Gosh, I've got three boxes of lidocaine patches. Multiple bottles of oxys, hell, we've got nicknames for the pain pills--perkies, loras--he wasn't even bothering to fill the pain scrips because of the home supply.

The company brought over the plant-based sympathy thing. I'd mentioned I didn't want roses or mums. They brought foliage. Beautifully green, thick-leaved, probably expensive. I loathe house plants that are just thick-leaved green foliage. And it's alive and something I'm apparently supposed to tend and keep alive.

I guess I'll take it home and ask if anyone likes plants.

I have enough friends with chronic pain and anxiety issues that I just discreetly "rehomed" mom's meds stash. I've gotta say, finding her bottle of Xanax while dealing with the weird stress of helping dad go through all the things he didn't know about was very serendipitous timing.

I may or may not have inherited Tim's mom's Xanax. The home hospice nurse had to pour the liquid morphine down the drain, though, in front of witnesses.

Yeah, the AIDS shelter guy was actually at my house to pick up a bunch of clothes I was donating when I mentioned to him my dilemma about the medications. He gently told me that he would make sure they found their way to someone that needed them.

My feeling about pain medication has always been "you never know when you might need it." Pain meds from teeth and the like have gotten me though any number of accidental injuries and various ways my body has turned on me.

Environmentalists would be unhappy with that morphine down the drain. There are a remarkable number of drugs in the water supply, enough in some cases to affect fish.

The Word Detective had the same possible origins of "to the nines" as Omnis' link, plus one or two others (scroll down a bit):

[link]

Connie, I feel certain that if you can't find something local to you, there are people you know (*ahem*, or their elderly mother) who could take certain items off of your hands for you. Though Ginger also makes a good point for hanging onto them, just in case.

Oh, I'm all for having my own stash of meds. But I would also be super tempted to try to turn a profit.

Doesn't ita use lidocaine patches? Maybe she could use them?

When I had meds that didn't work I asked my shrink what to do, he suggested with the tablets to rip the labels off the bottle, add some water to the bottle, close it, shake. Tape the bottle closed, and then put the bottle in the trash with the cat litter.

The water will disovle the medication and someone would have to be desperate to go through cat litter.

I know CVS sells envelopes where you can mail unused/wanted medication back somewhere. But the packets are kind of small and expensive so I don't think that's your best option Connie.

I had this all ready to post but then I couldn't get an internet connection so I called Comcast. And that turned into this weird version of If you Give a Mouse a Cookie. Only if you make askye Call Comcast, she'll get frustrated, they'll disconnect her, then tell her she needs a new router. So she'll go the store, and forget her router (that is covered under a protection plan),but apply for a store credit card - and get one! and buy a tv! And then go back and get a new router! Only to still have problems and call Comcast and talk to two different people who tell her she needs a new modem.

Tomorrow before work I'm getting a new modem.

And I really wanted to set up my new tv and watch Netflix.

Doesn't ita use lidocaine patches? Maybe she could use them?

There's an idea . . .

ION, I have discovered a bizarre trigger--the automatic faucet in the company bathroom. Huntsman has automatic everything, faucet, soap dispenser, paper towels, and there are no family bathrooms in the patient wings, if someone is visiting, they've got to leave the wing and go around the elevator bank to go to the bathroom (they know it's a stupid design). So now I'm pinging on trekking to those bathrooms while visiting Hubby. This is a very inconvenient trigger (and truth).

I'm not too happy in elevators anymore, either.

At least I don't have to smell that horrifying antiseptic anymore.