I gathered all of the medicine that I had just spilled into the sink. After I had rinsed all of the pills and put them on a clean cardboard box to dry - now powdery white without their shiny coating, but hopefully with all of their original milligrams of active ingredient - I realized that in the split second before I scooped them out of the sink, I had not been concerned about the cost of replacing the pills, but about the dispair-free day I could have lost for every ruined pill.
See also The Other Side on Dr. Andy Roark's website.