Weekly Medication Reminder

It's Sunday evening, and Jarod reminds me "it's time to get my medicine ready".  To me, this is bittersweet.  A boy his age should not have this on his mind but yet every Sunday evening, this is what he thinks about.  I am so proud that he has taken a proactive part in his health and well being.  Since birth, Jarod has been on medications for his heart.  In the beginning, it was very easy to just slip them through his feeding tube.  After the feeding tube, we resorted to crushing them in applesauce or pudding which worked well for years.  Despite Jarod's cerebral palsy, he is one smart cookie.  There was one particular hospital admission when the nurse was going over all of his medications with me.  Out of nowhere, Jarod blurts out "I don't take any medicines!".  It was then that I got the look, the look from the nurse no mom wants, that look where you want to turn around to see who she is actually looking at but you realize she is looking at you, waiting on an explanation.

From that moment on, Jarod has learned what each pill is for, what it looks like, why he takes it and when he takes it.  This list now includes meds for his heart, asthma, thyroid and anxiety plus inhalers so this is quite the feat for him but he knows his stuff! There have even been times in the hospital where he has asked me if it was okay to take because it looked different.  This is another important lesson that we learned early on.  During one admission, he was only 6 months old, and I did not recognize the pill.  I was told it was a different brand of aspirin but I made her check.  It turns out, it was a 325 mg aspirin and Jarod was to only get 1/4 of a baby aspirin.  It NEVER hurts to check because while our nurses are great, they are human too.  Learn as much as you can and never be afraid to question anyone who is taking care of your child.

Just for reference, Jarod takes: lisinopril 10 mg, 81 mg aspirin, levothyroxine 112 mcg, Singulair 10 mg, sertraline 25 mg, multivitamin, Flovent inhaler daily and uses his Proventil inhaler and DuoNeb nebulizer treatments as needed.  Because of his thyroid, he is due to have blood drawn too.