30 May 2015

Pills

Six years ago I couldn't swallow pills. My parents had tried all the tricks on me when I was a kid but nothing worked. In 2009 I got home from my six-week study abroad in the UK, went through a nasty break-up, joined a community choir, and through all the stress of life ended up with some weird throat infection/inflammation that had to be treated with steroids. Steroids don't come in liquid. 
I had a choice: suffer through the endless pain and risk my voice, or learn to swallow pills.
Luckily, the steroid pills were tiny. The tiniest pills I had ever seen. And I did it. I learned to swallow pills.
Nowadays it's pretty standard routine to swallow Tylonel, Ibuprofen, my prenatals, or other vitamins. The way I swallow pills is to take a mouthful of water, tilt my head back, drop the pill in, and swallow. I don't know why, but this works for me.
After I gave birth to Matthew, one of the nurses brought me some pain meds and questioned my pill-taking technique. She told me that tilting my head back closes off my throat which can make swallowing more difficult. I didn't care until I needed to start taking some meds that were capsules, not pills. Capsules float. I was determined and now can take those meds without issue.
Tonight I swallowed THREE pills at once!
I'm not sure why but every time I swallow a pill I feel so proud of myself. It shouldn't be such a big deal. But after so many years of struggling and feeling dumb for not being able to swallow pills, I feel more like an adult each time I can do it successfully (which is still not every time, but mostly).