A Bitter (Or Is that Oily) Pill to Swallow ©

Since I'm now over 40, I can no longer ignore the fact that my body isn't as young as it once was. Every day I take a multitude of tablets to help the problems that already exist, or to try to keep others at bay.

I take 2 diabetes tablets a day, 5 calciums and 4 vitamin D (as my body cannot absorb calcium), tablets for an under-active thyroid gland, a pill for high cholesterol, 2 tablets for depression, and a tablet for gastric reflux. On top of that I ingest a good quality multi-vitamin, colosterum to help my damaged immune system, a small aspirin to thin my blood and until a few months ago, fish oil tablets.

That's around 20 tablets a day, and if you're wondering, yes, I rattle when I walk.


After discussing the benefits of fish oil with a friend of mine, I discovered from her that according to medical research, to gain any benefits from fish oil for your joints, one has to take a minimum of 9 fish oil tablets a day! I'm afraid, the thought of another 9 tablets was simply too much for me - all those tablets rolling around in my stomach, let alone the thought of trying to swallow so many.

My friend advised that it's possible to purchase liquid fish oil in a concentrate form. Boy was I relieved. Well, at least I was relieved until I had to swallow 10ml of the wretched stuff each day. May I say YUCK!

I couldn't help but think that it was reminiscent of the caster oil that I saw children have to swallow down in old movies. In my mind I remembered the faces of the poor kids who had to suffer through ingesting a spoonful and I felt very sorry for them. At home, as I was swallowing the vile, fish oil, I could have sworn I experienced de-ja-vu. 

Last weekend I was talking to my mum about how disgusting the fish oil was, and then I asked, "Did we used to have to swallow stuff like that when we were kids?"

"Oh, yes," she replied, "I used to give you all caster oil."

Aaaarrgh! It wasn't de-ja-vu at all - I really had to ingest the revolting stuff when I was a kid and watched the trapped and tortured expressions on my siblings faces. No wonder I have such trouble taking my medicine now. It seems that I had deliberately forgotten the horrible experience altogether, though somewhere in the deep, dark recesses of my mind, there is a little girl shouting "Yuck! Take that nasty stuff away!"

Oh, how I wish I could. ©