HUZZAH! Banned from Rentech.com!

[laeshanin]

You could try Sudafed (pseudoephedrine). Not if you have any heart ailments, though, as it does increase heart rate, just like its cousin ephedrine.

Sudofed has no effect on me at all...unlike some kids I've seen after a couple of 5mls! Mind you, is it the psuedoephidrine or all that sucrose and colouring doing the job? Maybe in conjunction the three are just simply potent.

Oh ok. See, I didn't know that. Very educational!

Heh... Nice to know I can make a difference. 

[Hairfish]

Caffeine is life.

Hey, you'll get no argument from me about that! But it is a drug. I used to take 5mg. of Dexedrine twice a day for ADD, but have since found a few cups of drip dark-roast equally effective, and it doesn't require a triplicate prescription and registration with the DEA. I go through a lot of non-dairy creamer, though. And toilet paper.

And Poise pads.

Eventually I'll have to start receiving it from a neck tube like those StarTrek alien soldiers do.

I've found that one potholder-sized caffeine patch on each ass-cheek works nicely. Especially if they're the quilted kind.

[laeshanin]

lol... 

[Hairfish]

Sudofed has no effect on me at all...

Clears my sinuses, but that's about it. It's not a true stimulant, but a vasodilator, which I avoid. I hate ambulance rides. Some people do think it's mentally stimulating, but that's an illusion...unless they suffer from some restriction of blood flow to the brain, which is NOT the kind of thing that responds well to self-medication!  

[Shivani]

I've also noticed some of the drugs to help you sleep (prescription) can really change a person's personality for the worse as well.

It doesn't change the personality, only releases what was already lurking there.

Yes, and no.  I prefer to interpret that statement as the drugs persuading the superego to go tale a very long vacation.

[J. M. Pescado]

Hey, you'll get no argument from me about that! But it is a drug. I used to take 5mg. of Dexedrine twice a day for ADD, but have since found a few cups of drip dark-roast equally effective, and it doesn't require a triplicate prescription and registration with the DEA. I go through a lot of non-dairy creamer, though. And toilet paper.

And Poise pads.

My suggestion is to stop drinking so much water. That coffee crap is so watery. Did you know it's over 90% water? My blood has better caffeine than that. I could sell my blood as a caffeinated beverage of greater strength than your coffee. If I drank your coffee, I would pass out. Purified caffeine is the way to go. Less water (okay, no water), more caffeine!

[laeshanin]

Hmmm, so all that stuff about water being necessary for life is junk? Or is it as we all suspect, and J.M. really is an alien sent to spy upon us?

Tell you what, though, he's damn right about caffeine and water being a bad mix. You would never get your arse off the bog if you had a system like his.

[Shivani]

On the other hand, all that water means you get up to stretch regularly and get the circulation going as you trundle toward the loo.

[laeshanin]

Not a bad point, medear, and one I shall keep in mind.

[J. M. Pescado]

On the other hand, all that water means you get up to stretch regularly and get the circulation going as you trundle toward the loo.

Unless you have an accident. Then at least you can practice the leg-shake.

[laeshanin]

And the walk... don't forget the "oh, jeez, I've pissed myself" walk with a soggy gusset.

[ZephyrZodiac]

 

I'd take dexies if I could get them legally, but amphetamines have been banned here since the 60's!

[laeshanin]

Damn government ruin all the fun!

A little bird told me that speed hangovers are quite awful, especially when you take into consideration that it's not just the whiz but the impact of about 18 pints and 40 fags as well. 

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, I was prescribed them when I was 19 for weight loss, and although I was prescribed 3 a day, I only ever took one.  I had so much energy, I couldn't believe it (I'd recently undergone surgery for hyperthyroid, which meant I'd spent most of my teenage year in a state of utter exhaustion rotating with spells of hyperactivity) and I was able to manage a part-time job while studying for my A levels.  I never got addicted, I lost the weight and stopped taking them, and when I heard they were banned I couldn't believe it!

