This morning we were doing out daily "duties". Mom has been retaining water a bit so we've put her on, as she calls it, a "pee pill". I asked her if she would also like a stool softener. That also is an aging issue.
"Let me think about that."
Take your time.
"Ya know what this pill stuff is for the birds. Can't pee so I get a pee pill can't poop so I get a poop pill."
But, you're in a pretty good mood about it all.
"That's because I also take a happy pill!"
And...so it goes.
Mom has been taking Warfarin as a blood thinner for years. She has atrial fibrillation so she needs to maintain a specific level of "thinness" for her blood. It's monitored on a regular basis and the amount of blood thinner she takes changes from two to three milligrams a day...again depending on her Prothrombin Time (clotting time).
Because her warfarin pills come in one milligram doses she'll take two or three tablets depending on the directions from her physician.
Two weeks ago I called her primary physician and asked if they might call in another prescription because she was running out. She had been getting the pills from a mail-order facility but because he local Hy-Vee is so close we switched to them.
The new pills were a different color and when I asked about that I was told that depending on where they come from they are different colors. Her dose was two pills (two milligrams) for five days and three pills (three milligrams) for two days.
On Wednesday we went in for lab work. Mom usually runs a PT of 2.4 to 2.6. The tech looked up from the test and said, "Oh my! She is testing at an 8!" That means her blood is very, very thin. They did the test again and we were told to immediately head to the Emergency Room where they would check her out and give her some Vitamin K which thickens the blood.
Seven hours later we were home and told to have her blood checked again on Friday (Today).
When we got home from the hospital it didn't make sense to me that she would, for no reason at all, spike her PT. So I examined the bottle and for some unexplained reason her physician had switched from one milligram of warfarin pills to three milligram pills. So, rather than getting 2 - 3 milligrams of warfarin a day she was getting six to nine milligrams!
Nobody had caught it. And we're still not sure why there was a change in the script. We'll find out...
As of Friday afternoon she had come back down to 5.5 but...that's still pretty high and by 5PM we had still not heard back from her physician.
Two words: Buyer...Beware.
And...so it goes.
Over the past week Mom has been complaining that, "I'm not right in the head!" and that she was feeling "goofy". Her blood pressure had gone up just prior to her recent hospitalization so she was prescribed some new meds.
"I'm telling you, this stuff makes me feel like I'm in another world."
Then, at the hospital they prescribed a second blood pressure medication. By the time she got back to Edgewater she was not the same.
Early this week we had a care staff meeting and we talked over several items from her anxiety to her inability to concentrate. She said, "Look, I don't know what this stuff is but I am now starting to hallucinate. Just this morning I was talking to my family of 40 years ago and I was wide awake."
Besides that Mom was very upset that she was taking eleven pills at a time, "I am not a pill-taker and I'm always careful with what interacts with what."
Within twenty-four hours of discontinuing several drugs Mom was...back.
When we visited about this yesterday she said, "See, I told you I was wacky. I'm glad they finally listened."
Word to those of you with elderly family members. You must stay intimately involved in the day-to-day care of your loved ones. Do not fail to question what is going on and build a solid relationship with the licensed caregivers. It makes a huge difference.
And...so it goes