Well, I could not help but notice that while sick and then having DH having plant rash’s plus cutting my foot up this week that my stock of supplies was in need of a topping up, things has been taken and used without being noted and replaced, so on the next planned shopping trip I picked up a box of goodies to add to my current toolbox, a few things to note, I went though the first box and checked all the expire dates and moved everything that was outdated to the outdated box, I know that our medical staff like to tell you that on Oct XX its done, but really what that means is that around Oct XX, the medication unopenned and in its sealed packaging has gone down to 90 or 80 or 70 percent of its effective state, or whatever percent that the goverment says it has to be above to get to be sold as that percent per gram and compared to the companies test that says it typically goes before at this age.. so right or wrongly I don’t throw out fresh unopened meds for a good while, I certainly won’t recommend this practise to anyone but its like thinking a vaccine stops on the XX date they say to get a new one, it may or may not be in decline but its didn’t just go poof and stop working LOL

On the flip side I spent a great deal of time reading and checking equal types of meds to find the ones that had the longest dates possable to be added to the box now, most of them will be not expire till 2013 or 2015, or till they are used depending on the item.

Its a good thing my check out guy was about 20 and way more interested in popping his gum then in really looking at was being bought, cuz if I had got one of the older ladies at the local drug store, I would have gotten a look, but that is part of the reason, I went to wally-world on a busy day 😉

My med box runs wound care to meds for many of the common kinds of issues, some things I would never normally take (as I perfer to work the home made ways or the different herbs first etc) but I still like to have what I think of as the “big” guns available just in case.  Plus its not always about me or DH, we do in fact have family or friends come visit and I need to have things that will work for everyone from newborn to old age. Many things are also backups that are cross over to critter care in a pinch.

I have a number of things that I store upstairs for the older folks in the family when they come to visit, walkers, tub bars, toliet set holders and rises, canes etc.

How much do you keep in your health care box’s, Do you remember to replace things that get used or do you sometimes get surprised when you go for something and its gone? Do you remember to rotate things out and fresh in? Do you do your box only for your own family in the house or do you prepare for all ages? Do you stock a number of “just in case” things or do you tend to stay only to the basics?