Take a peek inside my medicine cabinet!

Back in March I was presented with a very cool opportunity, and I’m excited to be able to share it with you today!!  Walgreens has put together a “Medicine Cabinet Makeover” series and I was asked to participate as someone who lives with and writes about diabetes.  If I was game, a pharmacist would be sent to my house to evaluate and re-do my medicine cabinet - much like Stacy and Clinton do for people’s wardrobes on What Not To Wear.  Needless to say, I jumped at the chance - not only to give my medicine cabinet a little overhaul, but also to help raise some awareness about just how many d-supplies we need to keep on hand just to stay healthy and live our lives!  (I believe the Makeover Video will be shared on the Walgreens Facebook Page.)

A few days later a camera crew arrived, complete with lighting and microphones.  (Yikes!!)  Stacia, the pharmacist, was young and cool, which helped make me less nervous about the whole Medicine Cabinet Critique process.  We ended up focusing more on the dresser drawer that holds my diabetes supplies than on my medicine cabinet, but Stacia perused them both.  She quickly confirmed the claims I always make to you that I am very OCD extremely organized - but luckily she still had some great tips to give me!!  She also left me with a bunch of diabetes supplies (and be sure to read all the way to the end of the post, because there may be some d-supplies for you too).



I’m so glad that Stacia warned me about closing the caps on my contact lens solutions, because it had never occurred to me that icky bathroom bacteria could travel into the bottles and then into my eyes!!  Trust me, those lids are now snapped shut every night!

That little blood glucose meter Stacia pointed out is really cool and it’s the perfect size to tote along with me when I’m out for a run.  (Okay, I haven’t been running much lately, but the meter is in my runner’s pack and ready to go when I am!!)  The only thing that puzzled me a bit was the latex gloves - I’m not sure I know anyone who uses those while doing site changes or injections.  (If you do, please let me know in the comments.)  However, I can tell you those gloves are great for protecting your hands when you are dying yarn, so the knitter-side of me is making good use of them!!

I also want to mention a little piece that got edited out of the video.  Stacia commented on the fact that I don’t have a lot of general medicines, like cold and flu meds, in my medicine cabinet.  I explained that as a diabetic, I’m always very nervous about what over-the-counter meds I should or shouldn’t take.  I generally wait until I get “real people sick” and then call my endo for his recommendations.  Stacia pointed out that if I couldn’t get a hold of my endo when I needed to, I could simply pop into my local Walgreens and the pharmacist could help me.  (Hence my little statement about that at the end of the video.)

Overall this was a terrific experience!! Stacia rocked and the camera crew was so patient when my nerves caused a few re-takes. The whole thing was a lot of fun.  And to continue the fun, Walgreens has given me the opportunity to give away a gift-basket of supplies similar to the ones I received! If you’d like to win, just leave a comment on this post between now and 9am EST on Wednesday, July 20th.  I’ll draw a winner at random and the basket will be sent to you!  Good luck!

** Disclosure: For my participation in this project, I will be receiving a $250 gift card from Walgreens.  I was also given all of the products that Stacia displayed on my coffee table, as well as the gift basket I'll be giving away.  I was asked to blog about my Medicine Cabinet Makeover experience, but all opinions I’ve expressed in this post are my own.