Dramamine® for Kids Helps Fight Motion Sickness with Kids!

• This post was sponsored by Dramamine® as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central

Not only do I suffer from motion sickness, I passed it along with other things on to my oldest son! He is so my little mini me. We travel a LOT! We take multiple road trips throughout the year and my little guy gets sick from the travel. He cannot read while we travel, or play his electronics and that seriously cramps his style!! We have tried other cures, but nothing seems to help but then we were sent Dramamine® for Kids. 


 Dramamine® for Kids has been simply amazing! We recently took a road trip to Orlando, and I heard my little man start in on his typical complaints: my head hurts, everything is spinning, I cannot concentrate, I feel like I am going to throw up! I brought out this nifty little pack that fits oh so well in my diaper bag, and gave him a dose, and within minutes he was feeling well enough to go back to his electronics! This stuff has been awesome for our family. Little man is feeling like a new kid when we travel, and it spares the rest of us from having to listen to his complaints!! 

Damamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals Allows Me to Read in The Car!

“This post was sponsored by Dramamine® as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central.”

The first time I got motion sick was on vacation in Spain 12 years ago. I was trying to read on a bus, and became so ill feeling that I thought I might throw up. This has continued until today and now I find myself not even being able to work on my tablet in the car. This is quite troublesome considering that I am a blogger and go to school online.

I was recently asked to tell you my experience with Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals and I am happy to do so, because this product has helped me so much, and I know you will love it to! Of course there are other products out there that help with nausea, but they usually come with a prescription and/or make you tired when you take it. While I am traveling, I cannot afford either, so I was happy to discover Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals. This product takes my nausea away within about 30 minutes (I have even started taking it before I leave when I know I will be reading in the car) and effectively makes me feel better without sleepiness. Dramamine® Non-Drowsy Naturals has clinically tested doses of ginger, so you know you are getting the right amount to do the trick, so it is more effective than ginger candies or ginger ale. 


Sadly, this is something my son and I both suffer from but thankfully, Dramamine® for Kids has him covered too. I till tell you more about that in an upcoming post, but I just love that we are both covered on our long car rides, because we frequently take day trips! I know have these stored in my emergency travel bag that goes everywhere we go! I love that it relieves the nausea and queasiness quickly, while using natural ingredients like ginger to do it!

If you, or your child suffer from motion sickness like me and my son, I highly recommend you check Dramamine® out. They offer some nice coupons for your to use as well, so you can save and feel better!!

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    Disclosure: The above item was received in order to facilitate review. I have not been compensated for this post. Top Notch Material blog will always provide honest opinions, beliefs or experiences on products reviewed. We will only recommend products or services that we feel are of benefit to our readers. If you have any questions, please contact me at nursemommypaige at yahoo dot com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising. 

Scleroderma Awareness Month

“This post was sponsored by Scleroderma as part of an Influencer Activation for Influence Central.”

 I worked as a home health nurse for quite a few years, and for the most part, loved it. I saw many interesting cases, and came to love my patients! Some patients touched me more than others, and one case that I will always remember was a middle-aged woman with Scleroderma. Her illness was quite advanced and she began to have lung problems that can be associated with this auto-immune illness. Eventually her case became really bad as other organs became involved in the illness, and hospice had to be involved. This case in not the usual, and actually the 5 year survival rate from diagnosis is upwards of 80%. 

When a person is first diagnosed with this illness, they are often so confused, and they do not know where to turn. Scleroderma is not something as common as heart disease or cancer, so we often do not know anyone else that has it and the sufferers of it often feel alone and isolated. It IS pretty rare, and only effects about one in 906 people and predominately only effects females between ages of 30-50.  For this reason, June is Scleroderma Awareness Month. This is the time that there is a push to educate the clueless, and also help the suffers find a support system to deal with the emotional impact this illness can have. 

Red Panda Lab Coat from Maevn!

My husband just started a new job as a nurse practitioner, and in this job he needs to wear a lab coat so the patients and staff can identify him in his role. I was recently contacted by Maevn uniforms to do a review, and since I am not currently working as a nurse, I asked to review a couple of the lab coats available. Maevn agreed to send me a couple coats from the new Red Panda line for him, and we love them!

