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neeniedith Asked March 2020

Health worker, afraid to expose mom but need to do her meds.....

I work at a local Urgent Care, performing intake and triage on patients. Needless to say, it's pretty harrowing right now. Mom lives at home with her caregiver, Tamri, who is taking wonderful care of her. They both don't fully understand why I can't be there hanging out constantly with them right now, as I usually do. Anyway, yesterday I called all of Mom's doctors and got early refills on her Rxs so that I could stock up her daily pill boxes. I'm terrified that I am going to get sick and and either 1. not be able to set up her medications, and 2. infect Mom and her caregiver. I am going to go over tomorrow and set up two weeks of pills. My concern (and obsession) is how to do it completely safely. I wear a mask and gloves when going in, and will bring the med box outside to the little patio. I plan on doing the meds out there but my mind is circling as to how to not contaminate the pills... if I open the bottles with gloves on, do I change the gloves before I actually touch the pills and put them in the containers, etc. Some of the pills need to be split, there are so many bottles..... ugh. I feel myself focusing on this and I know that when I come home I will run over ever step I took and realize I did something wrong. Same with the groceries I bring. Her caregiver can't do the pills, she is Georgian and doesn't read English, and now's not the time to be teaching her anyway... and I have no one else that can do it, they are all home isolating themselves. This has been keeping me up at night and any advice would be so appreciated.

neeniedith Apr 2020
thank you so much. i did it myself, in gloves, and tried not to obsess. it gave me a change to get her meds all straightened out and boxes conveniently, so there's that.

JoAnn29 Mar 2020
I like the blister pack idea. Why do you have to do them at Moms. Can't you do them at your house and drop them off. Then you r not exposing Mom and Caregiver. Use all the precautions at home. Wipe done the pill box when ur done.

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Countrymouse Mar 2020
Ahem! With my Little Miss Perfect hat on: why are you touching those pills? You shouldn't be. Pop blister, dangle over dosette compartment, drop pill straight in. I know the little beggars sometimes seem to hang on for dear life, and then dribble out sideways just as you turn the pack over to see what's happening - but that is merely Murphy's Law at work. By all means wear a mask, but more importantly sit somewhere free from all distractions and interruptions (it takes all my willpower not to scream when clients say "oo don't you have a lot of paperwork!" just as I've got to "seventy-two, seventy-thr -! Tsk, gosh, well, yes, we certainly do 😁"). I'm not sure that doing this out of doors wouldn't expose the tablets to more contamination than you save, though. Wipe down the counter or table well, maybe spread a clean paper table cloth, or better yet use a (disinfected and DRY) tray with a good lip to the edge. Wash your hands, pop your gloves on, pop your apron on, pop your mask on, and get busy.

But - are your local pharmacies not set up to deliver blister packs? It sounds like a co-ordination job, getting ALL of the doctors to send the px's electronically to ONE pharmacy who should, I'd have thought, be able to handle this for you.

I'm actually not a big fan of blister packs, but only when the elder lives alone - with a good conscientious caregiver on the premises they should do the job nicely.
neeniedith Apr 2020
thanks for the advice, but the pharmacies here don't offer blister packs. and she's on tons of otc supplements, even if they did. also, i already had all the medications in bottles, so at best that's an option for the future if i can find one. i put gloves and mask on and just did it, trying not to obsess.
Tothill Mar 2020
I would ask her pharmacy to make up blister packs. Here it costs about $1 per week, so it is not too $$&.

Then you just drop it off outside. No need to enter the house at all. You can wipe it down with sanitizer before you leave.
neeniedith Apr 2020
thanks for the advice. our pharmacy doesn't do blister packs, unfortunately.
NeedHelpWithMom Mar 2020
Could you bring the box to a pharmacy and offer to pay them a fee to do it? Sounds crazy, I know but these are unusual times.

Best wishes to you.

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