Medicine is Done ... Now What?
Ah, the post-holiday season. Or, as I call it: The first season of sniffles and sneezes. This almost goes without saying, but the second season of sniffles and sneezes happens during the spring.
Sinus infections and various colds and viruses come and go. Either way, it is best to finish all of the medication your regular doctor and/or a doctor from a medemerge type of clinic prescribes. It can be a real pain, but you will ultimately feel better for having finished all of the meds to cure what ails you.
Once your meds are finished you can go about your lifestyle as you normally would. There’s now an empty medicine bottle or pill bottle sitting around, but you can just dump it in the trash, right?
Actually, no. That assumption is very WRONG.
Pill bottles often contain your personal information such as first and last name. Other pill bottles might even say the insurance provider you or your parents got the medication through. Regardless, information on pill bottles can be enough for someone to steal your identity.
So, how can this be avoided? Simply by washing away with your information on the bottle — literally.
You will need to grab your now-empty medicine bottle and head to your nearest sink. Once you’ve arrived at your ‘sink of choice’ turn the water on. Any temperature the water is set to will do but lukewarm to warm works best.
Once the water is at your desired temperature, put the ‘label side’ — in other words, the part of the bottle with your personal information printed on it — under the water.
Then, hold your pill bottle there (underneath the water coming out of the sink) for at least 30 seconds. The warmer the water, the faster the label will show signs of wearing away. But, be careful with this because you can burn your hand even with tap water. If waiting for the water to waste the label away like this isn’t your style, soaking the bottle and label in warm water also works.
No matter which method you’ve chosen, ensure that your label is soaked through. Now, you should be able to peel the label away. There goes your personal information and you are free to throw away your pill bottle.
Or, you can always save the bottle and store what you please in it. But, then you’ll want to remove the stickiness on it and you’ll need another tutorial.
Regardless, when your medicine is done, be sure to remove the labels with your personal info on them.