Chapter 3 - THE MEDICATION LIST
Rachel was a respiratory therapist.
Not a physician.
But she knew enough medicine to be alarmed by sudden mental-status change.
Curtis had:
high blood pressure,
arthritis,
chronic back pain,
type 2 diabetes.
Nothing that explained hallucination by itself.
Then she checked his medication bag.
Two bottles were new.
One:
cyclobenzaprine, a muscle relaxant.
Another:
a sleep medication prescribed after a recent fall.
Both could worsen confusion, especially combined with dehydration or other drugs.
Then she found a third bottle.
Old label scratched.
Pain medication.
Count wrong.
Too many tablets missing.
Rachel looked at Curtis.
“Who gives you these?”
“I do.”
“Who organizes them?”
He hesitated.
“Sometimes Nathan.”
Rachel stopped.
Nathan Morgan was her older brother.
Forty-one.
Real-estate broker.
Smooth.
Helpful when people watched.
He had been “helping Dad with paperwork” for three months.
Rachel called him.
No answer.
Then she found a pill organizer on the kitchen counter.
Monday morning:
two tablets that should never have been taken together without careful supervision.
Tuesday:
same.
Wednesday:
double dose of the sleep medicine.
Rachel’s stomach turned.
Was Nathan dosing him?
May you like
Or was Curtis filling it himself while confused?
Too early to know.
