It's not easy being green -

You might expect that this entry is about living eco-friendly on coupons, and maybe I should have saved the title for that, but actually, I've been sick this week. Really sick. Fever, chills, total breakdown of my digestive system sick. And as I sent my dear, sweet husband out for the 900th time for more Gatorade and other "aids," I thought to myself, "Oh dear god - what if this had happened during mandatory coupon-only time?"

I think I might have been ok for getting fluids...you can pretty frequently find Gatorade coupons in the weekly circulars even if it was for powdered gatorade that we would have mixed here. But my fear was that I would not be able to find a coupon for the good stuff...the stuff that allowed me to live OUTSIDE the bathroom.

I decided to check and see what exactly I could find online and lo and behold, I found that the experiment would be able to go forward in the case of a stomach flu!

Being sick while breastfeeding poses the challenge of not only finding something that works, but finding something that I can actually take that will not bother the baby. Checking out the list of approved meds for breastfeeding moms on KellyMom.com, I find that Immodium, Pepto Diarrhea Control, Maalox Antidiarrheal Caplets, Kaopectate II Caplets, and Immodium Advanced are class B drugs that I can take for my special "issues." So I then set out to see if I could find coupons for these items.

I search first for the Immodium, since it is my helper of choice. Ladies and Gents - Google is a good friend to me. I simply typed in "coupon, immodium" and am immediately directed to the Immodium website where I find a "Special Offers" section. There are four coupons available for four different medications that they offer that should cover any digestive issue one should have.

Next we search for the Pepto. I know Pepto has been around since forever, but it just reminds me of being sick when I was a kid and I have flashbacks of my mom pulling the sickly pink, disgusting tasting, lukewarm liquid from the cabinet and pouring it sloooooowly into the spoon for us to take. Oh god - how that's supposed to make anyone feel better, I have no idea. And fortunately for me, I cannot find any sort of current coupon online for the product that I can take, so at least I would be off the hook for having to have that horrible childhood experience on top of my current challenges!

Now on to the Maalox Antidiarrheal Caplets. Funny, when I think of Maalox, I think of getting help GOING to the bathroom, not stopping it. But I won't be finding out whether it would help me out, since I cannot find any coupons online that aren't for sale...hm...that's another post indeed!

Finally, we search for Kaopectate II Caplets. First of all - one of the search results that pops up says, "Buy diarreah online." Ha, no thank you. I've got plenty of that for free here. What are people thinking with that? A few search results down, however, I find a promising lead! A link to the Coupon Surfer has a coupon for $1.00 off any Kaopectate AD product. I would have to do a little more research to find out if the caplets would be included in that category, but that wouldn't be too much trouble. Well, I say that now, when I feel much better than I have in 3 days. Maybe the husband would be happy to take over the duties of coupon searching should I be stricken with an ailment during the coupon-only time period.

A quick flip through today's coupon circulars in the paper yielded me a big bunch of notta for the drugs I needed, but hey - if I had some allergies, then I have the hook-up for Zyrtec.

What this little experiment taught me was that I really need to start clipping any and all coupons that may or may not be usable to me at the time. I have seen all kinds of coupons for stomach ailment products in my circulars past, but have laughed as I threw them out with the offers for cutesy checkbook covers, collegiate themed happy clowns, and realistic baby dolls. I can clip all the coupons I might need - the ones for Tylenol or Pepto (blech!) or whathaveyou and then if I can't use them before they expire, I can just leave them by the products at the store for someone else to find and use.

And now it's time for me to slowly move back into the real world...laundry and other chores have piled up, and - unfortunately - I think my sweet husband has gotten the world's worst Father's Day gift from me: The Flu.