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The first time wasn't to bad, it was Ocuvite. But this time it was Lasix 40 mgs. The worst part is that she was taking them before I noticed.

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Does anyone stay with them? Your mother has dementia, so probably cannot be totally trusted with medications. Is there anyone who can help them with their medications so that she does not get them confused?
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Cathy, I'm afraid it is no longer safe for your mother to manage her own medicines, or to manage your father's. Someone else needs to fill their weekly boxes and make sure that Mother only has access to her own.

Filling my husband's box was quite a chore -- he took more than 20 separate pills over the course of 4 sessions a day. One of our daughters came over to fill two weekly boxes every two weeks. That was a huge help to me.
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This is usually a problem as we age and become less able to read the fine print on the bottles, get the lids off, pick up tiny pills and select the correct compartment to drop the pill into. Added to that the new packages that you have to figure out how to open and the push the pill out (then find it when it suddenly flies across the room)
Now add to all that even a little confusion and you have the perfect storm.
The obvious solution is for someone else to fill the pill box.
Print out a list off the medications for each person in large print then the patient can read exactly the pills and doses. There may be pills that need to be split or different doses used on different days.
Any pills that are prescribed in a larger dose tablet to save money but need to be split for the correct dose should all be split when a new bottle is obtained. Sometimes a friendly pharmacist will do this or you can buy a simple pill cutter which contains safe concealed razor blade and makes an acurate cut. Put new labels on the bottle in big print with the name of druges, doses and times so they are easy for anyone to read. Don't obscure the original label.
This couple is no longer safe to be trusted with their own medications.
The safest thing is to remove all medications and provide prefilled boxes once a week. A list of each persons medications must be left in the home for emergencies. I would post one list on the fridge along with DNA paper if in existance. Each person should have a list of their own medications carried in a purse or wallet that can be given to medical professionals.A caregiver who is with the patient should also carry the list,DNA Poa etc and emergency contacts. A medic alert bracelet or necklace is also helpful and can be a life saver.
A loved one in the transitional stages of later life who is still relatively independent may feel that they ar being over controled. The caregiver can still carry lists and documents so they are readily available.
I will admit to some of the above problems and fill my pill box once a week. I have tried to get my husband to do the same and purchased a pill box. He does miss doses at times and has taken evening pills in the morning and slept all day. Closely guards his medications so I have no list. Every Dr visit he throws numerous bottles in plastic bags and heads off for some poor nurse to sort out and compare with his records. He is far from incompetent at this time but can become anxious and confused. For example this morning he had an 8 am appointment for a state inspection on his car. The service station is a five minute drive. He was up and dressed by 6.45 and left by 7.40. There is no way he would allow more supervision at this stage. I do manage money and mail or bills get buried and genuinely forgotten. When the driving gets eratic he will actually willingly hand over the wheel. This progression is such a process for everyone and an older caregiver may be experiences their own health problems. I do keep my meds completly seperate in a zippered bag so there is no change of mistakes there.
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Why aren't YOU taking charge of your parents meds? Take all meds away until you can give them and see them take them. If you cannot always be there, have someone else monitor the meds who knows correct meds from incorrect ones.
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I seit Mom's pills in med box and extras high in cupboard, but sometimes she takes extra out of meds box like taking a Tuesday med on Monday, if she feels I've set them up wrong. Last week she must have taken something cuz she was hallucinating and posed a crisis to ER. Even the hidden meds in cupboard she managed to reach. She refuses to go to assisted living, refuses overnight help. Hospice knows she is mixed up with meds, but no one can do anything, cuz she refusing help. What to do. She is good at showtiming, so perfectly OK with others. I am at wit's end!!
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My mother was so bad with her medicines that I had to finally wrestle control of them away from her. I had to do it stepwise, because her medicines were a huge control issue for her. It took a couple of overdoses to get her to comply with me taking charge of them. A pillbox doesn't work with her any better than the bottles themselves. The ones with alarms would be pointless, since she would ignore the alarms. I have to give them to her before each pill time. I keep them in my room, with the ones she would be most likely to abuse hidden away. I live with her, so I can do this. I admit it gets a little old going through it 2 or 3 times each day, but it needs to be done that way.
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Do your parents live alone? It sounds like it. You need to get more involved, you need to disperse the pills.
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I just typed out a list of my mother's medications, what meal she has them with, which ones at bedtime, which ones can't be too close together and which are discretionary… it ran to a closely-typed full page. Ran through the notes with the senior worker at the respite care home she's staying at this week, and I was just patting myself smugly on the head about how clearly she'd got hold of the information when she hurried back into my mother's room to ask if I had the spare Citalopram with me because there was only one left in the packet. I closed my eyes, the better to visualise the new packet where I'd left it, safely stowed in the kitchen cupboard, sixty miles away in heavy traffic. Thanks to endlessly helpful and understanding staff at our GP's in-house dispensary, and staff at this respite care home who really know their job, the problem was solved with a few phone calls and a large helping of initiative on the part of several people before I set off for home. I will send them all special cookies at Christmas.

