The dresser in 91-year-old Vlasta Tibitanzl’s one-bedroom apartment in Westmont’s Ponds apartment complex is lined neatly with 12 pill bottles — three of which cost more than $100 a piece. Her last prescription drug bill came in at $691.92 for five medications, and she also recently required a $532 shot of Procrit to up her hemoglobin levels.

But Tibitanzl, who lives off a monthly Social Security check and a small pension from her former employer, is luckier than many seniors, and she knows it. She kept her health insurance after retiring from United Artists and now pays $26 a year for her medical expenses.

“It’s highway robbery what medications cost,” she said. “I just wonder how other people (without insurance) can afford it.”

For seniors on fixed incomes, paying for costly prescription drugs is not a new challenge, but as the high cost of gas drives up other costs, many seniors are faced with a unique set of problems and difficult decisions.

In a report released in May by AARP titled “The Economic Slowdown’s Impact on Middle-Aged and Older Americans,” 59 percent of seniors 65 and older surveyed said they’d found it more difficult to pay for essential items including food, gas and medicine. Just less than half said they found it more difficult to pay for utilities incuding heating, cooling or phone service.

Tibitanzl, who still is quite mobile at 91, pays for a caretaker from Home Instead Senior Care to help her run errands and go to doctor’s appointments once or twice a week when her daughter can’t make it in from Rockford. However, she might have to increase her caretaker hours.

“My daughter used to drive in about every two weeks, but she can’t as much anymore because of the gas prices,” Tibitanzl said.

Tom Ellen, marketing director for Home Instead said Tibitanzl isn’t alone.

“We’ve seen that families are thinking more carefully as to how often they drive in,” Ellen said. “Where before some families might have driven in from somewhere a few hours away to take care of them, now (seniors are) relying more on our services.”

However, even Home Instead recently had to raise the rate it charges clients for gas.

With economic pressures creeping in from all sides, Pat Kennedy, owner of the Home Instead Senior Care office serving Central and Eastern DuPage County and Western Cook County, said it’s important families keep a watchful eye on their loved ones.

“Cuts of essential items such as food and medication should be of immediate concern to seniors’ families,” she said.

“Other reductions in spending can lead to less obvious issues. One of the biggest problems that we see is senior isolation, which has been magnified during this troubled time in our economy with the high price of gas,” she added.

However, the news isn’t all bad and resources are available for struggling seniors.

According to a study published in the April edition of the American Medical Journal, since the implementation of Medicare D in 2006 (which provides prescription drug coverage to people on Social Security), the number of elderly and disabled people foregoing medications because of cost has dropped from 15.2 percent in 2004 to 11.5 percent in 2006.

Under the umbrella title Pfizer Helpful Answers, seniors and nonseniors can choose from a plethora of the company’s programs offering either free or reduced medications to those unable to afford them.

Last year in Illinois Senate District 24, which includes Westmont and surrounding villages, 136 patients received 1,129 Pfizer prescriptions valued at $123,000 wholesale, Gary Pelletier said, director of Pfizer Helpful Answers.

“It’s important that if people think they might qualify, apply and see what happens,” he said. “A lot of help is available and we want to make sure the people who need it know about it.”