Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Am I The Last To Know This?

I think you'll be relieved to know that today's post will have nothing to do with Lily's new diet.

Nope.  Not one thing.

Instead, today, I have a pop quiz for you.

Quick - what is this a picture of?


Do you need a hint?

It's a medical device.  

Pretty low tech, pretty inexpensive, but medical equipment all the same.

Are you ready?

It's a..... pill crusher.

Maybe I'm the last person on earth to know about this handy little device.  Maybe you looked at the picture and knew what it was immediately.  Maybe you think I've been living under a rock.  

But I'll tell you something - this cute little thing is already a game changer at my house.  

When Dr. Goldberg had Lily start taking an anti-viral, I was dismayed to find out it was a rather large pill.  Not a liquid or a chewable or even a capsule I could open up and dump into some juice or yogurt. Just a big, solid pill.

So I've been crushing it the old fashioned way.  

I found a meat mallet I've never used.  I got a new cutting board.  And I proceeded to whack the pills into powder.  But the first few blows would cause the pill to shoot some little pieces off the cutting board so I knew I was losing some precious medication.  So I started creating a barrier around my cutting board crafted out of silverware.  It helped but I still felt I was losing little shards of the pill.

So I conducted my own medical research by googling "pill crusher".  And lo and behold, a device that actually crushes pills exists.  And according to Google, would most likely be available at my neighborhood Walgreens.

Tonight I was able to crush Lily's pill by simply removing the top of the crusher, like so:


Oh!  Right now, I'm thinking this might have made a quite gripping video.  I'm sorry I didn't think of it before I took all these artistic photos.  Oh well...

Drop the pill in the clear cup.... 


Twist the cap back onto the clear cup and voila - a pill crushed into a nice, fine, contained pile of powder.


Maybe this all old news for you.  

But I for one am constantly amazed by the marvels of modern medicine.

8 comments:

  1. My guess was that it was a robot vacuum. I'm not kidding. There was no sense of scale in the first picture, but still, there's almost nothing that justifies my guess. I r stupit

    I always crushed Lily's meds (when she briefly was on them) betwixt two spoons. . . the old fashioned way, like mom used to crush my buffrin before mixing it with jam to give me for my childhood aches and pains.

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  2. I thought it was some kind if knitting tool I didn't know about. Like a pom-pom maker.

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  3. I thought it was one of those fuzz pullers (completely not the right name I know) for sweaters.

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  4. I had no idea - then when you said medical device, I thought something to do with massage for OT - man was I wrong!! Very cool that there is a pill crusher! I could have used one of those myself. Handy tip - and it's Wordless Wednesday anyway (which I always intend to do but never do cuz - well - cuz I'm a lawyer, you know) so this must qualify!! :)

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  5. I thought itwas one of those things for making perfect little scrap book cutouts. Wow... I need to get out of Jo-ann a little more often and into the real world!

    I so totally would have used a hammer too... You gotta admit that bashing is just somehow more satisfying!

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  6. Happy for you! The smallest things can be the biggest help!

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  7. I looked for one of those a few months ago for AJ's pills and couldn't find one anywhere! I'll have to check Walgreens. And I agree, the simplest gadgets are the best!

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  8. I love our pill cutter/crusher.

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