These uniforms are very soft, and do not wrinkle easily. He has to go between many different facilities throughout the day, so he is in and out of the car and has not found the lab coats to be wrinkly at the end of the day. They fit a little roomy and the XL gave my husband ample room and he said they are very comfortable. Shortly after we received them, we had them monogrammed and that added even more of a nice touch to the lab coats. These coats are very functional as they offer many pockets and pin slots, but are also lightweight and comfortable. Both of those things are incredibly important to my husband because we live in Florida and going from facility to facility gets pretty hot wearing anything, much less a bulky, heavy, scratchy lab coat. The Red Pant coat her received is not heavy at all, and he can easily wear it while going to different places. 

The Perfect Derma Peel Maintaining Products

I may be only 31 years old, but sometimes my skin thinks it’s older. It doesn’t help that I in the past year moved from a humid climate to the very dry desert. I always love lotions and cremes but also have so interested in the facial peels and wondered if they really work. Recently I had the opportunity to try out some of the products from The Perfect Derma Peel that one would use to maintain after a peel. I’ll be getting an actual peel soon (so excited).

not me! model for The Perfect Derma Peel

Win FREE Online Basic Life Support Training- It Could Save Your Childs Life!

 Would you know what to do if your child had an emergency that required CPR or the Heimlich?

As parent's it is important to know what to do in a life threatening situation and be trained for medical emergencies that come up with you children so that you can perform life sustaining measures until medical support arrives! I was recently asked to review the Basic Life Support program from ACLS Medical Training, which is regularly a $95 (or $65 to re-certify), and it came at the perfect time for us.

My husband’s basic life support (BLS) certification was expiring at the end of July. The opportunity to review a BLS course offered by ACLS Medical Training could not have come at a better time. ACLS Medical Training also offers re-certification of advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) as well. This program is one of the few 100% online classes. Other programs only allow you to complete part of the training online but require that you meet in person with a certified instructor for skills checkoff and / or final examination.

Win a Set of Jaanuu Scrubs by Dr. Neela!

Scrubs. Ugh Scrubs. While they are mostly comfortable (but let me tell you some are anything but) they definitely are not fashionable. Even if you get cuter prints and stuff, most of the time you will find them to be boxy and unflattering. Even if you do manage to find a top that has a cute shape to it, the bottoms are still the same old unflattering bottoms of yesterday. Folk, let me tell you though, scrubs have come a loooong way, as I recently learned with Jaanuu. I received a couple pairs of scrubs for review and I just love them! Even though I am 20 weeks pregnant, and things are fitting me a little differently, I still know these scrubs will be my favorite once the baby girl arrives! Not only are these scrubs VERY flattering and made to fit a woman's body, they are also antimicrobial which is excellent for those of us working around germs every day.

Jaanu also sent me an awesome medical clutch on a gold chain! I have my trusty "work bag" that I will be soon changing out for this clutch! I love this clutch for so many reasons- with one of the biggest being how fashionable it is and how much it looks like a regular slim shoulder bag. It is also loaded with pockets for all of your tape, and gauze, and alcohol pads. There is plenty of space for the stethoscope, sat monitor and pens. Even though I am not currently working in home health, I cannot help but think how wonderful this bag would be for a home health nurse!

Jaanuu is comprised of a highly skilled team of designers, production managers and software developers who have trained, invested in or worked with industry leading companies including Lululemon, Bisou Bisou, Skechers, American Eagle Outfitters, Quiksilver and DSW.

The Jaanuu collection features two top designs including “The Dolman Top,” a fresh take on the iconic dolman tapered sleeve, and “The Peplum Top,” a wildly trendy silhouette that cinches at the waist and displays a premium side gold zipper entry for a more sophisticated look. Moreover, the collection features two pant silhouettes, including “The Skinny Pant,” a form-fitting and dainty figure with optional denim-like cuffs, and “The Flare Leg Pant,” a denim-inspired cargo pant with twisted contrast seams and signature back-pocket embroidery. The full collection is available in five colors including black, graphite, estate blue, plum and rose wine. Retailing for $39 (tops) and $42 (pants), the entire collection is available at Jaanuu.com, with exclusive additional pieces to launch throughout the year.

Firmoo Offers Quality Prescription Lenses and Saves You Money!

One of my biggest pet peeves in life is having to put in contacts to run and get my son from school. I wear contacts around the house all of the time but wear contacts when I leave because I need to wear sunglasses when I am out because my eyes are very sensitive to the sun. Florida is a very sunny place, so that means every single day, I have to put contacts in just to run to the school and get my son. The total trip is less than an hour, and it just seems pointless to me to put contacts in for that.

