In the last year I have become a big fan of Benadryl. As soon as I figured out that the over-priced OTC sleep aids like Tylenol's Simply Sleep and the regular Tylenol PM all contain Diphenhydramine HC; and other medications such as Dramamine, contain Dimenhydrinate, which is nearly identical to the aforementioned Diphenhydramine HC, I was like WHOA! What the heck!? So here are all these drug companies over-charging for the same SIMPLE INGREDIENT that I can get dirt-cheap in the store brand "benadryl".
I've also been getting IV Diphenhydramine at every dialysis treatment because of my fairly recent allergy to the adheasive in tape/bandaids/sureseals and so-forth. Otherwise, without it, I scratch my arm raw. Oh! And IV Benadryl makes you NICE AND SLEEPY, as my friend Ben can also attest to. And, personally, I prefer the stuff that goes directly into my blood stream and bi-passes my GI tract all together. It works faster.
Anyway, back to the point of this post.
Today I found Benadryl Quick Dissolve Strips in Vanilla Mint Flavor at the grocery store. First of all, I realy don't like to taste medicine, which is why I can never take cough syrup or the like. I'm also not really fond of 'quick dissove strips' as breath mint or mouthwash flavor because of the weird texture it makes when its dissolving on your tongue. BUT - The Benadryl strips looked like something I might use due to the bi-passing of the GI tract thing. Usually by this time on a Sunday I'm pretty loaded up on fluid (because its a weekend and I have an extra day between treatments) so I take a Benadryl in the evening to get the fluid out of my sinuses and into more appropriate places like around my hips, stomach and thighs (just where every woman wants extra weight, right? Bah!) So I got the strips and tried one.
First of all, the strip was a little thicker than the ones used for breath mints and so forth. When I put it in my mouth I somehow got it immediately stuck to the roof of my mouth. The initial flavor was overwhelmingly gross (again, refer to the part where I say I don't like tasting my medicine, so I'm sure I'm over-reacting to the flavor) but it got smoother and then by the time it dissolved completely it left a nice minty aftertaste.
Oh and it made my tongue and the roof of my mouth go numb for half an hour. Which was kinda strange, but the IV Benadryl does the same thing.
My official opinion? I'd rather take these than the pills. And I would recommend them to you, too. And stop spending extra money on allergy medications, OTC sleep aids and motion sickness medication. Buy the store brand benadryl and you'll save a whole hell of a lot of money.
/ end product endorsement
