Posted 2-21-19
The idiom dictionary in Writingexplained.org traces the modern usage of the term “bitter/hard pill to swallow” most clearly to 1730’s French historian Rapin Thoyras although tangent uses of pills being a challenge predate even that. Thoyras blurted “This event, which happened the 7th of September, N.S. was immediately follow’d by the relieving of time after, with the total expulsion of the French out of all Italy; a bitter pill to swallow.”
Pills do and have always stunk. Too big. Taste about like the
feeling that a hospital emotes. Dissolve too fast or not fast enough. Come on,
science…you made the one-size-fits-all thong for the Sears checkout aisle
(see previous posts…lol), let’s work on medicine delivery! You are literally
killing folks.
Mom has been doing decently, finally, on her pills.
Ground into a powder and hidden inside of a food like a powdered trojan health
horse, but it gets down the chute without mom rooting it out and removing it.
Swallowing for late stage Alzheimer’s patients can be a huge problem. Physical issues in swallowing, eating technique failure, dental/denture issues, forgetting to chew, forgetting to swallow with the food in the right spot of the mouth (swallowing too much air), incomplete chewing…all problems. You betcha, choking is a huge issue. Inhaling poorly swallowed food into compromised lungs causing infection/pneumonia can also be an issue. It is all an issue.
Mom’s swallowing has degenerated enough that she has a clear, thick nectar substance she also drinks after her favorite chocolate milk every meal that is supposed to help her build and relearn swallowing.
Today mom was in fair spirits. She fell last night, but nothing seems hurt…will find out tomorrow when the bruises would appear. She was zonked sleepy though, but played a couple songs and gave a sweet bye-bye hug as I left.
The good days are sweet, the bad days suck, but this whole mess is truly a hard pill to swallow. She should be vacationing in Florida instead of worrying about how to choke down her memory unit mush.
#EndALZ