In any case, if they banned every medication that someone abuses, then they'd have no medication left at all!  I suffer from arthritis, and some days it's quite bad, but since I can't take aspirin or ibuprofen because of a stomach problem, I'm left with paracetomol or paracodeine.  The high-dose Co-Proxamol which is about the only thing that has any effect has now been taken off the market, and paracodeine make me depressed!  So now I mainly just put up with the aches and pains.

[laeshanin]

Arthritis is a bitch. It's rife in my family, so I'm looking forward to the day when I can't move. I already think that I'm getting twinges in my ankles.

Have you tried anything from alternative sources? I have read that a sulpher compound "MSM" has had some positive results relieving pain which is backed up by some research. I have to admit that I don't know what size the group was that was tested, but hopefully it was decently designed experiment with proper controls.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Well, the best thing I've found is acupuncture, but I just can't afford it on a regular (weekly) basis, which is what I think I'd need.  But I know it works, and it's also been discovered why it works!

[Danni]

Tramadol is fantastic... especially the highs Got a few left from when I had gallstones (they didn't do much for the pain, but it meant I wasn't in A+E every day... just twice a week ) They make me feel like life is actually worth living

[laeshanin]

Ugh, gallstones... Had those and they were the worst pain I've ever had to endure. I had dihydocodeine, which is a lovely, spacey drug that sends you off into la-la-land. Unfortunately, when I had mine out they didn't use keyhole surgery and even now I look like the surgeons used a wood chisel and hammer to get in there and do the removal. 

Z.Z. - acupuncture is good, no doubt about that. I know that some G.P.'s refer their patients and it can be available on the NHS in some areas. I take it you don't live in one of those though?

[Danni]

Completely agree with you on the pain... and it seems my GP likes Tramadol, as two family members (with the same GP) also got it

Dihydrocodeine never did anything for me in the past, but that might have been because I was on a low dose

[ZephyrZodiac]

Z.Z. - acupuncture is good, no doubt about that. I know that some G.P.'s refer their patients and it can be available on the NHS in some areas. I take it you don't live in one of those though?

I don't know, I've never actually asked my GP, but I just might do that.

I agree that dihydracodeine is good for pain.  After I had an operation a couple of months ago for a trapped nerve in my elbow, I was given them, and they definitely deaden the pain, but then I read the insert in the packet which warned against them if you have a thyroid problem (which I do) and it seemed to explain why when I take them I just want to sleep all the time.  I've still got a few Co-proxamols left, and I take them when the pain is really bad, but once they've gone it'll be ordinary paracetemol or nothing - and ordinary paracetemol are useless!  Oh well, no doubt they'll soon come up with a replacement.......

[Ness]

ordinary paracetamol...  bleh...

I'm another arthritis sufferer - I absolutely detest taking prednisone, on high doses it makes me high (can't stand feeling like that!), on low dosed it makes me cranky and aggressive...  I live on panadeine - a combination of paracetamol and codeine phosphate - I've got all the different brands sussed out and I know exactly how much codeine is in each!

the current drug of choice is mersyndol (tension headaches for over a month) - parecetamol, codeine phosphate and doxylamine succinate...  leaves me very happily dozy and actually ensures that I get a good night's sleep!  and it's available without a prescription - some days I worry that I could become seriously addicted to sedatives! 

Ness

[laeshanin]

Z.Z. - Dihydrocodeine sends you off anyway. It is an opiate and addictive. In fact, in this country it has only just been licensed for sale over the counter but I can't recall what it retails as. Might be worth checking with the quack about any counterindications with current meds you're taking and also if there are any real issues for folk with thyroidal probs.

My poor mum has to have paracetamol for her arthritis as she takes Warferin, but has a thyroid problem too. I believe she was on something stronger before the DVT set in so I'll ask and see if she remembers the name of the drugs.

