Ch.37. Ron Makes a Serious Mistake – Then So does Pat.


Ch.37. Ron Makes a Serious Mistake – Then So does Pat.

            I’ve been going to Eau Claire to exercise at the cardiac rehabilitation center since my stent was put in a few months ago. Including travel, it’s about a 3-4 hour trip. Pat stays home alone during that period. There’d never been any trouble until last week. But this time I made a big mistake; I forgot to give Pat her morning medicines, a group of about a dozen pills addressing several medical conditions. Even though this batch doesn’t include her generic Aricept, I’ve noticed from past experience that Pat gets a little weird when she misses all those medicines. I think maybe she begins to withdraw from some of them. At any rate missing her morning medications opens the door for confusion to emerge.

            When I came home from exercising Pat told me that she’d become concerned for Franklin, our elderly three- legged Chow Chow, during my absence. He’s often in pain and has trouble walking these days. She wanted to give Franklin his daily pain pill, which he accepts so long as it comes inside a slice of liverwurst. Unfortunately, Pat couldn’t remember exactly where Franklin’s pill bottle was located. Increasingly concerned and becoming confused, she spotted a bottle of medicine and gave one pill each to Franklin and Levi. That was mistake number one: Levi doesn’t need pain pills. Mistake number two was more serious: Pat gave the dogs my medicine, fortunately only a statin that didn’t seem to do any harm. No damage done, but it was a “could have been much worse” situation.

            I’ve added a couple reminders in our office and on my phone since that day. Hopefully she won’t miss her medications again. However, this incident reminds me that Pat and I live in a fragile world, one in which stability easily gives way to insecurity and safety morphs into danger.

 

Pat’s comments on Ron Makes a Serious Mistake – Then So does Pat. 

            I didn’t know where to find their pills and the things I found weren’t labelled and I thought they might be similar. I knew that Franklin was in pain and I wanted to do something for him. I wish I had waited but I was very worried about Franklin and I didn’t want to just give him an aspirin because that might hurt his stomach.