CRS (can't remember $h*t!)

Every day at 4pm, the alarm on my phone goes off. This is to remind me that Jack needs to take (one) of his medications.

1.) He gets his asthma medicine at morning, and at night. Sometimes he doesn't get it at night, because he falls asleep before I can give it to him. (If and when this happens, he's likely to get a bloody nose. I've taken him to an ENT Dr. to see if he needs surgery, because he's prone to them anyway. It's something we just need to keep an eye on).

2.) He gets his Intuniv at 4pm, because after testing out the best time to give it to him while over winter break, this was the time least likely to knock him out at school, and most likely to have him sleepy for bedtime.

3.) As the Intuniv doesn't seem to work as well now, I have switched him from Melatonin (1mg isn't effective anymore, and 3mg was a nightmare- I took one myself and thought I was dying!) back to Clonidine (.1mg). He gets this about 9pm, so that if it does its job for 8 hours, he won't wake up til 5-5:30am. (I also read recently that this medication helps kids with ADHD, working similarly to Intuniv. This was not why we were given Clonidine- Jack's pediatrician said that kids with ADHD have trouble sleeping, and that the medications often make it worse. That was definitely the case, so the Clonidine has been strictly to help him sleep. Now I'm reading it's actually used to help treat ADHD, so I'm giving it another go).

4.) Any other little things like vitamins, we rarely remember.

For myself, I think I could never be an addict. There are behaviors I may have exhibited over the years that I couldn't shake- could have been biting my cuticles, or it could have been other things which are too embarrassing to mention. But when it comes to taking something day in and day out, I don't know- the pull would (psychologically) have to be pretty strong. At this point in my life, coffee is about the only thing I can think of where I wake up every morning and turn on the Keurig right away. However, I don't care about the caffeine (or so I like to tell myself). I just need the taste of it, and the heat.

I need to take vitamins. I am seriously anemic, and have been in the hospital (though briefly) for dangerously low iron levels. Every time I have blood work done, the doctors mention how I should be taking iron supplements. I have a lot of health issues, and I can only imagine how having normal levels would help tremendously. However, I cannot remember to take them. Same with my vitamins. I just can't remember. When my kids need to be on antibiotics, I have to write down everything about dosage and times, because otherwise, I will not remember. I have to keep a huge blue rubber band (like the ones the grocery store puts on broccoli) on Jack's Clonidine bottle, because if I don't see that, I'm likely to mixed up meds. Because we've changed his Intuniv dose/time so many times, I now have to have an alarm set on my phone so that I know it's time to give it to him. (Except, there are times when we're out somewhere, and I can't have the alarm go off. I have to get to it just in time, turn it off, sit there and wait for 4:01pm, to set it back again. If I don't wait it out, I'm likely to forget to do it).

Is this old age happening or what? I like to "blame" my kids, and say they killed off some of my brain cells when they were born, but I suppose that's not really fair. There must be boat loads of moms out there (with more kids than I'd ever dream of having) who remember everything, without needing a phone alarm, or a day planner, or even 2 calendars. (I have one in my office, and one on the fridge- and they both have to say the same thing on them, so that I can see from either location what needs to be done on a given day). However, I'd also like to think that I'm not the only mom who doesn't remember if she ran a load of dishes in the dishwasher, because she failed to turned the little thingie from "dirty" to "clean" before pressing the start button (nobody in the family knows, either). I'd also like to think I'm not alone in failing to recall whether or not I've already added detergent to the washing machine, because I 1.) put clothes in, but left the door open because I needed to do something else, but then 2.) the detergent tray was already pushed in all the way, and I don't remember if that means I already added detergent, or failed to pull it back out after the last load. ARGH!

What truly does scare me is that I may be an obvious candidate for Alzheimer's. This could be costly, if not dangereous! For now, it's simply a sad case of CRS.