[Kitiara]

Ugh, gallstones... Had those and they were the worst pain I've ever had to endure. I had dihydocodeine, which is a lovely, spacey drug that sends you off into la-la-land. Unfortunately, when I had mine out they didn't use keyhole surgery and even now I look like the surgeons used a wood chisel and hammer to get in there and do the removal. 

Z.Z. - acupuncture is good, no doubt about that. I know that some G.P.'s refer their patients and it can be available on the NHS in some areas. I take it you don't live in one of those though?

Had gallstones too, in fact they are probably still lurking about. When diagnosed I was about 6 weeks pregnant (3 1/2  years ago). I had to have dietary treatment only. Since then, nothing else has been done. I have no insurance (can't afford it) but can't get gov't insurance (apparently we make too much for medicaid, though I don't see how). I still sometimes have bouts of extreme pain and nausea. When they come about I take a few tylenol and a couple of OTC sleeping pills and hope that when I wake up the pain will have reduced to tolerable. Most of the time it does.

[ZephyrZodiac]

Z.Z. - Dihydrocodeine sends you off anyway. It is an opiate and addictive. In fact, in this country it has only just been licensed for sale over the counter but I can't recall what it retails as. Might be worth checking with the quack about any counterindications with current meds you're taking and also if there are any real issues for folk with thyroidal probs.

My poor mum has to have paracetamol for her arthritis as she takes Warferin, but has a thyroid problem too. I believe she was on something stronger before the DVT set in so I'll ask and see if she remembers the name of the drugs.

Thanks laeshanin, I know that codeine is an opiate - back in the 60's it was banned because kids were putting it in Coca Cola (I think) and for a long time I don't think you could get it on presecripton either.  I think they've had to allow it back becaue of the issues with Aspirin and Ibuprofen, and also the higher doses of paracetomol (which I understand is why Co-proxamol is not longer available) and quite frankly why people who really need a powerful pain-killer should be unable to get it because of people who don't bother to read the instructionson the packet is beyond me!

Again, Anti-inflammatories like Voltarol Retard work wonders for me, but my doctors will only prescribe them in short bursts, not all the time, because they too have issues for people with stomach problems!

Half the problem anyway is that my GP's don't really believe I have arthritis, they say aches and pains are common with people with thyroid problems and don't mean anything!  In fact, the hospital x-rayed my neck when they were trying to find out what was wrong with my hand, and found arthritis there - and that is one of the places I get a lot of pain!  But what can you expect from GP's who, when you visit them because you feel ill, inform you that you are depressed!  It's the easy way out, she's a woman, she's in a stressful job (which I was) therefore she's depressed! And once they've made their wonderful, insightful diagnosis, they can't be shifted from it!  Every time I go, I'm asked to try some new anti-depressant as if I'm some kind of guinea-pig - they don't even know how much harm anti-depressants actually do to thyroid patients!

[Danni]

Kitiara, you can actually sleep through a gallstone attack? Wow! Good for you!

I found lying in a bath as hot as I could tolerate helped a little with the pain, but there were a few times I went to A&E soaking wet because I'd tried to deal with it myself and failed. Tramadol is also an opiate, which is why it makes me feel high (oh, and I sometimes get visual hallucinations from it, but am that high I don't care... as for aural hallucinations, I get to live with them without medication... what fun!). Morphine was great, though it did send me straight to sleep.

I have a few 60mg (I think) codiene tablets, and was allowed to take them with two paracetamol after my gallstone op. Codiene also never did anything to me, but helped a little with the post-op pain.

Co-proxamol is being withdrawn because the combination of paracetamol and the other thingie that's in it is so dangerous in overdose, more so than paracetamol alone, and can be fatal if taken with alcohol. Paracetamol requires normally at least 30-32 tablets to be especially harmful (though it can cause liver damage from around 10) whereas co-proxamol is fatal with just 8-10. I've got to stop looking up toxicology sites