Have you ever noticed how many creams and lotions come with old age? I just had an appointment with my foot doctor to get---I thought---some custom-made shoe inserts. I've had them many times over my life but not in the last 6-7 years and lately I've felt like I am walking on a bed of marbles. But it turns out custom-made inserts, now, sell for $499 and the doctor said no insurance company will pay for them. Instead, she sold me some inserts you can only buy from foot doctor's offices and for $45.00. Best money I've spent in a long time. She also told me to get some Diclofenac Sodium topical gel to put on my feet twice a day (for pain relief) because I have so much arthritis, especially in one foot where I broke a lot of bones back in my 40s. I don't know why I put off going into see her for so long. These two little tweaks have made a big difference.
The addition of one more cream to apply to my body got me looking around to see how many others I've added in this past year. There's the Asutra Melt Pain Away Body Butter I use at night for restless legs that was recommended at a lecture about the holistic approach to getting a better night's sleep. And the Biotene Dry Mouth Moisturizing Gel the dentist just this month recommended that I'm to put on my tongue following the use of a tongue scraper. Dry mouth can keep me from falling back to sleep when I get up to pee. (I'm not a good sleeper.) I have deep groves in the surface of my tongue and the dentist said a tongue scraper prevents bacteria from building up down in the groves and causing sores that act up when dry. (The dryness comes from being a mouth breather at night.) I've tried Biolene spray in the past but it never lasted all night like the gel does.
Then there is the Aveeno Products:
- Radically Radiate Brightening Scrub
- Moisturizing Body Cream
- Calm & Restorative Oat Gel Moisturizer
- Protective Hydrate Sunscreen
And the Burt's Bee Products:
- Firming Serum
- Moisturizer
- Lip Scrub
- 3 colors of lip Simmer
- 3 colors of Tinted Balm (my latest obsession)
- Hydrating Sheet Mask
- Purifying White Tea Facial towelettes
If it seems like I over-dose on moisturizers it's because my pedicurist and dermatologist harp on me, scold me and lecture me about my dry skin. They all but hold me down and lather me up with oils but come to think of it, my pedicurist does do exactly that. And speaking of her, she is responsible for me adding Tea Tree Oil to my "products." I started out using it on a toenail fungus that is finally gone but now I also use it on a fungus-based rash that comes and goes on my stomach and has been for over fifty years. It works as good if not better than all the creams and powers that various skin doctors have prescribed over the decades. Foot power for athletics feet, baby power and prescription creams are also in my arsenal of products for the damn itchy rash, depending on what phase it's in. During hot summer days its at its worst. The smell of Tea Tree Oil is over whelming when I open the drawer where I keep the closed bottle. I can only image what I smell like with products in various combinations all over my freshly bathed body.
Different topic but age related: The continuum care complex where I live gave a presentation about preventing falls and they introduced a phone app called OneStep. It's billed as: "Every step tells a story.We help you hear it.From the fear of falling to the hope of recovery, from early signs of cognitive decline to life after cancer --- movement reveals what people often can’t say. With just a smartphone in your pocket, OneStep turns real-world motion into insight that guides care, protects independence, and changes lives." It's free and comes with physical therapist sessions to help improve anything that we can work on to help prevent falls. I'm getting a little paranoid about how much information I want the "overlords" to be able to track about my heath while I still live in independent living, but after doing the Check List for assessing my fall risk, I am pretty high on the chart. So I'm guessing I should get over myself and sign up to get with the program.
One of the risk factors for falling is taking sleep aids and, boy, do I have them lined up in my bathroom. There's a prescription for 5 mg Ambien that I promise my doctor I only use 5-6 times a month. Melatonin 12 mg which is safe to take with Ambien but not with the other sleep meds in my line up. Tylenol PM that I will not buy again because I don't like the way it makes me feel when I get up to pee and I just bought a bottle of Amazon's NightTime Syrup that I won't buy again either after discovering it contains 50 mg of dephenhydramine! It works great for sleep but that's the same as taking two Benedryls. My doctor think using Benedryl for sleep is safer for seniors that Ambien but I've had a lot of serious bouts with hives during my lifetime where Benedryl is the main line of defense and I don't want to build up a tolerance for it just to sleep. Hives are beyond miserable spelled with a capital M.
The top two drawers in the photo to the left is where most of the Aveeno and Burt's products are and next photo below shows the bottom drawer where I keep the rest of my cosmetics... mostly eye brow stuff. I'm in love with the Gimme Brow+ and the eye brow glue. I have one brown brow and one mostly gray brow and the Gimme Brow+ does a nice job evening them out. The eye brow glue keeps those long hairs from going 'cave dweller' on me. No matter how often I trim them they seem to grow like weeds. 
Anyway, I've told you all my vanity and medicine cabinet secrets. Believe it or not, I check the expiration dates on everything in my medicine cabinet (photoed up above) every fall so all that stuff in there is still good even though much of it is there 'just in case I need it.' Is anyone still reading this post? I'm guessing I lost a few readers half way through.
Until Next Wednesday.
