Getting Old Isn't All Bad

Most days, I say or hear --or both-- some reason that getting old sucks.

Last week, I got a bit emotional telling my daughter that I had realized another great thing about aging. The longer I live, the more I realize how much people influenced my life. Often, even though I appreciated everything everyone did for me all along, the significance of their contribution didn't become apparent until much later. The people who brought out the emotions last week were the pharmachists I had worked with at the hospital. And talking about them led to my appreciation of the dietitians, and the poor daughter had to listen to me recount the entire staff because that's what we do in this family. 

One of the benefits of being an employee at the hospital was that I could fill presecriptions while at work, and I got a discount on anything that wasn't covered by my insurance. The added benefit of working with the pharmacists on committees was that I got to know them well enough to ask for advice and they'd either hang around after meetings or join me for lunch and share their knowledge and advice.  

As I went through years of new symptoms, and new diagnoses, and an assortment of doctors trying to guess what to do with me, I discussed every new prescription, in depth, with a pharmacist. Together, the they and I ruled out most of them after weighing benefits against probablity of side effects that would require a new drug to treat it, and more side effects requiring more drugs . . .  

Together, the pharmacy staff and I developed my no drugs unless they are necessary to keep me alive policy. And I found doctors willing to work with me on my terms.

Those pharmacists undoubtedly saved my life. That didn't occur to me until decades later so even if it's possible to track them down and thank them now, they probably don't even remember me.

Tonight, as I loaded my prescriptions into daily dose slots so I will know immediately if I miss a day, I realized it's a good thing I never considered pharmacy as a career choice. I really do hate that chore.

Not being able to remember if I took my meds last night is one of the sucky parts of getting old.