But the point is, I care for my mother 24/7 - this is my week off - and although, with a few memorable glitches, her medications are tolerably under control, I am there *all day long* and all night as well.

If you work, if you don't live with your parents, or even if you do live with them but, say, have small children in the house or something else that unpredictably claims your attention, it is just not fair for people to make airy remarks about taking responsibility for dispensing medications. Not when it is beginning to get complicated, and especially not when there are two different prescription lists, and even more especially not when some of the medications are potentially toxic to patients who haven't been prescribed them.

CathyGo, if you do live with your parents then I'd make no bones about it - remove the px meds, by main force if necessary, and put them in a locked cupboard. If your father complains tell him the innocent have to suffer equally with the guilty, and besides if your mother keeps on pinching his meds he won't be independent for long. Dispense as necessary - although if one of them's Lasix I really hope you're around at lunchtime or in the afternoon for dose 2 because otherwise your dad will be up and down like a whore's drawers all night long getting up to wee.

If you don't live with them then I am afraid you will have to source automated, tamper-proof dispensing boxes and fill them for them. It is very tedious and you need to concentrate. Do you live with your parents, or how often are you able to visit them?

Hmm. Business opportunity, here: does anyone know of a pharmacy that has thought of offering a foolproof Total Prescription Solution, including fancy pants boxes with the medications pre-loaded?
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A whores drawers. Thats a good one CM never heard of that before!!!!!!!!!!
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I take full charge of all meds at this point. Countrymouse, my daughter suggested a locking pill box that will only open one compartment every 24hrs. Less likelihood of overdosing. I'm there daily and in the beginning was finding my mom's pills all around my dad's bed!
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One catalog sold plastic clips that you can put around a bottle of pills, and you can write on the plastic what the pills are, such as "blood pressure" because the generic name is no help as to what in the world is that pill for????.... Dad really likes that, makes it easier for him to fill his pill box. Mom keeps her pills in a different area, and doesn't use a pill box, as she takes less pills. Personally, I think both are taking way too many pills.

I agree with CountryMouse about taking care of one's parents pills... for myself I don't live with my parents... I have no idea what pills my parents take as I am a senior citizen myself with my own variety of pill bottles, same with my sig other.... he and I have enough on our own medical plate for us to try to figure out my parents pill schedule.

Plus my parents refuse to move into a retirement community and insist on living in their large single family home... they are in their 90's... therefore, they need to take their own responsibility for inside and outside of the home since they won't move. It's tough love on my part. Once my parents decide to move, then I will help out more. The way it is now, it is just too tiring for me.
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My parents had finally come to the place where they needed help with their meds. Dad was in the beginning stages and mom had serious health problems requiring 14 to 18 meds a day. It was too much for them to handle. Even though dad was having memory issues, he was aware of the date of the month. So we purchased 2 MedCenter boxes. They have 31 individual daily boxes with space for 4 times a day. One side is green and the other side is red. Google -"MedCenter 31 Day Pill Organizer". They were a life saver. We could put dads meds up for the month. Moms were a little more tricky, but they were able to handle each day without trying to figure out if they took their meds or not. It can even come with an alarm for taking them. I would recommend it for anyone in your situation. Obviously you will need to monitor them, but you will be able to see more easily what might have been missed.

