What You Need in Your College Apartment Medicine Cabinet

By Ian Acosta on April 26, 2017

One MAJOR drawback of going away to college is not having your parents there to take care of you when you become sick. Unfortunately, we are forced to fend for ourselves and be miserable until such time that the illness or sickness passes.

For many of us, we relied on our parents’ medicine cabinet to supply us with whatever remedy we needed to take in order to get better as soon as possible. Which begs the question: What should be in my apartment’s medicine cabinet? Here are a few items that you should keep for whenever a sickly situation arises.

Ibuprofen

Whether generic or brand name such as Advil or Motrin, ibuprofen is a necessity in anyone’s medicine cabinet. Ibuprofen is useful whenever you come down with a fever and have some pain or inflammation. Specifically, use it for conditions such as headaches, toothaches, back pain, arthritis, menstrual cramps, or minor injury.

It is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, commonly called a NSAID. If you have a minor headache, strain, or just want to get rid of some nagging pain, pop an ibuprofen and drink a lot of water. Always remember to follow usage instructions on the bottle!

Acetaminophen

Commonly known by the brand name Tylenol, acetaminophen is utilized whenever you have pain or fever. However, it does not work in the same way as ibuprofen in being an anti-inflammatory drug, i.e. does not reduce swelling or inflammation.

Typically whenever I have a major headache, sinus pressure, fever, or the flu, my mom says to take Tylenol. FYI my mother is no medical professional so feel free to consult a doctor or the internet to see what works best given how you are feeling.

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Thermometer

How are you going to know if you need to take a fever reducer if you are not sure you have a fever? Exactly. Buy a cheap oral thermometer or even an ear thermometer. Whenever I used to go to the doctor’s office for checkups, the nurse typically used an ear thermometer because the reading was almost instantaneous.

You can get an ear thermometer for anywhere from $20-$40 that will last a few semesters. With many ear thermometers, they require covers. Be sure to stock up!

Hydrocortisone cream

Hydrocortisone cream is needed whenever you come down with itchiness, redness, swelling, or a rash. One tube should last you your whole college career due to the small dosage amounts ordered on the tube.

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Band-Aids

I am sure many of us at one point or another cut ourselves or scraped a knee that required a bandage. Keep a couple boxes of band-aids handy whenever those messy papercuts pop up from all of the study materials you will inevitably read through. Papercuts are the absolute worst feeling in the world but as soon as you put on a band-aid, it always seems to make it that much better.

Hydrogen peroxide

What else did your parents use for you when you scraped your knee and had to clean out the wound? A brown bottle with liquid that always stung, right? That, my friends, is hydrogen peroxide. Keep a bottle handy for whenever you need to clean off some scrapes brought on after a long, hard night of “studying at the library.”

NyQuil/DayQuil

If you prefer not to take pills to try and get rid of your fever, cold, headache, or any other nagging symptoms that have you feeling ill, try one of these syrups. DayQuil can almost instantly make you feel like a million bucks and keep those nagging symptoms away throughout the day.

Before bed, take some NyQuil if your cold or flu symptoms are still hanging around. Personally, NyQuil not only helped me many times get over sickness but also helped me fall asleep almost instantly. The next morning, I oftentimes felt as good as new.

Tweezers

Splinters and slivers are extremely uncomfortable and can create infections if not remedied. Do NOT try to pick them out with your nails or anything else other than tweezers. Doing so can potentially make it harder to get the obstruction out and lead to more problems than solutions. Keep a pair of tweezers around just in case.

Medical wrap

Equally as useful as duct tape, medical wrap can be utilized in many ways. If you need to keep an ice pack fastened to an arm or leg, wrap it in some medical wrap and fasten it with a clip. Additionally, medical wrap can help with sprains of many kinds such as knee, ankle, or wrist sprains.

Furthermore, if dealing with a rash or skin irritation, dress the area in the proper cream or ointment and then wrap it in medical wrap to keep the area safe and secure.

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