I recently contact Firmoo to review their prescription sunglasses and I have thrilled with them! They are so cute with adorable partially blue frames! I absolutely love the shape of the frame. It is not too big or overwhelming for my face, and is a pretty unique shape. I opted to get the tint in blue to match the frames, and it is just perfect. The prescription is perfect for me and I find the glasses to be crystal clear! I do wish I had opted to get the darker tint rather than the moderate tint I chose. As I mentioned, I have very sensitive eyes, and the darker tint would have been best for me, but I love these glasses for a slightly overcast day, like today. 

Santamedical Electronic Tens Pulse Massager

I have been hearing a lot lately about tens units! Since I have, what is sometimes pretty painful neck pain I thought I would give it a try. I received Tens Handheld Electronic Pulse Massager Unit from Santamedical and my husband and I have both been very happy with the results. It is very easy to use, you simply place it on your spot of chronic pain or stiffness and set it to the massage setting that you want. A medium intensity massage works well for my, but because my husband has pain in his lower back, he has found a higher intensity works best for him. 

Band Aid First Aid Kit

If you are like me you have a ton of band-aids, and medication all over the house, some in each bathroom. I tend to need something and spend way too long searching the house to find it. I was asked by Band-Aid to check out a wide variety of their products. It was great timing since I was meaning to put together a first aid kit so everything would be in one spot.

Epiglottitis, more than just a sore throat

Epiglottitis, more than just a sore throat.

One 7/3 I finally got home from having a total hip replacement that was on 6/30. I was feeling ok despite the surgical pain. On sat/sun my throat started hurting but not like it ever has. It started hurting farther down my throat. I knew it wasn’t strep or anything but it hurt. I had a scheduled appointment with my PCP Wednesday so I figured that I would just chill out until then and mention it. Well, that plan went away when Monday night the 7th I was getting worse really fast and was in so much pain. I couldn’t eat anymore and hardly drank. By the time Tuesday came I felt horrible, so I called my dr and she said to come up to be seen.

I was dehydrated because of the lack of liquids in almost 24 hours. She did an initial exam and bloodwork which showed my WBC normal. If I had an infection it should be high, so I wasn’t to worried then. Since she can’t see that far down my throat she called ENT to see me.

Picture from PatientHelp.org

I got up to ENT and she looked in my ears, nose and mouth and everything looked good. So then she did a little scope. Kind of scary looking machine but it’s really not bad, and your nose is numbed and it only takes a minute.

She sat down and said I have what’s epiglottitis. My first thought was ok, that’s inflammation, give me meds and i’ll be good to go. I was very wrong. She said that I was too much at risk for the epiglottis to swell even more and if that happens that I could stop breathing, so I couldn’t go home. She’s thinking that my WBC appears normal because of all the other meds I’m on for the hip replacement and the steroids they give during surgery.

She said I was lucky that I came in when I did and didn’t wait. That if I waited even until the next day for my scheduled appointment that it could have went in the wrong direction fast and nothing anyone could do if my airway was swollen shut. I am lucky and only needed a regular hospital room, any worse and it would have been the ICU and a step more from that was a trach, which there is no way I wanted that.

I was admitted to the hospital and was started on some very high hitting antibiotics. I was given IV vancomycin and Levaquin.  They also put me on a pulse Oximeter to make sure my oxygen levels were ok and if not the machine would go off telling them I was having a problem breathing.

Due of my hip replacement they want to make sure the infection doesn’t travel to joint, if that happens it’s not good.

As of today I’m feeling better but still not healed. I’m being monitored closely to make sure I keep going in the right direction and things don’t go the other way.

Moral of this story is that, if you feel off and something isn’t right, go to the dr. It’s better to be safe than sorry. I may not be here today if I didn’t listen to my body. I’m also blessed with a good medical team that takes me seriously when I say something is wrong.

Disclosure: This post was not a sponsored post, but purely my own experience and story. The information presented above is NOT to replace the advice of your medical professionals and is for informational purposes only. Please speak with your physician or other medical providers prior to taking any supplements. If you have any questions or would like your product, service or company featured on Top Notch Material, please contact Katrina from The Nurse Mommy at katrina dot gehman {at} gmail [dot] com. The disclosure is done in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission 10 CFR, Part 255 Guides Concerning the use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Treating Type II Diabetes

There is no doubt that type II diabetes, also known as adult onset diabetes, is on the rise. With the number of fast food restaurants, super-size meal options, busy work schedules and sedentary lifestyles, the disease has become a worldwide epidemic.  In 2007, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reported there were 23.6 million Americans with diabetes.  Ninety to ninety-five percent have type II diabetes.  Roughly 17.9 million type II diabetics were diagnosed while an estimated 5.7 million Americans remain undiagnosed.

