My Latest Purchase

Introducing my newest investment....
Its a pill reminder gizmo. My latest attempt to get my parents (really my mom since my dad just plain refuses to take his meds) to take their medicine.



My mom now has to take 3 pills a day. 2 in the morning, and her memory medicine...Aricept...before she goes to bed. I've been calling my dad every night to remind him. Its like he's hearing the news for the first time. Then replies...Your mom says she took it already. aye aye aye. He actually listens to a woman who has short term memory problems. Sigh.



I'm hoping that this will set them straight. Its got an extra big pill holder...figure that will be easier for them to read...has a clock that can be set to go off 4 times a day on extra-loud volume. It should arrive on Friday(paid extra for that), and I'll haul it over there this weekend.



Re my mom....I'm almost afraid to type this but I think she's stopped driving. Don't think she has driven for 2 weeks now. When I was over there on Sunday, she said for the first time when we were sitting on the porch together that, "I can't drive anymore". In the past, I've usually told her that and it was like telling her for the first time, everytime. Dealing with my mom is a little like being stuck in the Steve Martin movie, Groundhog day...when he's destined to live the save day over and over again. Me and my mom have the same conversations over and over again.



Turns our the MRI indicated that she has had a mild stroke. Thank God it was in an area of the brain that doesn't have such drastic side-affects. It appears that only her short-term memory and her balance have been affected...that we can tell. Therefore, the doc has prescribed that she take a baby aspirin everday, to help ward off future stokes...which often happen once the first one strikes in the elderly.



Anyway, I'll be staying with them on Monday and Tuesday, as the doc wants her to do a 24 hour EEG test...that's a test that measures her brainwaves for 24 hours. They hook wires up to her head that are connected to a little CD thing, that records her brain waves. Totally painless, just a pain in the ass, so to speak. I need to be there to make sure she doesn't take it off... and to monitor what she's doing at various times of the day so that doc can use that info in analyzing the results. He thought he saw a little epilepsy-like-looking-waves in the short 20 minute test done in the office, and wants a full 24 hours of data to make an accurate diagnosis. So, we'll put the gizmo on her on monday, and I'll take her on tuesday to take it off.




That's what's going on here. I know this isn't that exciting a post or particularly interesting to T's loyal readers...but its what's going on in our lives at the moment and the minute detail is for the benefit of Dot who is in Manila for 3 weeks, and my mom's sister Aunt Connie...who is T's MOST LOYAL reader!



BTW...T is already jones'in to get her hands on the pill gizmo. She spied the picture and immediately asked, "Are those buttons? I want that" She LOVES buttons!