Episode 22 — Last winter's cough syrup. A pre-season walk through the medicine cabinet

Two in the morning, February this year.

Basia is coughing so hard you can hear her through two walls.

I go to the kitchen, open the cupboard, reach for the cough syrup,

and by the torch on my phone, I read a date that ran out in November.

And it's not that I don't stay on top of that cupboard, I do.

It's just that I only ever stay on top of it the moment I actually need something out of it.

Hello, I'm Tomasz Szuster. I built the mojApteczka app.

And what you just heard is my wife Iza's story.

Honestly, it's the story of most homes I know.

Because we go through the medicine cabinet in a crisis. Never before one.

Which is why I want to do an episode about something deeply unfashionable today.

The walkthrough.

You sit down in September or October, before the season starts,

and you simply go through that cabinet, before anyone in the house is ill.

Sounds like a tidy-up.

It does. But a tidy-up is, I'll arrange it more neatly.

A walkthrough is four questions you answer, and you come out of it with a list.

Right. So, I'm the person with half an hour on a Sunday and no patience whatsoever.

What do I do?

Question one.

What's in this house that's no longer fit to use?

Meaning, out of date?

Out of date.

And that's the only moment in this episode where I'll say anything about expiry dates.

Because we've done that properly in episode 7, about what the box actually tells you.

If you missed it, do go back.

The whole story of the codes on the packaging is in there.

And here?

Here, it's only the action.

You take it out.

You read it.

You put it on one of two piles.

It stays in the house.

Or it leaves the house.

And that second pile goes where?

Because for years I put it in the bin.

Into a medicines collection bin.

And one caveat.

Because this is a common misunderstanding.

At least where we are, in Poland, not every pharmacy runs a collection.

The council organises the scheme, so the most reliable list of drop-off points is on your local authority's website.

There's a whole episode on this, episode 4, so I won't repeat it.

One sentence.

Not the bin, not the sink.

Find out locally where unwanted medicines go, and take them there.

Fair enough.

But now, honestly, how am I meant to know what's out of date before I've emptied the whole lot onto the table?

Because that's exactly the job nobody wants to do.

And this is where the app comes in, in a very specific role.

If those medicines are entered, there's a screen called Expiring Medications.

It has two tabs.

On one, you've got what still has time left on it.

Anything already out of date sits on a separate one.

Separate?

So I don't have to fish them out of one long list?

You don't.

That was a deliberate decision, because they're two different jobs.

Expiring is something to think about.

Out of date is something to carry out of the house.

Mixing them into one list meant people did neither.

Question two?

Question two.

What am I about to run out of?

That's the one that catches me out every time.

Because there's a box.

There are two tablets in the box.

I see them.

I think, we've got some.

And I shut the cupboard.

Yes.

And that's probably the most human mistake in the whole home medicine cabinet.

We've got some, and we've got enough, are not the same thing.

In the app, you can set a refill threshold on a medicine.

You're saying, below this amount, I consider it to be running out.

And then what happens?

That medicine lands on the shopping list.

The list lives in the app, and it gathers two things on its own.

On its own?

Meaning, I don't have to copy it out?

You don't.

It's a view that works itself out from what's in the cabinet.

If something's out of date and running low at the same time,

it shows up once as out of date,

so the list doesn't swell with duplicates.

And what if I want to add something we haven't got at all?

Because half my chemist's list is things that aren't in the house.

That's rather the point of the list.

Then you add it by hand.

From the card of a medicine you already have,

or straight from the medicine's database,

even if that product isn't in any of your cabinets.

That makes sense.

Because a shopping list that can only show you what you've already got

is a useless list.

That's precisely how the first version worked.

And precisely why it was changed.

By the way,

everything we're discussing here

are actual features in the mojApteczka app.

Not a pitch.

Just context.

Right.

Now I've got a question that's been sitting with me

since the start of this conversation.

Because you keep saying

expiry date, expiry date.

And I've got a bottle of syrup in the cupboard,

opened in January,

and the box says 2027.

2027.

Yes.

So what am I supposed to do with that?

The date says it's fine,

and my gut says a syrup opened eight months ago

is a different matter from a sealed box.

Your gut is closer to the truth here

than the expiry date on its own.

That date applies to the package unopened.

For some products,

syrups, drops, ointments,

there's a separate, shorter period

once you've opened it.

You'll find that period in the leaflet,

and sometimes it's printed on the packaging too.

Right.

So where do I enter that in the app?

Nowhere.

There's no field for it.

There isn't?

There isn't.

The app remembers the expiry date

and the batch number from the box.

The date you opened it,

it doesn't remember,

because I simply never built that field.

I wasn't expecting that answer

on your own podcast.

