Swallowing Pills

Swallowing pills is a big part of my life these days, as with the variety of supplements and medications I'm taking to restore my health and energy, I'm swallowing somewhere around 15 pills a day.

There isn't a meal that goes by where pill swallowing isn't a part, and I was taking my luncheon batch of vitamins just now, I remembered that I had a few different pill swallowing anecdotes to share.

I have a rather distinctive method for swallowing pills. I have a rather sensitive gag reflex, and have often had trouble managing to get the pills down. I think this springs from being quite sick, quite often as a child, and from the many antibiotics that I'm allergic to, which would only be discovered when, after managing to swallow them, I'd immediately begin throwing up, and a day later would break out in a lovely rash. Benadryl was a good friend of mine through those years!

So, I put the water in my mouth first, add the pill, and then toss my head back and swallow. I can't get them down without the head toss.

My roommate L., hates watching me take pills. She tells me that everytime I throw my head back she thinks I'm going to snap my neck! This has been the source of much supper-time debate and laughter for us the last few weeks, since the vitamin regimen greatly increased.

Last night, before the whole debacle with George, I stopped at a local mall food court to pick up some supper so that I could stick to my food and vitamin regimen. I purchased a meal, and found a table to sit and eat it quickly. After fumbling through my purse and finding my little container of vitamins, I grabbed my water bottle and began the process of swallowing the five or so pills that go with supper in my world.

At the table across from me, a young woman was sitting with her son. She was talking on her cell phone, and he was people watching and crying. When I sat down he focused in on me. He was probably between a year and two years old, and his face had the scabs of the mishaps of one who was still mastering the whole walking thing. He watched in fascination as I began taking my pills, flipping my head back each time. Finally, after I finished swallowing one of them, he stared straight at me, and then snapped his own head back in imitation. His mom looked up from her cell phone conversation, and we both cracked up at his very cute imitation of me.

I chuckle even now, remembering, and will probably smile to myself every time I take pills for the next while.