Survival Straps Medical Alert Bracelet

I have many friends who wear a medical alert bracelet. I didn’t really think anything of them until a few years ago. I have a few medical conditions that don’t require a ID but would be a really good idea. I thought about getting one then kept forgetting. One of my problems is that I can’t wear most metal. I break out, so the options were limited. I came across Survival Straps one day and noticed that they don’t have metal in them (as one of the choices) so I knew that would be great. I was thrilled when they agreed to send one to me for review.

Puritans Pride Gummy Vitamins Giveawau

We all know how important proper nutrition is for us as well as our children. I don't know about you, but sometimes life gets in the way of my best intentions, so we are religious about taking our vitamins daily. I have a very hard time swallowing but "horse" pill vitamins, so I prefer gummy vitamins, and that is also the only vitamin my oldest son will take. 

Ti Scrubs- Antimicrobial and SOFT! Win your set now!

In my line of work, comfortable scrubs are a necessity. You see, I am not a typical nurse. I am a nurse in a pediatric setting that is more like a daycare for medically fragile kids. Sure, we give meds, suction and do g-tube feedings. We sometimes even have crises that require more intensive treatments, but for the most part we are up and down, cuddling and changing diapers. The constant motion means we NEED to be comfortable. Thankfully my work does allow us to wear jeans and t-shirts, but I do like the functionality of scrubs, and all the pockets.

Offer Love and Support to Cavegivers this Holiday Season with CaringBridge! #mc

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for CaringBridge. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.”

The holidays are a time to come together and spend time with your loved ones. The holidays can also be very difficult for caregivers of the ill or helpless. It is the perfect time to come together and offer support and love to those who are lovingly caring for someone else. As a nurse, I witness how hard it is on caregivers, and even from a professional standpoint, I know how draining it can be! 

Opioid Depency: The Real and Scary Truth Part 2 #mc

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for Reckitt Benckiser Pharmaceuticals Inc. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.”

Opioid Dependency is so scary! There have been many lives lost to it, and there will continue to be as long as they are readily available. Though it seems that this problem has origins in my lovely state of Florida, I have seen documentaries that the phenomena is spreading throughout the country! Many lives of people both young and old have been lost to this disease!

Sanvic Pulsatile Nasal Irrigator

How many people end up with some kind of sinus funk throughout the weather changes? How many people end up trying to use a Nasal flushing system without much success? Well, I heard about this pretty amazing product called Sanvic Pulsatile Nasal Irrigator

Think about it, Allergies are something that effects millions of people worldwide. Matter of fact, it's actually allergy season here in Arizona right now. Often, I've had allergy issues that end up as sinusitis or sinus infections because I just cannot clear out my passages efficiently unless I'm taking some kind of medication... For the rest of the country, it's beginning to be cold and flu season, which means that ever constant, stuffy, runny nose with icky snot is on its' way.

RSV: Protect Your Babies from This Virus!

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for MedImmune. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating. This is a cause very close to my heart that I fully support raising awareness of”

As a pediatric nurse working in a "physicians prescribed extended care center" 95% of the babies that come to us were premature at birth.  Basically PPEC is a daycare for medically fragile kids whose ages range from birth-21 years, and we provide child care as well as medical care throughout the day.  Most of the children that come for our care are discharged after a year, because they have caught up to the term child as far as health and development. However, that first year of life is critical for a premie baby and they are at risk for many illnesses. The children that come to use are especially prone to respiratory infections and the virus, RSV or Respiratory Syncytial Virus can be especially deadly for them. Even though my oldest was a term baby, this hits close to home for me. He was born with pneumonia and spent 8 days in the NICU. He continued to have respiratory infections for the first two years of his life, and we spent more time and money than I care to talk about on specialists and respiratory treatments and tests.Thankfully he eventually outgrew this and is a perfectly healthy 6 year old boy now! 

Using a Heart Rate Monitor to Measure your Physical Fitness Program

Heart rate monitors are an excellent but often overlooked fitness tool. While the majority of professional athletes utilize heart monitors as a way of keeping track of their heart rate and adjusting their workout and training routines accordingly, many fitness enthusiasts still do not grasp the importance of using them. In recent times technology has made it possible for heart rate monitors to be small, efficient, accurate, and affordable, so there's no reason why you shouldn't pick one up from HeartRateMonitorsUSA.com. Here are a few reasons why you'll want to use a heart rate monitor: