Adventures in Self Medicating

I have a cold with a dry cough, queasy stomach and occasional headache. It's all very all simple. I went to the local drug store (do they even call them that anymore).

The assortment of remedies was mind-boggling. It was very hard to find a simple cough medicine. I don't need Nyquil or Dayquil, I have no trouble sleeping, unless Burnie decided to play. I finally found one. Then it was time for the cough drops. What happened to the Trade and Mark Smith Brothers, Ludens and the Pine Brothers? All I saw was Halls, which I really, really don't like. I decided to buy Halls.

Then came the next decision. Do I want euchalyptus, lemon or some other flavor I don't remember. I also had to decide between sugar-free and regular, which was very hard to find by the way. I decided on the regular lemon flavor and I took a bag of the euchalyptus regular just for good measure.

Now I realized that my supply of aspirin was running low. Last Spring when I had some flu-like symptoms, I followed the doctor's advice and bought one of the aspirin-free either Advil or Motrin. It was so effective that I don't remember what I took. The next problem was deciding on the aspirin. Did I want low-dose, back & body pain or regular. It took a lot of hunting, but I finally found regular, good old fashioned aspirin. I don't take pain pills that often so I really don't see how they could cause bleeding in my stomach as the doctor said. I'm 70 years old (shs don't tell any body) and have never had a problem.

Now I was armed with my good old Bayer Aspirin, Halls Cough Drops, Cough Medicine and it was time to look for my Maalox which was also running low. They had Pepsid, Tums, Rolaids, etc . and way down on the bottom shelf was the Maalox.

I like to keep my throat moistened when I have a cold, but I don't want to take too much medicine, so I went looking for Sour Balls. They were nowhere to be found. Don't they make them anymore. Again I had my choice of regular or sugar-free hard candies. I settled on lemon drops. Finally, after almost an hour in the store I had everything I needed. So I paid for everything and came home.

My question is this, why do we need such variety in such common everyday items. At the urging of my dentist I stopped eating regular hard candy and switched to sugar-free. There was no difference, I still lost most of my teeth.

Why do we need low-dose aspirin? What's the problem with cutting them in half? I actually used to chew them because in my younger days I couldn't swallow pills.

I hate to sound like an unflexible person (I was once told on my job that I had to be more pliable). Maybe so, but, do we really need all that variety in pills. I know we've become a nation of pill poppers and the companies want to fill (or create) a need.

If you've read my post to this point, thanks for letting me rant. I feel better already.