Confusion, viruses, overmedicating with Dementia

I was poorly earlier this week.  Monday morning and I woke feeling okay but it went down hill from there on.

I went to take my medication and hesitated, the compartment for Monday morning was empty… had I already taken them?  I felt so confused.  I had a vague memory of thinking that I could take my Monday mornings medication from the original packs, or did I?  Why would I do that?  What reason would I have for doing that?  I couldn’t think what to do but decided that I had left out my original medication boxes for a reason and took my usual dose.   It is hard for anyone to understand how you can get so confused at either sorting out your medication or taking it, but when you have dementia confusion is all so real.   When you come across so normal to most people and look like you are in control of everything, conveying that you easily get confused is difficult for most people to believe.  But, on Monday I was confused.

Then I started to feel very sick , started vomiting and continued to do so most of the day.  My daughter arrived at lunchtime and called 111.  There is a stomach virus doing the rounds so I may just have been unlucky.  But, one of my tablets is for newly diagnosed overactive thyroid so doubling up on that didn’t help.  I was feeling too poorly to say I may have doubled up on my medication.   It probably was the virus but certainly wasn’t helped by taking too much of my medication.

I took advice the next day from a pharmacist and then my GP, and have sorted out Weekly Pill  packs for the future.

Never underestimate the possibility of someone living with dementia to be confused however well they live.  So, it helps to plan and put solutions in place to continue to live well without stress.   Most people already know about these weekly pill packs, but may not necessarily feel that they need to use them yet.  From my own experience, I am certainly going to feel more confident using them so that my occasional confusion won’t cause me to overdose on my medication in future.

Author: Gill

I photograph things that take my eye. View all posts by Gill