Mishmash Musings

My husband Jerry works in the Research & Development department of an automotive manufacturer, and his duties frequently take him out to the factory floor to test out heavy machinery. If he has to tinker with a machine, that means it’s not working properly, so the chances of a serious injury or disability are pretty high. As a result, we are currently thinking about purchasing disability insurance just to be prepared for any eventuality.

After doing some research on the ProtectYourIncome.com website, I learned that purchasing a good disability insurance policy is every bit as important as buying health insurance or life insurance. That’s because people under 35 years of age (like my husband) have a one in three chance of being disabled for at least six months during the course of their careers. Six months is an incredibly long time to go without a salary (or with just a partial salary), so that’s not certainly not a risk I’m willing to take — especially since there’s a child involved here.

I’m going to devote the next few days to comparing disability insurance quotes and talking things over with Jerry to try to figure out what kind of policy would suit us best. The sooner we get this taken care of, the sooner I can enjoy some peace of mind while my husband is at work!

The most emailed story on Yahoo news this morning is about a 17-year-old New York girl named Arielle Newman who died after apparently using too much muscle cream. Muscle creams, of course, are products like Bengay or Icy Hot that you rub on your muscles after working out or playing sports. The creams are supposed to reduce soreness and generally aren’t considered dangerous at all.

The creams typically contain a substance known as methyl salicylate. This stuff works as an anti-inflammatory, which is the whole point of the creams. The article said that exercise, heat, and repeated use can increase absorption rates, which is likely what happened in this particular case.

Wow, I think this is a pretty weird case. When’s the last time an over-the-counter cream caused someone to die? Arielle died on April 3, but the story is just making national news today, which leads me to believe that the coroner’s office is relatively sure of the cause. Either way, my heart goes out to this girl’s family. What a horrible, freak occurrence this was.