Where Are The Orange Ones?

Mom gets quite a few pills to take each day. Truth be told, she isn't on very much medication considering she's 78 with Alzheimer's.

Three of the pills are vitamins. B6, B12, and Folic Acid. When the U.S. Medicare program Part D went into effect, the prescription pill that she took that combined all three was taken off the list of covered meds. So now it it three pills instead of one. The cost doesn't bother me, it's just more to handle and mom gets a bit of fatigue from taking them. I know this is common among people with chronic illnesses that have to take so many every day.

I also give her two generic Ibuprofen every morning because she she often complains of pain in her neck, shoulder, and fingers because of arthritis. That makes five pills a day which don't require a prescription.

Today I decided to skip the Ibuprofen since she hasn't been mentioning any aches and pains. I'm a firm believer that the less medication one takes, the better — that goes for me, too. She noticed and asked, "Where are the two orange ones?" I thought that was pretty good recollection. Not only did she know how many, but their color as well.

We are 2.5 weeks into the Aricept at 10mg and that goes to 20mg at the end of this week. I'm always looking for things like this to prove the medicines are working.

Update: I made a mistake above...the starter dose of Aricept is 5mg and increases to 10mg after three weeks.
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