This past year or
two, I added new behaviors to my daily routine. First, different medical needs
meant I needed to remember to take blood pressure pills twice a day. Often, I’d
glance at the clock in the evening, and realize I’d missed the time for my dose
by an hour. My barely used iPhone shifted to a different relationship level. I
set the calendar with reminders for my evening meds. That worked perfectly! With
background noise sometimes drowning out the sound, I changed it this week to an
impossible to ignore tone. I use this
tech to remember Koi’s Nexgard on the 14th of each month and his
Heartgard on the 26th.
The old me logged
everything down onto a planner and a backup wall calendar. My phone now fills
the need for a calendar. When I leave the doctor or the dentist, the next
appointment goes directly into my phone. Upon returning home, I’ll notate the information
into my planner. Their appointment card goes into an envelope with a physical
file I keep for medical records for the year.
Remembering to wear
my night guard turned into another challenge this July. Instead of turning to
my phone for another daily ping or tone, I shifted to using a combination of
lamps in our bedroom. When I turn them off each night, I’m standing next to the
bathroom. That usually triggers the memory that I need to slip on the device. I
had an allergic reaction to the cleansers I used to clean it. Now my morning
routine added scrubbing it in warm water with its own special electric
toothbrush head and giving it an Efferdent soaking on Thursday mornings. My
trusty planner carried that reminder until I learned this new routine.
A part of me thought
life after full retirement would slip into whatever pattern I desired. I never
dreamed that an alarm would wake me up every morning to take my thyroid
medications an hour before my other pills. I didn’t imagine adding more
necessary demands to my daily, weekly, or monthly routines. I guess it all
boils down to the fact that I’ve become the old dog learning new tricks.
