I went to the doctor yesterday, the first time since I turned 50. Visits to the doctor are going to be decidedly less fun than in the past. As if they’ve ever been fun. Maybe fun, if you compare them to going to the dentist.

For several years, I’ve been taking a 5mg tablet for high blood pressure. Well, Doc didn’t like my blood pressure reading. So he wrote me a prescription for a second pill. And then, for good measure, he told me to take a baby aspirin once a day. I’ve gone from one pill to three pills, and I’m only 50.

This morning I took the two prescription pills, which come in simple containers, and saved the baby aspirin for last. It was not easy to reach.

I tore open the box. The bottle had one of those plastic casings holding the cap in place. After some effort, I nicked it with a fingernail and was able to tear the plastic off. I then tried removing the plastic cap, but it wouldn’t budge…until I realized you had to line up two arrows just right. Even then, the cap was too small for my fingers, so I used my teeth to wrench off the cap.

Now I was confronted with one of those cardboard circular inner caps. I tried pushing it in with a finger, but couldn’t do it. So I hit it with some nail clippers. Finally, I could get to the baby aspirin.

Not so fast. There was still a wad of cotton blocking the way. I stuck my fat index finger into the bottle, but couldn’t find a way to force the cotton out. So I just pushed it to the side so I could pour out a pill.

By that time, I was definitely in need of a hypertension supplement.

I’ll work on the cotton ball tonight. I’ll extract it using my Channellock needle-nose pliers.