The Mobile Medicine Bag

It started back when we were newly married and we'd gone out on a coffee date. We lived about five minutes from Starbucks, so we usually landed there anytime we needed to get out of the house for coffee. We'd barely pulled into the parking lot when Ryan got the most panicked look on his face and immediately whirled the car around and headed back home.

Understandably alarmed, I asked what was wrong. He said he'd felt the tiniest little twinge of a cold sore coming on and he had to get to his medicine NOW. While it was fine with me if we ran back home for medicine, it seemed like something that could at least wait until we'd ordered our coffee. We could get it to go! 

But we couldn't, he declared, so we raced home. 

And we were too late. That cold sore owned his face for the next few days, and he was not thrilled about it. I was amazed that missing the meds within the first five minutes of the twinge would result in losing the cold sore battle. 

And that is how the mobile medicine bag was born. We were double commuters back then, so when he left home in the morning, he was an HOUR from his cold sore medicine (and everything else, too). While he didn't work in the middle of nowhere and could stop at the store, no one really needs 50 duplicate bottles of everything, do they?

He looked in the closet and found a promotional lunchbag cooler he'd gotten at work and started gathering random over-the-counter medicines from around the house. A little pain reliever. A little cough medicine. The cold store stuff, of course. Anti-itch cream for when poison ivy made its annual visit. Some tape for when he had an injury. Some bandages. A little of this and a little of that. 

And every day when he left for work, he threw his lunchbag over one shoulder and his medicine bag over the other shoulder...and off he went!

We learned quickly that the mobile medicine bag was actually pretty handy beyond the commuter status! Anytime we hopped in the car for a day trip to Indianapolis or a county tour, we could toss the mobile medicine bag in the back seat and if we ended up with a headache, a stomach ache, or anything else, we were set!

Vacations? No need to figure out if we've packed everything we might need. The medicine bag goes on the packing list and we don't have to sort it more than that!

You might remember that on Easter, I bought Ryan an updated medicine bag. His was looking a bit bedraggled and had suffered a few interior spills in the day. The one I bought him has a hard plastic inner core that can be removed and washed if needed. It's also quite a bit smaller, because the other one really was way too big for our needs. 

So I thought I'd share this in case any of you want to try it for your family! Granted, those who have more complicated medical histories or daily prescriptions to factor in might not find this idea quite as simple a process, but for those who might just need a few things on hand and on the go, this works really nicely!

(I also have a mobile oils bag that travels with me in my purse. I carry some of my more frequently used oils, like Thieves, Lavender, DiGize, etc. so I'm covered if I feel a bit off, have an upset stomach, or get a burn or bug bite. Yes, we definitely still use our oils!)