The Security Blanket Straight Jacket

I was talking on Facebook the other week with my childhood friend.  She is concerned for her father because he is on so many medications.  At this point, he's on medications he doesn't understand well and some of the medications he takes he's not sure why they're necessary.  But he does take the medications because he has significant pain and multiple medical conditions that need to be treated.

My friend, who has recently become more involved with her father's life and care, is concerned that he doesn't need all the medication, that it's excessive and the possibly he is being over-prescribed because every time he goes to the doctor, they seem to add an additional item to his daily regime.

Of particular concern to her is his use of methadone for pain he has as a result of surgeries and degenerative conditions.  She feels like he is not "all here" and that the amount he sleeps is as a result of the medications and not normal.

And while  I can't give her specific advice for her father's situation as I don't know his history or need, I did tell her that some of what he's going through I've personally experienced.  Yes, the medications can cause you to be less present than you might otherwise be were you medication-free.  But that also, you gain a tolerance to them and the deleterious effects people experience from narcotic pain medication in the short-term are not the same as someone who is taking them consistently and regularly.   That she shouldn't consider him to be, "high" from a normal condition his body experiences on a daily basis.

I told her that yes, I did sleep more, but that her father, at seventy-five, might just need more rest as he gets older and this is a common occurrence we all may face as we get older. 

I also told her that while it's important to help him understand his medications more and that a re-evaluation of all the medications he's taking might be in order, that those medications may well give him the comfort of being in less pain and provide relief from worry of a possible bad outcome, such as a heart attack (and they may be most definitely necessary.)

When I was on the most medications I've been on in my life, I experienced something similar.  Doctors would commonly want to add an additional medication to my regime.  In retrospect, I don't know that I needed more medications to make me better or more healthy.  I believe now that my situation is better with less medication.  But at the time, those medication were like a security blanket: they kept me in comfort and out of pain.

But they were also a straight jacket.  I was tied to them and I felt I needed them to function normally.  It's a tough situation to be in both personally, and as someone watching a person you care about going through it.   I hope she can help him understand his situation more and I hope she can come to appreciate the situation he's in.

The Big Boy Update:  Captain Underpants.  He was delivered to me at pick-up today with pants one and underpants on the outside of his pants.  He liked this arrangement.  He was fine in this reverse-outfit until something solid happened in his pants.  Then, mommy was not fine about any of it.  And it was everywhere. 

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  She has started hitting her brother.  Damn, I was supposed to call Aunt Brenda when that happened and I forgot.  This afternoon her brother was jumping up and down and sitting on her when I came around the corner.  She was screaming and crying.  I grabbed him by the arm and popped him on the diaper (which sounded loud but wasn't that bad).  Then I put her to bed for a nap.  When I came back I gave him a hug and apologized for losing my temper.  I explained that people don't like to be jumped on and that his sister didn't like it when he hurt her.  He said to me, "she hit me in the face."  I hugged him again and told him I was sorry and that I didn't realize she had done that but that even so, it still wasn't nice to retaliate (thinking how terrible a mom I was that I had just spanked him, sigh.)

Fitness Update:  Five miles.  Hot.  But we're getting faster.  Down to 10:15 per mile, which is over a minute faster than we've commonly run in the past.