Big Shot Yogurt
Jul. 1st, 2009 07:20 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koganbot--Yogurt: Had a yogurt n ice cream cone today at the new ice cream parlor on Broadway. The parlor actually had two vegan flavors among their choices, but the spirit of exploration was not upon me and I ordered neither. In fact, I ordered vanilla ice cream, single scoop on a sugar cone. The peach marble - or was it peach melba? - looked interesting. I may order it next time, especially if it is melba. However, since I visit an ice cream parlor only once every three years on average, someone will have to remind me.
--Mr. Big Shot: Doctor gave me a shot today, combined a numbing agent and a steroid. He described the numbing agent as like Novocaine for the shoulder. I felt much better instantly, most likely owing to the numbing agent, though I hope the steroid is busily doing its steroidal work as well. When I left the building I was able to walk at three quarters my normal brisk pace, rather than the half I'd been reduced to. Surprisingly, walking can be one of the most painful things I do, walking being something that naturally jostles the shoulder.
Doctor also told me today that the x-ray showed bone slivers in my shoulder, and though they may have been created in the last couple of weeks, he suspects that they've been there for years; finally, because of some event or trauma to the shoulder, the slivers inflamed themasses tendons, causing the sudden uproar in my shoulder and arm. So I was probably wrong in believing that my novel method of applying sunscreen was at the root of this internal melee. The doctor also decided not to bother with an MRI until he sees me again in six weeks. He said that even if it turns out that the shoulder needs to be operated on, the operation can't happen until I get all my motion back. Otherwise the operation will lock in the current lack of movement, and the arm will be useless for the rest of my life. "So you've got a hard road of physical therapy ahead," he told me. I make my appointment for my first therapy session in a couple of days.
--I'm At The Hydrocodone, I'm At The Acetaminophen, I'm At The Combination Hydrocodone And Acetaminophen: So for the first time in my life I'm prescribed a narcotic, and four days later an FDA advisory panel recommends that it be banned! Actually the narcotic isn't what's causing the danger (might be causing other dangers, but not this one), but the anti-inflammatory drug it's paired with in Vicodin. Reading all the stories today, I've concluded that the amount of acetaminophen I get from one Vicodin a day (500 mg) isn't a risk (it's one eighth the current daily maximum, one-sixth what's likely to be the next recommended maximum). The danger is for people who take more than one Vicodin a day and also end up getting a shitload more acetaminophen in various over-the-counter medicines as well as getting their liver bombed by alcohol regularly. Even if I were to keep drinking for the twenty days I'm on it, I won't be doing damage, since I rarely have more than one drink a day. (Three is the danger level when combining with acetaminophen.) That said, since I'm also taking high-dosage ibuprofen, I'll just not drink as long as I'm on two prescription anti-inflammatories/painkillers.
(Would have been nice, though, if the doctor who prescribed this to me four days ago had spent a couple of minutes explaining such stuff; maybe she was relying on my statement of not being on other medication, but she shouldn't have assumed that I knew better than, e.g., to take over-the-counter medicines with acetaminophen in it at the same time I was taking Vicodin. How would I have known, especially since I had no clue what was in Vicodin until on my own I decided to read up on it this weekend?)
--The High Life: Speaking of ibuprofen, in a recent strip search case (the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a high school had erred in forcing a girl to endure a strip search, deciding that the school really had no good reason to search; another girl had accused the first of carrying a prescription drug that was not her own, and the Court decded that this accusation was not enough to override the girl's privacy rights), the drug in question was prescription-strength ibuprofen. Putting aside the legal issues, why in the world would ibuprofen be a drug of abuse? It's an anti-inflammatory, like aspirin, and you can get it in smaller doses over the counter. Is there a way to get high on it? I mean, I realize that students will assume that anything they should't have on them must be fun, but ibuprofen?
--Mr. Big Shot: Doctor gave me a shot today, combined a numbing agent and a steroid. He described the numbing agent as like Novocaine for the shoulder. I felt much better instantly, most likely owing to the numbing agent, though I hope the steroid is busily doing its steroidal work as well. When I left the building I was able to walk at three quarters my normal brisk pace, rather than the half I'd been reduced to. Surprisingly, walking can be one of the most painful things I do, walking being something that naturally jostles the shoulder.
Doctor also told me today that the x-ray showed bone slivers in my shoulder, and though they may have been created in the last couple of weeks, he suspects that they've been there for years; finally, because of some event or trauma to the shoulder, the slivers inflamed the
--I'm At The Hydrocodone, I'm At The Acetaminophen, I'm At The Combination Hydrocodone And Acetaminophen: So for the first time in my life I'm prescribed a narcotic, and four days later an FDA advisory panel recommends that it be banned! Actually the narcotic isn't what's causing the danger (might be causing other dangers, but not this one), but the anti-inflammatory drug it's paired with in Vicodin. Reading all the stories today, I've concluded that the amount of acetaminophen I get from one Vicodin a day (500 mg) isn't a risk (it's one eighth the current daily maximum, one-sixth what's likely to be the next recommended maximum). The danger is for people who take more than one Vicodin a day and also end up getting a shitload more acetaminophen in various over-the-counter medicines as well as getting their liver bombed by alcohol regularly. Even if I were to keep drinking for the twenty days I'm on it, I won't be doing damage, since I rarely have more than one drink a day. (Three is the danger level when combining with acetaminophen.) That said, since I'm also taking high-dosage ibuprofen, I'll just not drink as long as I'm on two prescription anti-inflammatories/painkillers.
(Would have been nice, though, if the doctor who prescribed this to me four days ago had spent a couple of minutes explaining such stuff; maybe she was relying on my statement of not being on other medication, but she shouldn't have assumed that I knew better than, e.g., to take over-the-counter medicines with acetaminophen in it at the same time I was taking Vicodin. How would I have known, especially since I had no clue what was in Vicodin until on my own I decided to read up on it this weekend?)
--The High Life: Speaking of ibuprofen, in a recent strip search case (the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a high school had erred in forcing a girl to endure a strip search, deciding that the school really had no good reason to search; another girl had accused the first of carrying a prescription drug that was not her own, and the Court decded that this accusation was not enough to override the girl's privacy rights), the drug in question was prescription-strength ibuprofen. Putting aside the legal issues, why in the world would ibuprofen be a drug of abuse? It's an anti-inflammatory, like aspirin, and you can get it in smaller doses over the counter. Is there a way to get high on it? I mean, I realize that students will assume that anything they should't have on them must be fun, but ibuprofen?
