If Medications Have An Expiration Date, Do We?

As the season changes, and flowers began to bloom, I am here on an 80 degree day in March (love it) wondering why the apartment does not have a balcony I can enjoy. It has everything else, but why am I hyper fixated on it now on this key missing piece? As I catch views of the street below on my nonbalcony, I think back to a recent texting conversation I had with a friend. It centered around her waking up and not feeling like that shiny new toy, fresh out of the box type vibe – almost like she is being phased out of relevance (in the most healthiest of ways, of course). Also, I think my apartment that I have adored is suddenly feeling that way too…

But, it brings up a great point. Why are we always on to the next thing? As we get older, is it just a natural cycle where the other younger gazelles frolic past us and steal the attention we once use to occupy? Do we reach a point of expiration -- where we are still there, sure, but maybe not as shiny, effective, and wanted. If anyone has seen that Sex and the City Episode ‘Thirty-Somethings, Twenty-Somethings’, it is exactly that feeling. Through their Hamptons escapades, Carrie and the girls become almost invisible and cannot keep up with these twenty year old girls; goodie two shoes Charlotte even lies about her age to flirt with this younger guy. Applying that highly reliable situation to this current one. Have I gone from the kind-of cute boy in the club to flirt with to THAT guy (negative connation) over there? Siri play “Dancing On My Own” by Robyn.

I do this concept daily -- with new clothes I continue to buy from Abercrombie and Fitch because the new arrivals just keep beating the recent ones that I bought a month ago (highly recommend looking at how they have rebranded their merchandise); the other clothes in my closet do not exist anymore. In leaving my old job and friends in North Carolina, have I expired in those work and personal relationships? With any perishable item in your fridge, with maybe the exception of eggs (especially given the recent scarcity, price increase combination), we are quick to throw away based on the small text dictating its expiration. Listening to a new album and skipping through the immediate moment we do not vibe with a song without letting it play out. Friendships that over stay their welcome and decide to go their separate ways. The dating app pitting you against a variety of suitors for you to just cycle on through when that one new one that you need to have enters the chat. So, maybe it is the newness quality that we are missing? Maybe newness is the quality that everyone covets? Out with the old, and in with the new as Sharpay, from High School Musical would say.

Now, as a pediatric clinical pharmacist, I obviously think about medicine quite often and how expiration dates can have a similar, yet totally different meaning associated with it. We learn about how expired drugs lose their potency, and therefore, effectiveness or can result in being potentially harmful because of their chemical composition changes over time. The newness quality I mentioned earlier does not really apply here as much because in this instance, the expiration date is law, set in stone, good until that date. Now, maybe for us, that is a theoretical law because who here has not taken an expired antibiotic or steroid that you had lying around when you have felt like you were feeling horrid. We know that we technically shouldn’t, but we have it readily available…so let’s convince ourselves this will be fine and take the damn thing. So, if maybe newness does not always apply, is it availability along with accessibility? If we have a lot of options, and these options are at our finger tips, do we naturally choose the newest, most easily accessible one?

I think we can come to a conclusion that of course the concept of expiration dates do matter, but I would argue the context matters even more so. The expiration dates in some contexts are indeed black and white (i.e. milk expires on X date), some are that uncertain grey areas (i.e. new boy that just walked in supersedes all others), and some are the expiration dates we decide on (i.e. this antibiotic expired two years ago, but will most definitely cure this pneumonia that I self-diagnosed).

If this three category system I’ve created is the standard, then where do we fit - the not feeling like that shiny new toy, fresh out of the box type vibe? I can rule out the black and white category given the amount of verbal contemplating I have in the above, last page of text. The next is the grey area – which one could argue, but I think this is more so a natural way of thinking and being. New does not always mean better, however, but new is new; there will always be an inclination to buy that nice new cropped rugby shirt from Abercrombie & Fitch or flirt with the next hottest person that walks into the bar. So, as I always say in both my professional and personal life, embrace the grey area; embrace the newness that will always exist, embrace the change that is inevitable in life.

This is combination with the expiration date we decide on ourselves is the true answer here. As we get older, and wiser, we aren’t really new to the world or naïve to our surroundings. We have history and experience, and yes, those are two separate things. We have a clearer direction as we navigate life. It by no means makes it easier, but it is not our first rodeo. We can sometimes feel unwanted, not enough, outdated, but that can be used as energy to propel us forward. Figure out how we want to grow or change and work to make it happen. Rely on those around you, your people, to refill your energy and extend that expiration date that we all worry about at some point as we get older.

In closing, I will share a story that made me come to this realization in the first place. I had friends from North Carolina come visit last weekend and when I tell you, the way we laughed and carried on made me feel anything but expired. I was worried that I had reached my expiration date – but making continuous media references (i.e. housewives, rupaul’s drag race, etc.), joking with each other, watching iconic music videos, kekeing over coffee and croissants, drinking cocktails at our local watering holes, and dancing the night away under many disco balls was more than enough to realize that being with my people make any thought of my expiration date so minuscule. The joy that radiated among our group was one of the greatest feelings ever. And, given the climate we currently live in, everyone deserves to feel that their expiration date is not looming. So, I am going to listen and support that friend as best I can; I will figure out what that friend needs to push those feelings away to get her to feel the way she makes me feel – alive and like the latest, limited edition.

-JackofAllStories