Computerized pill-minder - on my!
 

A while back I was in Ecuador and lost my Passport. Then a couple of weeks later I was home and lost my wallet.

Both of those are important items, and I was concerned that I lost both in a matter of weeks.

I discussed it with my PCP at the VA and she thought it was nothing more than a simple "absentmindedness" that happens at my age, but felt it would not hurt to go ahead and get a baseline psychological evaluation done, so, we would have it on file in case anything develops later.

A week later I spent a couple of hours with the therapist and she said the tests showed that I am having some trouble forming new long-term memories. I am not forgetting memories I already have but some of my short-term memories fail to get moved into long-term storage.

She recommended I start a regime of mental exercises to improve my memory functions, which I am doing.

Now that I have the diagnosis, I am starting to find that I am completely forgetting some things. For instance, Sharon will mention that we did something and I have no recollection of having ever done it. Sigh. Oh well, sucks to get older.

Since I am on several medications, the therapist recommended the VA provide me with a pill minder, and it arrived today.

This is one serious pill minder! But, being a geek, I appreciate it having a computer built into it. I will have to see if I can hack it to play Candy Crush or maybe better, "Wack-A-Mole" with the pill cases.

https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...a52bebb6_b.jpg

very cool.

Yipsters! Is that gizmo for real?

Good luck, Grumpy. Memory issues due to aging aren’t easy to deal with and I hope the exercises help you.

Yes, it's on Amazon for about $70, but the VA provided mine for no charge.

Thank you, I guess it is what it is,

Look at the bright side, I can watch those TV shows I really like over and over - LOL!

My tax dollar at work:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

But seriously, I hope it helps:)

I recommend the Hallmark Channel to start!:clap2:

If your ready to take a nap would highly recommend it.

And thank you for your tax dollars. The VA healthcare provides excellent healthcare for vets, in my experience, and for far less than Medicare provides "crappy:" healthcare (unless you like sitting in a doctor's office for 1 hour to see a doctor for 5 minutes).

One example, the VA pays $700 for my $3,000 hearing aides.

Naps are good for your memory:coolsmiley:

Thats a lot of work. Amazon owns PillPac. They send y you little packets with days and times to take a months supply. I figured it cost me about $50 more a month. Your may be different.

I understand. Thank you for the suggestion.

I guess one day you’ll forget where you put it.

WOW... That's a heck of a pill box. I would never be able to fill it up and figure out which day and what pills to take.
Hope it works out for you Grumpy.
:pray:

Just figured it out. There are 7 "slots" per row----one for Grumpy and each of the other 7 dwarfs:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Thank you for sharing! My step-father is in the early stages of dementia, but this is one of the biggest areas of concern we have right now as he is still living alone and goes off the rails with his meds now and again; I'm emailing this to my bro as he flies down to him every other month and my sister, who deals with the docs. Thanks again!!!

Hope your doc is sure your memory issues are not caused by the meds. Combining meds can cause unexpected side effects. Pharmacist may be more knowledgeable than the doc in that respect.

Hope your doc is sure the memory problem isn’t from the meds. The combinations can cause some pretty unusual symptoms. Some not well known. The pharmacist would probably be more knowledgeable than the doc in that respect

Highly, highly unlikely. Retail pharmacists are experts at taking the pills out of the big bottle, putting them in the little bottle and then giving them to the patient. A hospital pharmacist with a PhD has a slightly better chance.

LIFE. Can I/we forget everyone who screwed us over? I just heard one DIED.

REMEMBER-passwords. I've read that you are supposed to rotate them monthly. What month is this? Like 15 different passwords. Where did I put the list and which secret password did I use to code them all? Should I be changing the code to read my passwords?

Your body is like an old car. You bring it in to see a mechanic. He/she will not say it needs nothing. If they did you would feel they are not looking hard enough.

20 plus years ago I was in the small electronics business and I can tell you that people were always coming up with electronic reminders for their pills that one looks cool and I am sure somewhere down the line it is helped people with the exception of those that forget where they put their pill minders boxes!

Thank you for the concern. I have a lot of faith in my PCP and the pharmacist has been excellent in answering my questions - the VA provides a secure messaging system for vets to ask questions and get answers and it works well.

Any chance the pills you are talking are the cause of memory problems?

Keep in mind the man is a veteran who served his country and was promised Healthcare for his sacrifice. If you complain about your tax dollars going to support out veterans, don’t complain when your freedom is taken away because it will be hard to find men and women like this man to serve .
What do you want ?

There are trackers you can put on your keys and wallet and anything else that is important. You might benefit from them.

Have to disagree with you on this one, pharmacists have caught more than one needed correction for us over the years. I’d definitely put my faith in them, not to say that they’re all perfect.

If you are suggesting my PCP is prescribing things because of complaints, I don't think so. She is a geriatrics specialist and prefers me to control my diet and exercise first, and resist prescriptions for anything that is not supported nay test results.

The pill minder was prescribed by a psychiatrist and was the result of memory testing.

So, I certainly understand and appreciate what you are saying. In my case I think the doctors know best.

No, I don't take many, blood pressure, blood sugar control, and cholesterol control, and that is not an expected side effect with them.

I was, of course, being sarcastic (as usual:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:). However, I can say from experience, that I had much more faith in the 55 year old pharmacists than the 25 year olds. The number of "stupid" phone calls and questions I got from the younger ones would amaze you. (BTW, the big bottle/little bottle comment is derived from what I frequently jibed my friend Billy with, a pharmacist)

I am sorry to hear about your step father. Dementia was my concern when I went in to be evaluated, and she assured me I do not meet the diagnosis. In my case I am not loosing my old memories, but I am starting to struggle to make new long term memories. Not all the time, but some times.

I hope your step father can get the care he needs.

Air tag from Apple may be your next best friend. Have one on all keys, (forgot to take it off today at dealership, watched on my phone where my car was taken for a drive) have one in wallets. And one on the cat harness.

All of our kids and grands have them on their pets, and keys. 2 year battery life, and if the get wet still work (dunked in water dish more than once). You can only track a tag from one owner, unless you put out a Lost Alert, then those keys that fell out of your golf bag can be found by anyone that comes close to keys with an IPhone.

Inexpensive and better than tile for us. It’s a fail safe for Just In Case you Can’t Find your Keys

I agree completely, I just received 8 (4 for me and 4 for my wife) and love them. At first it was funny, I set up the one for my car and then every time I parked it and walked away I got a notice that I had left my car behind - LOL. No more trying to find my car in large parking lots, it leads me straight to it.

Are the exercises you were given able to be shared?

There was a memory article that I was reading recently that reminded everyone that if you can remember that you forgot something it isn't as serious as if you're unable to remember that you forgot something. Seems to make sense to me.

The exercises are things like memory games (Concentration - there are apps), word search puzzles (again there are apps), etc. Memory exercises. Games that involve seeing things and having to remember them.

She also suggested taking up a musical instrument and I mentioned I was already playing Sax and have started learning the cello. She said playing musical instruments is excellent for your brain and memory.

I understand. When I forget something it is pretty much gone. My wife often mentions things we discussed or did and I have no recall of them.

It will be an exercise just to push the right buttons on that thing.

That is a BEAST!!!!
I am a Fitness Coordinator at a retirement facility and retired nurse (and a snowbird!) I teach classes and work with the residents to help prevent memory loss. The best exercises for memory are where you need to coordinate your body parts (as in doing one thing with the arms and something completely different with your legs!)
I highly recommend Silver & Fit videos on You-tube. Many can be done in a chair (and they are challenging in the chair!) and best of all they are free!!!!
Good luck!!!