I make myself and others ‘Medicine Tins’ for personal use that contain small doses of over-the-counter medicines for travel or work, and here are two examples:
If you’ve ever found yourself struck with a minor ailment at work, in traffic, or on public transport, you’ll know exactly what these tins are for. Think of it as an urban survival kit.
I like my tins to have a certain degree of style (which is why I’m especially proud of my ‘Inner Tube Repair Kit’, because that’s exactly what it is) but you can use any clean, shallow tin for this purpose. Shallow tins are superior to deep tins, because you won’t have time for rummaging when diarrhoea strikes.
There’s always one in my desk, one in my car, and one in my travel backpack. If I am ever going to be more than an hour from home, I will have enough of a dose for any minor ailment to get me home.
I not only make these for myself, I choose personal tins for people I care about and kit them out, too.
Typical contents include:
- Plasters
- Paracetamol
- Ibuprofen
- Aspirin
- Cetirizine Hydrochloride and Loratadine (for allergies)
- Throat Lozenges
- Antacid
- Diarrhoea Relief
- Buscopan
- Gaviscon
- Cold & Flu / Runny Nose (with and without paracetamol)
I realise plasters are not technically medicine, but they make great cushions to keep the medicine from getting too bashed about, and when you put one on a young person’s boo-boo on their finger, it works like magic, if not medicine.
My travel kit Aspirin is marked with a big red ‘A’ and always on the top layer in case of a suspected heart attack. It hasn’t happened yet, but I’m always ready, and the life I save might be my own.