I visited my mother’s doctor a couple of days ago because I had many questions about her medications, there were some many pills in all shapes and sizes and colors and I had no idea what they were all for and when they needed to be taken. Some of the names I could not even pronounce.
Her doctor at a popular HMO in South Florida, went on to explain that each symptom had its own medication, Example; High pleasure (two pills including a diuretic), pills for Incontinence, diabetic meds, Alzheimer’s medication, multi-vitamin, calcium, anti-acid and Allergy medication. The doctor put the pills in order and cleared much of my doubt. But I left with a lot of questions that he could not answer.
- Do we really need all these meds?
- Are any of these pills interacting with the others?
- Who is monitoring the effeteness of these pills?
- What do I do with leftovers?
As per doctors’ orders I continued my mother with her meds, but I hired a Home Health Agency to come once a week and put the pills in order and evaluate their effectiveness and report it back to the doctor’s office. The nurse prepares a pill box and setups AM and PM pill schedules. The Home Health Agency also provides a Home Health Aide to help with personal care, feeding, housekeeping, laundry and make sure my mother takes her medications as for the leftovers we remove them from their original containers and mix them in the household garbage unless there are disposal instructions in which case we take back to the doctor’s office for disposal.