Would you rather I invented a workaround for you?

Because I could say,

just put it in the notes.

Only that's the advice for a man

who doesn't want to admit

he hasn't done something.

All right.

That does sound honest.

It's simply a job for a person,

not for an app.

On the walkthrough,

you pick up every opened package

and ask yourself one question.

Do I even know when I opened this?

And if I don't?

That's an answer in itself.

You take the package

and you ask at the chemist's.

The pharmacist has the leaflet

and knows how long that product

is good for once it's open.

I'm not the person who gets to settle that,

and neither is the app.

And that's the same rule

as always on this podcast.

The same.

The app organises

what you've entered yourself.

The question about an opened package

goes to the pharmacist.

Question three.

Question three.

Where is any of it, actually?

That's a whole saga in our house.

There's the bathroom cabinet.

There's a box on a high shelf in the kitchen.

There's a bag that lives in the car.

And there's a wash bag for trips away.

And that's a normal house,

not a mess.

Which is why, in the app,

you can have several cabinets

and save a location

on an individual medicine.

What for,

if I know where everything is anyway?

Because YouTube know.

The question is

whether anyone else does.

Fair point.

Every cabinet shows three numbers.

How many medicines are in it?

How many are expiring soon?

And how many are below their threshold?

Above the list,

there's a summary of the whole house.

Something like

three cabinets,

87 medicines in total.

So I can see which cupboard

something's going on in.

You can see which one,

without opening each in turn.

And it reads that

from the phone's own memory.

So it works with no signal, too.

That does matter in our house,

mind you.

My mum's bathroom

has never had a bar of signal.

And that's not a joke.

That's a real scenario.

A cellar,

a chemist's by the sea,

a block of flats

with thick walls.

Question four.

Question four.

And to my mind,

the most important one.

Who knows all this,

besides you?

That's an uncomfortable question.

It is uncomfortable.

Because in most homes I know,

there's one person

holding all of it in their head.

And as long as that person is around,

everything works.

And when they're not?

Then the phone calls start.

Listen,

where's that syrup for Basia?

And someone replies 40 minutes later,

because they're at work.

I know that from the other side.

When my mum stays over

with Leon and Basia,

she hasn't got the faintest idea

what's kept where.

Which is why a cabinet can be shared

and a medicine assigned

to a particular person in the family.

Not to keep tabs on anyone,

so that the knowledge

doesn't live in one head.

And that shopping list you mentioned,

can I send it to someone?

You can,

and it's probably my favourite detail.

You've got three filters,

out of date,

running low,

and added by hand.

Every row has a tick box.

Only what you've ticked,

and what you can actually see on screen,

goes out.

Why does that matter?

Because after an autumn walkthrough,

that list can run to dozens of items.

And most of them

are things to carry out of the house,

not things to buy.

Meanwhile,

you're sending your husband

five things to pick up

on the way home from work.

You don't want him

getting the whole list.

I don't,

because he'll get the whole list

and buy nothing.

What comes out

is a message headed

shopping list,

mojApteczka,

with whatever you ticked.

And that's the whole result

of the walkthrough.

Right.

Let me sum it up

in plain terms,

because it's four questions,

and I'd rather have them

in one place.

What's no longer fit to use?

What am I about to run out of?

Where is it kept?

Who knows about it besides me?

Four.

And not one of them

is a medical question.

It's stocktaking,

not treatment.

And that's pretty much

probably why I'll actually do it.

Because if you'd said to me,

sit down and decide

what's right for the children,

I wouldn't have sat down.

Quite right.

Because that's not your call,

and it isn't mine.

The walkthrough is meant to mean

that in February,

at two in the morning,

you're not starting from scratch.

You know what's in the house

and where it is.

Whether you can use it in February,

that stays a question for the pharmacist.

The walkthrough doesn't settle it for you.

So it isn't a case of doing it once

and being sorted until spring?

It isn't.

In the meantime,

you'll open something,

use something up,

bring something new in.

The walkthrough only sets

your starting point,

so those changes

have somewhere to be recorded.

It isn't heroics.

It's half an hour on a Sunday.

September, October,

before it all kicks off.

If you'd like to give it a go,

do have a look.

The app is free

and works offline.

You'll find the link

in the episode description.

And if you enjoyed this episode,

share it with whoever in your house

keeps the whole medicine cabinet

in their head.

One more thing before we go.

This podcast is made

with the help of artificial intelligence.

I wrote the dialogue myself,

but the voices you're hearing

aren't ours.

They're AI-generated,

synthetic voices.

We're telling you this

straight out

because we think

it should be the standard

for any podcast

made this way.

Full details are in the show notes

and in every episode description.

Until next time.

Until next time.