@cehunt57
Thank you for putting so much thought into this—it really warms my heart and makes me feel less isolated in this issue!

Dad has macular in both eyes, and his eyesight is pretty bad overall now. He appreciates help with the meds, and they are the one thing that he for years has readily announced that he needs help with. At one time I could sort meds for each time of day into colorful plastic shot glasses (the colors help him see white pills that could get stuck to bottom of glass), and set them up left to right on the dining room table, and write down in very large sharpy on paper towel the time frame to take them, and he could “help himself” throughout the day. (Many meds have to be taken timed so many hours from others, so a conventional sorter doesn’t work, as there is flexibility in what time of day certain things are taken, then other things are timed off of that…if that makes sense?—so we just work with his schedule of sleep, activity, etc on any given day). But Now I have to watch him take each set of meds/vitamins provided. He cannot see well enough to read the time frames. If I just set a dose on his table “to take”, at any given time, I will 99% of the time find them still sitting there hours later, as he will forget I told him they are there. Or, he will have knocked over the shot glass and pills will be all over, including the floor, and he will just not worry about it and leave it (cause he cannot see well enough to retrieve them). Also, some pills are tiny and either get dropped or pop back out of his mouth before he swallows. His BP is such that I need to take his BP and HR before providing that med twice a day…..

As for hydration, I took your suggestion a bit later yesterday after I read it. I think you are correct in that some of his irritability over hydration is feeling more and more control over his own life diminishing. I made him a cup of the new True Lemon another person recommended, and just gave it to him letting him know it was something new I thought sounded good, to let me know what he thinks. He sipped it off and on throughout the afternoon and enjoyed it rather than feeling like he had to force a quantity down. Later I asked if he would like to try another flavor, and he declined as he still had some lemon left.

He has a small refrigerator in his room and I have tried in the past to have a variety of things in it (and on top of it so at room temp if preferred), for him to choose himself. The problem we have run into is he usually just doesn’t feel thirsty, so he would not think to hydrate throughout the day, except for coffee. He also now is suppose to have no more than a certain amount per day, but should have a consistent amount approaching the max daily. When I set out containers/bottles equaling this and then put only the number of Keurig pods for the max coffee doc said to have per day in his coffee supply (he has a Keurig in his room), the none coffee stuff looked overwhelming I think and like a chore. Plus limiting the coffee, although he knew I was putting out a bit more than the doc recommended, felt controlling. So now we wing it a bit more where I fill his coffee drawer up with coffee and tea he takes at will. (And I know how many we start with so I can gauge, along with water level left, about how many cups have been consumed and quietly factor that into the day’s consumption) But asking more about what he would like for the other hydration and providing more choices and autonomy of drinking it I think is a wise suggestion and I thank you, I think it will help a lot!