A while back I was worried that Jim wasn’t taking his morning Benadryl and low dose Aspirin. These were kept in his bathroom to take as part of his morning routine.

I’d asked him, but if he wasn’t in the middle of his routine then he couldn’t remember ever taking those pills and had no idea what I was talking about. To test, I removed the bottles and put them with his regular medication thinking that if he didn’t notice them missing then he probably hadn’t been taking the pills.  The next morning he came was in a panic looking for his Aspirin and Benadryl.

So I put them back in his bathroom thinking that this was one task he could continue doing on his own since it was part of his pattern. Neither medication was an overdose risk if he took two instead of one.

Flash forward to this past week when his Benadryl bottle was almost empty.

He came to me to ask me to get Benadryl when I was out. I asked him how many pills were left in the bottle and he said four. I told him that was enough to make it through till shopping day.

He agreed and went back into his bathroom, and came out again 30 seconds later. Asking me to pick up Benadryl because now there are only 3 pills in the bottle.

Stupid me should have taken the bottle at that point and told him I would look after it. I didn’t so a minute later he came back and said he needed more Benadryl that the bottle was now empty.

Next thing I did was Google Benadryl and see how many pills was considered an overdose. Just in case.

The following two days I gave him a Benadryl out of my bottle, this way I could control his intake.

Saturday morning after getting groceries, I took his new bottle of Benadryl and his full bottle of Aspirin and put them in with his other medications.

Yes, stupid me for a second time, left the empty bottle of Benadryl within his line of sight. Which triggered his repeated requests for me to get more Benadryl, until I finally just buried the empty bottle in the recycling bin.

With a dimension patient, out of sight is usually out of mind. I should have remembered that.

Yesterday and this morning, he didn’t even notice the Benadryl or Aspirin bottles were missing and he went about his morning routine without a hiccup. They are now in locked away with his regular medications.

It wasn’t nearly the struggle I was expecting. Last time, Jim fought back hard because he felt I was treating him like a child.

Many of people have to remind their loved one to take their medication. We’re the opposite, Jim is so conscientious about taking his meds, that he’ll double dose if I’m not watching carefully.

Now all of his medications and vitamins are hidden from sight, and my life just get infinitely easier.