My Grandmother lives with my Mother & I, and she is very independent. However she's always dropping pills on the floor because she can't see them, but she also refuses to let us help. Is there anything I can do to prevent her from dropping her pills and forgetting them? If I find them on the floor she refuses to take it and says "Must've been from last night". Maybe those white paper cups they use at hospitals (or ketchup holders lol)? She also refuses to have an AM/PM pill organizer which I think would help her, especially with the white cup idea.
My mom has mid-stage (?) dementia and had macular degeneration, which really makes it hard to make sure she gets her pills. Last year I was at my wit's end, after trying all sorts of things (from the paper cups to the pill organizer) when I heard about Philips Lifeline from a friend. It's a medical dispenser that is monitored and you put the daily allotment of pills in it. When it is "pill time" the machine talks and says "time for your medication". Mom pushes the button and the pills drop out in a plastic cup with a lid on it. She puts the cup right up to her mouth so that she gets all the pills with no fuss. Since it's monitored, if she doesn't take the pills, I get a message on my phone. I'm not sure if this type of thing will help your grandmother, since you say that she has more of a habit of dropping the pills, but it might be worth checking out. I wish you the best of luck!
Look for a small, unbreakable pretty
container that she likes.
Beat her to the draw.
Hide all medications except the meds to be taken immediately with the liquid that she enjoys.
Present the pills in the container with her drink of preference.
Do not buckle.
Stand your ground
This may take five seconds or 60 minutes.
It depends on how important you believe pill taking must be accurate.
When I take the pills out of the bottle, I put them on a dark hand towel. That keeps them from rolling around and the dark towel helps me see the pills.
Now, to say he's 100% compliant is not true, as the MOST IMPORTANT drug he takes (his antirejection med) is so tiny--and it's the kind of capsule that gets "staticky" and he will often drop it as he throws back the mouthful of pills. I'll find those little buggers everywhere. Thank goodness I clean a lot---I have 13 grandkids and so far, they have all been great about bringing me pills if they find them.
As "independent" as Gramma wants to be, she needs help in this dept. Someone has to step up and have the "talk" with her that she needs a little help with the meds. If you separate them out in small packages, labeled and she can open the container and take them on time, great, she's still independent! If you HAVE to, get the little white cups and "administer" them, the way the hospital does. Stand there and watch her take them, but chit chat with her--don't make it a "I'm making you do this" kind of a thing.
A side note, that is funny/sad: My FIL was in the last stages of his life and on 3 meds. 2 gave him terrible side effects and he was tired of taking them. I'd go all the way out to his house and give him breakfast, his pills, then go back in the evening for dinner and evening meds. I'd been handing them to him, as he sat in his recliner. Only after he passed and I pulled the recliner out to clean, did I find a huge pile of pills on the floor. It didn't matter at that point, and they weren't keeping him alive, but it gave me a chuckle. I remember thinking "dad, you won. you hated those meds".
In retrospect, even though I GAVE him the pills, I never once watched to see if he actually took them.
I know what you mean about doctors asking if you are taking this pill or that pill, and they usually use the generic name which is 20 letters long.... wish they would use the brand name which is so much shorter and easier to remember. Too many times I am sitting there thinking "say what?" when a pill name is mentioned. Since then I carry a typed sheet of the pills and amounts recommended.
Oh, one catalog had these yellow plastic things that go around a pill bottle. One can write down whatever they want on the plastic and snap it to the bottle. Like the name of the brand pill, handwritten it would be in larger print [now a days the print keeps getting smaller and smaller on the pharmacy tag].
I took a "seal-a-meal" type food saver and made a large bag then turned it sideways and sealed long pockets. Then I pushed each days worth of pills down the sealed "tube" and when they were filled all the way across I sealed that then continued with the next row. Time consuming but I got 4 weeks worth of pills done and did not have to worry about doing it again for a month. I do not know what the pharmacy would charge to do the blister packs or if it would be covered by insurance.
Another option would be the little snack size zip top bags. They are smaller than the sandwich size.
I would be concerned about leaving pills in a little cup for several reasons.
Humidity is not good for some.
Light is not good for some medications.
The cats could fine little pills in a cup irresistible, for some reason my cats live to stick their paws into cups and bowls to play with whatever is there.
And the little cups are easy to tip over.
I personally put my meds out on a cute little dish that i keep just for this purpose so maybe do the same for her - you will be able to see her take those meds at dinner - the kitchen floor would more likely make a sound when something falls plus you could start a habit of sweeping floor after dinner so all pills would be seen right away & you can say that it couldn't be last night's pill because you sweep the floor every night after dinner - good luck
There are some cases where someone just needs to be in a proper facility or have in-home round the clock care, they should never be allowed to be on their own in some cases. My elderly friend who since died was one of those cases but excellent came too late. They caught him in the last weeks of his life or what seemed like it. It seem like shortly after they put him into a facility he died shortly after but I think he was in the dying process anyway because he was sleeping more than usual and even calling out to people in his sleep.
Setting her pills on a tray may also help so that any fumbled pills will land there instead of on the floor.
I also tried to leave the pills on a spoon for my dad.
And she may be refusing to use the pill organizer, because it may confuse her. When there is cognitive decline, it's really not possible for them to learn new things. The pill organizer may be just too overwhelming for her.
Sometimes, depending on the condition that is causing the problem, it's just up to the caregiver to supervise them taking their meds. We may not be able to rely on them to remember or do it correctly, nor to correctly report what they took. Is there someone available to do that? There is also the danger that they forget what they took and take too much medication.
As for the AM/PM pill organizer, as great as they are, your Grandmother will still drop the pills and claim they were from yesterday.... [sigh]. Hopefully there are no pets in the house that would get into those dropped pills.