Pillville

I'm imagining a board game. "Pillville" would be its name. The board looks a little like a mononopoly board, but you get a hand of cards, too. The cards you're dealt are your medications and the conditions for which you take them. You roll the dice and move around the board. If you land on a square that pertains to one of the cards you've drawn, something good...or bad will ensue. Maybe there's money, too, that players can use to buy their drugs in Canada. Maybe there are HMO membership cards, Medicare cards, and Medicaid cards, and private insurance cards that you can pick up along the way depending on where the roll of the dice takes you. Which of these you acquire will also effect how you are able to negotiate the twists and turns of fate delvered by the squares you land on. There might be "Junior" and "Senior" versions of the game. Sample squares in "Senior Pillville" might include:(1) After a move across the country, you're now living with an adult child that understands nothing about your medications. Go back 3 squares. (2) If you're taking Warfarin, the levels still are not high enough. You must go to the blood lab for the 3rd time in as many weeks. Go back 5 squares. (3) Your feet are killing you, miss the next turn. (4) Switching from brand names to generics and back again has you horribly confused. Do not pass Go. Do not collect your next insurance reimbursement. (5) Gain 5 pounds. You are approaching a healthier weight. Move ahead 1 square.

By playing the game you will increase your knowledge of dozens of medications, their counterpart generics and competeting brand names, as well as their side effects.The goal of the game is to make it to the finish line with all your faculties intact with your loved ones around you. Of course, you just might end up elsewhere.

A more complex version of the game can be played by adding an expansion deck that adds your financial planning skills into the mix.