My sister made an alphabetical chart with a picture of each pill, so that putting them up was so much easier for both of us. We had a box for each of them that held their prescriptions along with the chart. These were put in a safe place that they could not get into. I hope this helps. I don't know what we would have done without those boxes.
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As parents age they are not capable of dealing with the medication issue. I always set up the drugs for the week and distributed them to my father as the doctor said. They may forget to take the medicine on time and often the medicine needs them to have eaten something before taking the dose etc.

I would just be the person dispensing it or have a reliable person paid to handle it each day for them.

Good luck
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This is a very difficult issue. Mixing some medications or taking those for a serious condition can kill a person or cause irreversible damage. The only safe way is to have the medication administered by a competent person. If you do not live with the person perhaps you could have a trusted neighbor give the medication when you are not available or perhaps given before you go to work or when you come home or drop by after supper. There is no cut and dry answer. You have to think of all your options and do the ones best for you . I prepare my own medication and husband's pills and even I (who is reasonable sane) has to recheck to make sure I have hit every box in our daily containers to make sure I haven't missed a day! If all else fails I'm afraid paying a health aide to administer the meds is the only answer or puting them in an assisted living facility.
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I've been through a nightmare with moms meds. First I found a box from Lutheran Services. Coat $39 to install and teach me to use it. It beeped and a light flashed when it was time. She STILL tells me she thinks I loaded it wrong.
If I did she would sleep all day. She figured out that she could turn it by hand to the next dose so it became useless at only giving the right meds.
Recently I got a dispenser that cost $99 to install and teach me to load it, and I will pay the $50 a month "rental".
It is called Philips (one L) Medication Dispensing. Machine. It calls me if she doesn't take the meds out when it dispenses them. Called me when her electric went off, (it has a battery that lasts two days.). It tells her to "drink extra fluids with your meds". Which she doesn't , but I can hope . Their main customer # is
1-888-632-3261. It might work for you. I would set it by time. The 8:00 is Dads, the 10:00 is Moms, 6:00 is Dads, 8:00 is moms, etc. you can do up to 4 doses a day. I believe it holds 48 doses which I don't usually have enough pills to do 24 days for mom . Best of Luck! I know what you are going thru.
(I'm waiting to see if she figures out how to manipulate this one. It is locked.)
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After reading more posts I wanted to add that my mothers machine, about the size of a dehydrator but slimmer. It comes on, makes a sound turning the cylinders and then SAYS. your medicine it ready, press the red button, repeating every 10 seconds or so. When she removed the little box of pills it says thank you, and mom says you're welcome. It puts a little humor in the task.
You have the key and can get a dose early if need to take it along when going out. This might help others too.
The one from Lutheran Services was great until she foud out she could change the sequence of doses. Been doing this for over a year, gets hard when she doesn't believe I can get them right. Can't afford to hire someone to come in just for that. But I'm 15 min. Away if anything goes wrong
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I like the locked med boxes that has alarms for when the medication(s) are due. Some of the pharmacies fill the boxes for the patient. I fill my dad's medicine box myself. I have a list of medication from the pharmacy that includes the name of the drug, the dose and how many times per day he is to take it. When he sees a different doctor I take the list which also includes over the counter medications. This way, each doctor knows what medications he takes. I like the alarms which reminds dad to take his meds which help keep him healthier. This also prevents mixing up medications.
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Gaaaaaahhhh!!! Donna that is so cute!!! A talking pill box with nice manners! Love it. What's its brand name, please?
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I love it too. It's called Philips Medication Dispensing Service.
Phone 1888-632-3261. That is their number for everything. I call this number to order the little boxes when I run low.
(the only thing Mom can come up with is "there was 13 pills in my box and I took
Some out.") I don't believe that. I am extremely careful. But she has to find a way to say "the sky is falling". Typical of her.
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