A little OCD is a good thing…

I HATE being sick. And when I am, I am not one to “tough it out”. I want relief. I want my husband rush out to the nearest pharmacy for whatever over-the-counter remedy that may help. That being said, guess who got sick on our last visit to the “world”? Yup. My dear sweet husband.

Half way through our 3rd day in the parks, my husband started complaining about his stomach feeling out of sorts. At first he chalked it up to the whopper of a burger he ate a Pecos Bills. A few hours later, he realized that his ummmm….gastric distress was, in fact, a virus. Before we tread too deeply into the TMI zone, let’s just say he sent me off to our resort's gift shop for something – anything that would help. His parting words as I left the room were “I don’t care how much it costs. I don’t care if we have to put a second mortgage on the house, just get me something!” (Husband does not do sick well either.)

I made a bee line to the gift shop and found a very small selection of very expensive medication. As expected, I ended up paying about 10 times what I would have paid if I had the foresight to pack a small selection of over the counter meds for our trip. He was desperate, so I forked over the cash and dashed back to our room.

For our next trip, I am coming prepared! I have already stocked up on some of our commonly used OTC medications. When I assembled my pile of drugs (which, in total, I paid less for than the one small box I bought at Disney) I realized that it was just going to take up too much room in my suitcase. I had to get creative.


One day while perusing our local craft store I found a bead storage container. BINGO! It is nicely sized and suitably compact. The top of one container is actually the bottom of another. I pulled out my handy dandy label maker (you guys already know how much I enjoy that!) and got to work. I put the medication in each compartment, labeled it , and then cut out the dosage chart so I would not have to remember it all. I wrote the expiration date on the clipped dosage chart and tucked it right on top of the medication. If the tablets were on the small side, I placed a cotton ball on top to keep them from banging around and breaking.

Viola! Now every time I travel – to Disney or to visit the folks – I have my own portable little drugstore. No late night runs to a pharmacy. No second mortgages. No overflowing toiletries bag. See? I told you a little OCD is a good thing!