Prior to 2018, I took ibuprophen, Tylenol PMAirborne if I was exposed to people with colds, and almost every two months, I'd be taking 10 days of penecillin, amoxicillin, or ampicillin for abcessing teeth.

Now, I take 14 presceiption medications!

I got a new one yesterday (#14). Because I'm on Medicare, a health system where 3of my doctors practice does a monthly "Wellness Assessment" call. A nurse asks me if there have been any changes to my various ailments, do I have any provider appointments coming up, can I still dress myself, have I fallen . . . (that one I told her I had, twice, and once was face-first into the pantry door, and the door WASN'T open!) But I did have to tell her about how my GERD has gotten a LOT worse, lately, with my mouth filling with stomach acid (which also went up my nose, last night!) and sometimes undigested food! The 3 Hour Rule ain't working anymore, and the pantaprozole also ain't working anymore either.

About 4 hours later, I get another call frome the same healthcare system, though this time, it is from my primay care doctor's office. The message had gotten through to Dr. ______ and he'd called in a new prescription to my gotta-have-ASAP-pharmacy, rather than my mail-order pharmacy.

So I get to add one more pill to pop in my morning cup of pills . . .

I have become the stereotypical geriatric person who lines every shelf in their medicine cabinet with pill bottles, and under the sink is the package of Depends, compression stockings in the sock drawer, a walker and two canes right by the front door.

Danm getting old sucks!