule and
  • an aspirin.

  Then, let me develop something like a cold or cough and add in

  • cough drops as necessary.
  • Nyquil for before bed,
  • Dayquil if I wake up during the night with a cough and can’t sleep an additional 8 hours.

  And finally, toss in menstrual cramps and you can count on

  • 400-600 mg ibuprofen every 4-6 hours.

  And to think I never experimented with drugs when I was younger because, among other things, I had a hard time swallowing pills. 

  • 5:03 pm
  • 3 Comments