After hearing sniffles and sneezes and snoring and coughs, after seeing watery eyes and dismal expressions, after a few nights of Chad and L. not sleeping well last week… I knew I needed to head to the store to re-stock our medicine cabinet. But attempting to purchase the required medication, when your house is being plagued by a miserable late-summer cold, turned out to be much more complicated than it should have been.
First, I made a trip to CVS Pharmacy, because I had a $3 off coupon, which is enough for about half a container of Nyquil. And we like the Nyquil around here, even though they released a new-ish and unimproved version (where they took out the good stuff — pseudoephedrine).
[For die-hards like me, however, there's Nyquil D (where they put the good stuff back in), and Nyquil Cough, which is infused with some other helpful medication.]
Mostly, we like Nyquil because it has always tasted great.
Okay, that’s a lie. It tastes nasty.
But there’s just enough alcohol in it to knock you out, so you can sleep well, even if you can’t breathe.
At the CVS counter, I was informed that they needed to see my driver’s license. And I had to sign a statement saying that if I’m buying Nyquil in order to formulate, create and/or sell illegal narcotics, I will be arrested and do I understand what I’m getting into by buying Nyquil? Or something like that.
I signed.
Unfortunately, the cashier kid hit “total” before scanning my $3-off coupon. He looked at me hopefully, as if wishing that I would say, “Don’t worry about it. I’ll just use the coupon another time.” But that wasn’t going to happen. I needed to save the money now. So we had to start all over again.
And once again, I had to hand over my license and sign away all rights to making narcotics in my basement.
Next stop, grocery store. I had to pick up a few pantry items.
But I also decided to purchase more cold medicine, because what if I caught this nasty cold? So far, just Chad and L. were sick. But if I got sick, we’d have a problem.
Because, you see, I don’t drink the Red Nyquil (which I had picked up for Chad); I’m strictly a Green girl.
This really baffles my husband, because The Green tastes like a black licorice / alcohol / something gross cocktail, and yet I prefer it over the rotten fruit / alcohol / something gross cocktail that we lovingly refer to as “The Red” around here. Chad just doesn’t get that.
Anyway, I figured I might as well get myself a bottle of “The Green,” because even if I didn’t get sick that week, I surely would get sick sometime this year, and that stuff has a shelf-life of at least a year or so. [Note: I did end up getting sick, so it was a good thing I picked up some Green.]
Needless to say, the cashier again needed to verify that I am over 18, so that if I was purchasing cold medicine for nefarious purposes, at least I supposedly knew what I was getting into and would accept all jail time or other consequences when I got caught.
So I’m thinking, if there’s someone in the government watching my medicinal purchases, they must surely think I’m up to something. Two transactions in CVS and one in the grocery store 20 minutes later. The fact that I’m spreading out my purchases over various retail establishments is certainly suspicious.
Hopefully, they’ll have access to my receipts and notice that I also purchased multiple boxes of tissues (see! someone really is sick!), and also grapes and cucumbers. Surely someone buying cold medicine in order to do evil things with it would not be worrying about keeping nutritious produce in the fridge.
Too funny Katrina. Believe me, we are all on that same watch list with you. Rick insists on the “good stuff” being in all of his cold meds as well. Hope you are all feeling better soon, or at least getting some rest with your Nyquil choices.
i heart Nyquil. it even helps me to sleep through crying kids so husband had to get up with them
i’m on that list too. last spring, we all came down with colds on the same day and i realized that pretty much all of our medicines had expired. eleventy jillion dollars later, i left target. probably on the gov’t watch list, too
I get so weary of all the signing and driver’s license and everything else just to buy the medicine. Give me a prescription instead!!
Both my husband and I have serious sinus issues in the winter so we have signed our lives away all around town.
It hardly seems worth it anymore!
I can’t say I’ve ever had to sign or show my driver’s license for cold medicine before here in Canada. But then I’ve never used Nyquil.
I do the same thing with Advil Cold & Sinus. There are about three places I buy it at – they must think I am up to something! But it's really just whereever I am near when I think of it.
I think I recently shared with you my happy rediscovery of Nyquil. There’s no reason to be sick without it.
Terry will NOT drink it. His loss.
I’m with you on the green though. It tastes bad, but it works goooood.
I was always a fan of the nyquil, and with 4 kids it was nice for it to knock me out at night and sleep if I was sick! But the last time I used it a couple of years ago it worked the exact opposite on me & I couldn't sleep, so I might be over my attraction to it!
That’s too weird! And I am so glad I have asthma and am not allowed to take any green/red/purple/whatever concoctions. Pills are just so much better!
It just cracks me up when I have to sign forms and show ID to get some cold medicine. I know why they do it and it is fine, but one box or bottle won’t do whatever evil they think I might do with it. Anyway, 2 in 20 minutes? Somebody will probably be watching you! haha
For awhile there, we couldn’t even touch cold medicine. We could pull out a card for the product and then bring it up to the pharmacy and buy it RIGHT THERE, not at the regular checkout. So if the pharmacy is closed and you need Nyquil in the middle of the night or you won’t be able to sleep? Out of luck.
It has gotten crazy.
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MizB
This made me laugh! It is such a pain to buy any meds anymore and I am thankful for the heads-up about the nyquil being on the watch list. I have never had a problem with this one,but haven’t had to buy it for a while.
I am sure I am on the watch list too. But for us it is the Sudafed which puts us on it. You can only buy two boxes a day–no matter how many drugstores you you visit in any given day–boy oh boy they are tracking!
I bought my college age son some “over the counter Zyrtec” during allergy season when he happened to be home visiting. Then he said, he was all out of Sudafed and could I get him some of that also? Oh no! Because Zyrtec and Sudafed have the same pseudoephedrine ingredient I couldn’t purchase any Sudafed that day–my daily allotment was used up buying the Zyrtec!
I wish I lived closer to Canada! You can get great over the counter stuff up there. There is a magic pain pill called a two-twenty two which is like an aspirin or ibuprofin with a little narcotic (codeine?) mixed in! Beats the heck out any over the counter stuff you can get down here!!
*smiles*
Kim
It certainly is ridiculous that the law abidding have to suffer for those who aren’t.
cjh
The whole Nyquil thing is crazy. I hear it is the same with antihistamines too. They are now behind the counter if they have certain ingredients. Why don’t they just put a sign on them “You can use these to make drugs!” You would think we moved out of the US – guilty until proven innocent.