Pillbox

Thanks to some videogames I played as a kid, ‘pillbox’ to me is—first and foremost—the defensive structure built to fight in wars; those little concrete structures with small windows you can fire guns out of.Thanks to the powers that be, pillboxes are also, well, those little plastic boxes people can use to put their pills in so that it’s easy to remember what pills one has to take.

Pills, and pillboxes, have become a bit of a warzone in my parents’ house.

My mom has anywhere between fifteen to twenty pills to take on any given day. Most are over-the-counter stuff; stuff like vitamins, fish oils, etc., all with varying degrees of scientific backing. Things that I’m sure my mom randomly heard one day, five years ago, were the cure-all, or was somehow absolutely necessary to take as you aged.Others, are prescriptions. These are a bit more serious.

I’m not very good at keeping track of pills myself. I can barely remember to take a daily vitamin, and will only remember to take antibiotics because, goddammit, I hate feeling sick.

I cannot imagine taking twenty different pills. Forget helping somebody else, take twenty pills.