The Pill Cutter

I used to wonder how my parents dealt with so many medicine bottles. It was really obvious whenever they would visit us and my mom had a large baggie full of prescription medications. Well, here I am with a big bag full of prescription medications. It used to be you would get the authentic version of the medicine. Now we have to deal with generic brands. They may be cheaper, but they are sometimes inconvenient- especially when you need to cut the pill in half.  I got tired of splintering the pill in to several tiny small pieces when I used a knife. Then I decided it was time to get a pill cutter. So I ordered an Ezydose pill cutter from Amazon and was a bit skeptical because the pill is so tiny to begin with. But it worked quite well - like a little guillotine. So I cut up several pills so as not to have to deal with it every week. My husband also split a few of his. I do prefer the capsule to the pill anyway because it’s just so much easier to swallow. At least now the half pill is a whole. 

Horse Pills

I am the worst pill taker. Even as a kid I had to have orange juice to take anything. And that practice continues to this day. I still marvel at people who can pop a pill without so much as a sip of water. So for someone who is taking some very hefty calcium pills to help prevent osteoporosis and even heftier looking fish oil pills to help with high triglycerides, it can be daunting. Add to that the high blood pressure pills and water pills and hormone pills and prophylactic aspirin. I used to think it was unusual when I saw all my mom’s pill containers in the zip lock bag when she came to visit. Now I do the same thing. One of the ways I have approached this pill taking dilemma is to make it more palatable by having the pills with a meal instead of in the morning or evening. So when I went for an annual check up this week, of course my triglycerides are higher and the bone density osteoporosis test was not as good as the previous one. So instead of two fish oil horse pills, I need to take four; because the vitamin D level was a little lower, I need to take more; and because the bone density wasn’t as good, add another calcium pill. I know things could be a LOT worse, and I have nothing to complain about. I just find it ironic that I get stuck with so many horse pills.