Trumwill: How long is… [Somethingsomething] good for?
Himmclan: I don’t know. A while?
Trumwill: Six years?
Himmclan: Six years?
Trumwill: Six years. It says refill before 3/19/07.
Himmclan: Hmmm. Keep it.
Trumwill: Okay, what about Delsym?
Himmclan: How old?
Trumwill: Not sure, scanning the bottle. The print is coming off.
Himmclan: Keep it.
Trumwill: Oh, there it is. We’re good. It only expired two years ago. Okay, lastly… [somethingsomethingelse]?
Himmclan: Keep it.
Trumwill: It expired over ten years ago.
Himmclan: I’m sure it’s fine.
Trumwill: When you were in medical school.
Himmclan: It may have lost its potency, but it may be nothing.
Trumwill: The Twin Towers were standing.
Himmclan: It’s fine.
Trumwill: Okay, just making sure. I’m new at this whole “more worried than my wife about something health-related” thing.
If you haven’t used it in the last 10 years do you really need it?
Evidently so. I’ve since found other bottles from 2005 and 2009.
Wow!
Zazzy and I had a similar conversation but in reverse…
K: Bring me medicine!
Z: Is it expired?
K: Medicine expires?!?!?
Z: How are you still alive?
My hunch is that the worst that happens is loss of potency, but that most expiration dates on medicine are like those on bottled water: more about liability than anything else.
Zazzy, a nurse, thinks it means they turn to poison.
But she also expressed fear about ever driving alone with Mayonnaise because “What if a marble falls through the roof and into his mouth and he starts to choke?”
We’re wired a tad differently.
I hear ya. When our youngest graduated from formula to toddler food and milkman her mother was convinced that a single glass of anything less than whole milk would result in irreversible brain damage.
“Milk” vice “milkman”. Weird autocorrect.
Professor Google says that with very few exceptions, drugs generally don’t even lose potency, but are still safe and effective many years after their expiration dates.
Does anyone else find it odd that disagreements like this can persist more than five minutes in the age of smartphones?
I bemoan smartphones for taking these arguments away from us.
Also, the internet has some crazy things on it. I read some doctor somewhere arguing shots don’t cause autism. Crazy!
If I looked up everything I wanted to know the answer to I’d be on google 13 hours a day. Somethings just aren’t worth it.
This predates smartphones, of course.
The DoD did tests on expired medicine (for cost saving purposes) and found that it can keep 90% of its potency for up to 40 years. That’s right, there is medicine from the Nixon administration that is still good.
http://www.usmedicine.com/articles/dodfda-program-seeks-to-extend-lives-of-expired-medications.html#.UWwTPJPqmO0
Hell I still have meds that old. They still work fine. I’m not giving up my last pain med for nuthin’!