Oh, how frustrated I used to be with my mother for not knowing what medications she was taking! How could she be so out of touch with her own health care? How could she just 'hand it over' to the doctor and not even know what medicine she was swallowing into her body on a daily basis? How irresponsible! She knew, of course, there was the "little yellow pill", "the one I cut in half", and "the light blue capsule". And she had some idea of which body part or organ each pill was meant to medicate. But the names of them? Nah...not important. Oh, how frustrating!
This morning I went to the dentist for my semi-annual teeth cleaning. They always do a medication update and today was no exception. Except....do you think I could recall the names of the four medications I take daily???? Now, in my defense, I have had a recent health issue which necessitated changing one of my medications a number of times to get the most effective one, eliminating one all together, and starting a new one. So, really, who can keep up????
When asked what I was taking, all I could visualize was "the little round pink one, the big long white one, the oval green one, and the bright yellow one". Oh, how humbling!
I rushed home, wrote down the names of each, and tucked the list into my wallet. Just as I'd done for my mother. I also asked, for the 1000th time, a silent plea of forgiveness from my mom for my many occasions of impatience and self-righteous youthful judgements over the years. I get it now, Mom.
When we know better, we do better. Too bad she's no longer here to be the beneficiary of my increasing wisdom. But on some level, maybe she knew even then....she had a mother too, and was not as patient with her as she could have been either. This is a lesson seemingly learned only from humbling experience.
This morning I went to the dentist for my semi-annual teeth cleaning. They always do a medication update and today was no exception. Except....do you think I could recall the names of the four medications I take daily???? Now, in my defense, I have had a recent health issue which necessitated changing one of my medications a number of times to get the most effective one, eliminating one all together, and starting a new one. So, really, who can keep up????
When asked what I was taking, all I could visualize was "the little round pink one, the big long white one, the oval green one, and the bright yellow one". Oh, how humbling!
I rushed home, wrote down the names of each, and tucked the list into my wallet. Just as I'd done for my mother. I also asked, for the 1000th time, a silent plea of forgiveness from my mom for my many occasions of impatience and self-righteous youthful judgements over the years. I get it now, Mom.
When we know better, we do better. Too bad she's no longer here to be the beneficiary of my increasing wisdom. But on some level, maybe she knew even then....she had a mother too, and was not as patient with her as she could have been either. This is a lesson seemingly learned only from humbling experience.
At least, that's the view from here...©
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