Our family doctor left a voice mail this evening saying she’d looked at my x-rays and I don’t have pneumonia. She has old x-rays for a comparison and what looked like pneumonia at the Emergency Room appears to be scar tissue to her.
However I think I’ll stick with the antibiotic the ER doc gave me, thankyouverymuch. For one thing, my fever is receding. It’s such a relief not to feel hot and uncomfortable all the time.
For another, it may be this drug which is allowing me to sleep a lot. Same for the fB - we both keep having naps, numerous naps. You know - like they do in the Army? Soldiers sit down for any length of time, they sleep right there since they don’t know when they’ll get another chance. Of course, our war is just against the horrible organisms clogging our lungs. Nothing like what they’re suffering in Afghanistan, but for those of us in the trenches it feels similar. A kind of “what-am-I-doing-here?” disconnect.
Like soldiers would, you start to lose track of the days. Hard to believe that the fB has been slogging away for a month now, a lunar month anyway. I can figure this part out because he was to have started work Monday morning four weeks ago. He’s gone from his initial deep distress about letting them down and "what-if-they-give-my job-away" to being too sick to care. He’s not yet back to fretting; an obvious indication he’s not well enough to go anywhere soon.
Does anyone know if there is a difference in the actions of identical generic drugs?
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The reason I ask is that we got the narcotic cough medicine at a different pharmacy than usual and it’s made me quite itchy. It’s never done that before. I looked on the label but didn’t see a manufacturer so I thought perhaps this place, a big chain versus our usual small pharmacy (which isn’t open on Sunday night), might use a different brand of generic.
Oh, and the pharmacist had to give us pills to break in half because that’s the only kind he has left. He says there’s a shortage of most cough meds now, liquid and pills. He was apologizing to the Baron, but the B said we’re grateful there was anything in stock at all. I suppose as the season wears on spot shortages will occur here and there.
I’ve reached the point in this illness where I can smell something bad in the refrigerator but I’m not well enough yet to bother finding out what/where it is. Since it’s not going anywhere until I’m better - the B can’t smell anything - I’ll just wait till I have the energy to contemplate the science projects currently growing in the cold dark cave. Sickness can produce the strangest indifference and ennui.
I have developed a yen for an old childhood favorite, which the B thinks is gross: crunchy peanut butter-banana-and jelly sandwiches When I’m well, bread isn’t part of my diet but at the moment to heck with it. My 4 a.m. sandwich construction was going okay until it came to the jam. Darn jar wouldn’t open for anything so I used Sambucus elderberry cough syrup instead. Regular cough syrup is awful, but this Sambucus stuff is pretty good. Wish I had some ice cream for it.
Gosh, our readers are a patient bunch. Where else could we go and drone on about our illnesses?
9 comments:
Dymphna, poor you! I wish you all a speedy recovery.
I have also heard of sambucus (black elderberry extract) being helpful for colds and flus. I usually take water with drops of echinacea (sp?) or some mixture that contains echinacea, golden seal, and other anti-cold herbs, such as the "wellness formula," available in health-food stores. It does help me if I take it every hour during the first couple of days. The symptoms usually go down. Together with this, I take vitamin C and vitamin D. Especially vitamin D. They now know that it aids the immune system. Most people are low on it. I take at least 8000 IE plus a teaspoon or two of fish oil. And, finally, diet low in carbohydrates but high in animal fat (no vegetable fat) certainly helps. It has an overall strengthening effect and helps with a quick recovery. Good luck to all of you.
Dymphna,
That is because most of your readers care deeply for
you, Baron and the FB. Plus
many of us have
been where you all are at.
About the med ?'s:
I have never noticed any
difference between generic,
other generics and trade name
prescriptions. But that said,
some people swear they can feel
a big difference, often times
with the side effects that come
from all Rx's. As to the cough
medicine; different manufacturers
will use different flavorings,
artificial colorings and sometimes
the inactive ingredients used to
make these.Flavorings and dyes can
be very toxic to some people.
My Mother was one of them. So the
itching you experienced might have
been caused by the above.
I am no doctor but thought I would offer my 2 cents worth. Hope
all of you get better soon!
Dymphna,
As to your itching. Is it an intense itching with a rash or sort of a body wide light itching? If it is the latter it is probably a side effect of the narcotic. Heroin addicts and other opiate abusers often get something they call "The itchies". It is a weird but not too unpleasant experience.
Milk it for all it's worth you guys. Not a good way to spend quality time together.So get better faster and we all know how these bugs can linger on almost forever,like till Super Bowl time?
nudge,wink..
For a variety of reasons, mostly of patent and so on, pharmaceutical companies often do peculiar things with molecules such as reverse the axis of symmetry, or change the way a particular molecule folds. I am certain you have readers who understand and can explain this better than I, but in essence, subtle changes are done to drugs to either maintain a patent or renew it as a new product, or claim that a drug does not violate someone else's patent. As a result, various brands can indeed cause different reactions. I for example, get very unpleasant side effects from one generic renetidine (the #1 selling drug in the world) while I get none from a brand name renetidine, better known as Zantac etc. So yes the type of generic can make a large difference or none.
I agree with Vladtepesblog above about the way medications are compounded/fabricated around the world.
I hope all of you feel better soon. Since I haven't been reading lately due to a move and the after-effect logistics, I hadn't know you guys were ill. I doubly appreciate the time you take running the blog, answering questions & keeping up with the dratted thing in general.
Promise to get back to my usual reading here, and comment when I have something (that may not be marginally intelligent, compared to the usual quality found here) to add. All the best & speedy well-wishes your way.
healthy milk for our body fresh.
Off topic I know, but have you seen that Charles Johnson has officially parted ways with "The Right". I can t stop laughing at the absurdity of that statement. They say that laughter is the best medicine. Go over to LGF my dear Baron and Dymphna. For there lies your cure. : )
Are you kidding? The last thing the athsmatics need is something to induce coughing spells. That can hurt!
Speedy recovery to you folks, and since I didn't mention it on the previous threads, the posting of the transcripts is wonderful for having material ready for reference (though a little cleanup and attribution of speakers would make them even better).
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