Crushed Pills and Applesauce??

Oh, my goodness!  The SUN came out today!  Now I love the rain.  I truly do.  I would not live here if I had issues with our weather.  I love it.  But these last few weeks have even me feeling blue over our lack of blue in the sky.  And that hail storm that coated all the streets in a white layer that looked like January?  Literally brought a tear to my eye.  I felt insulted.  Mocked.  This week has been neither Spring nor a break.  And I have been a bit frustrated by it.  But today?  Glorious sun!  And I woke up with my ears unplugged!  They have now gone in and out of plugginess, but they are trying.  And the dizzy is gone!  And the face ache is gone!  A truly sunny day indeed.  I feel pretty near 75% of normal.  I'll take it.  For now.

I'm realizing that I'm about to go into an issue that will make me sound like an elderly woman.  I take no pleasure in that.  But it's the reality of my recent life.

I must get cranky about pills.  I hate to take pills.  I have an extreme gag reflex that has been an issue as far back as I can remember.  Because I hated to physically take them, I jumped quickly onto the bandwagon of just not being quick to think I need them.  I've become much better at swallowing them.  It's not been an issue for a long time.  But there is a certain size pill that I physically cannot swallow properly.  Last week it happened twice with a decongestant.  Lodged in my throat, me panicking and wondering if I should self-administer the Heimlich or call 911.  Finally started throwing up and eventually the pill slipped downward.  I thought it was some sort of spasm until the next morning when I tried it again and the same thing happened.  Lovely.  Two weeks into this vile sickness, I finally couldn't take the pain anymore and went to the doctor.  It was obviously a nasty sinus infection, no diagnosis needed.  Just needed the prescription, please.  And in addition to the prescription he so kindly offered me a lecture about running in that condition and the energy I was robbing from my immune system and blah, blah, blah.  (I totally believe that for everyone else, by the way.) 

Later that evening, we took a trip to Costco to pick up the vile (vile is the "word of the day") prescription and Brad decided to get his new phone.  When they handed me the bottle of pills, my face got hot and I started to panic.  They surely were kidding about me swallowing one of those pills twice a day for the next 10 days!  I told them I didn't know if I could do it, and they looked to see if there were options.  Nope.  But, the pharmacist told me I could split the pills, or CRUSH the pills and stir them into applesauce!  An option I'm sure he's offered a time or two when handing that white bag over to someone in the age range of elderly.  As we waited and waited for Brad's phone, I decided to just go for it and get a pill down.  I wanted the magic to start working, and they couldn't do that inside a little white bag.  So standing with Brad, I popped that pill down and took a slurp of my iced coffee.  Stuck.  Right there in Costco.  I could breathe, I just couldn't swallow, and my throat was trying valiantly while I tried to relax.  I told Brad it was stuck, and my sweetheart kept playing with the phone demo.  I put my arms in the air and jumped up and down.  Brad glanced up and then went back to his phone.  I walked away a bit, scoping out where I could throw up without making a scene if it came to that.  Should I bolt for the front door?  Try to make it to the bathroom??  Slug my husband with the phone in his hand???  Just when the panic started to rise, I felt the pill slip down.  I was shaking and starting to sweat at that point.  Brad's reason for not focusing his attention on what was happening?  "I didn't want to make you panic."  Oh, okay.

So starting with dose #2, I've been crushing and stirring into applesauce.  And the smell of those pills confirms why I don't like to take them unless I have to, and why I never rushed into letting my kids take them.  I'm so thankful to have always had forward-thinking doctors who knew that antibiotics were not needed for most things.  But this time they were needed, and it's grossing me out.  And yes, I'm taking the pro-biotics also.  And I've always enjoyed a good applesauce.  But now?  Ugh.  Six more days of it and it may go onto my forbidden food list.  But it's better than standing at my kitchen sink with my arms in the air, jumping up and down.  Not a pretty sight.

And that's all I have to say about pills.