(no subject)

[sisabet]

Today - today is slightly sucky. I'm trying to think of ways to make it suck less and things to concentrate on, and it is a stretch, even for me.

As far as oral decongestants go - I'm stuck with pseudoephedrine, right? I mean - that is pretty much all we got, right?

Why haven't they invented more decongestants? Antihistamines we have by the truckload, you'd think there would be some new designer decongestant out there that my insurance wouldn't cover and would cost way too much for me to buy it, but at least I would know it existed.

And can I get any more lame? I bet I can.

Things are looking fairly serious for my friend who had the melanoma removed yesterday - she's in significant pain today from the surgery (huge massive incision) and there is concern about her lymph nodes now (apparently the lesion was much more aggressive and deep than they originally thought) so - dudes - just remember to keep doing skin checks and wearing sunscreen and not tan and I promise I will feel better about all of y'all.

I swear I have Deep Thoughts about Smallville (and look - Cappy made me a Saved!Smallville icon) and Clark and... stuff. Hang on and I'll dislodge it.

Meh - I tried but now I don't feel like really discussing anything so nevermind. I'll be entertaining later.

Comments

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry about your friend.

Sadly, yes, we are stuck with pseudoephedrine. I hate its side-effects so much I almost never take it. At extreme moments of distress I will use an inhaled decongestant like Afrin, but you have to be careful with those.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Well - I always assumed the only side effect I suffered from Sudafed was mild appetite suppression and to tell you the truth, I like that side effect anyway.

Of couse, I never associated my chronic (since childhood) insomnia with it either - until recently. And I *really* like going to sleep and staying asleep, I am becoming addicted to this. But I also like breathing and seeing and not feeling like I am choking.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Dude, that shit is *speed*. If you've been taking it regularly since childhood, it's no wonder you can't sleep!

You might try going to an allergist and getting a prescription for the hard stuff some of the non-psychoactive stuff they can offer. Or if what you really need is an antihistamine instead of a decongestant, you might try Claritin.

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

I thought I'd heard that with all the restrictions now in place on pseudoephedrine, the drug companies were looking to get replacements on the market relatively soon.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Wait - there are restrictions on Sudafed? Should I stockpile?

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

Locally, they are already carding people to buy cough syrup.

[lydiabell.livejournal.com]

Oh, man.

In Illinois, and Texas and I'm not sure where else, you can't buy more than two packages of Sudafed at a time, and stores have to lock up the higher-dose packages (like the 12-hour stuff).

This is because it's used to make crystal meth.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

How to make methamphetamine.

1) Buy a case of pseudoephedrine based cold tablets or diet pills.
2) Disolve in a solvent (gasoline, kerosene, or "charcoal lighter fluid" preferred)
3) Run through several coffee filters to get rid of sediment.
4) Depending on your recipie, use friendly and safe chemicals such as Hydro-Cloric Acid, Lye, Red Phosphorus, Lithium, or Anhydrous Ammonia to "snip" an OH group off of the pseudoephedrine molecule, turning it into a methamphetamine molecule. (In chemistry the act is known as a "reduction" and chemists can tell you that performing a reduction is typically neither easy nor safe.)
5) If lab does not blow up in face -- profit.

The end result is that in several states, you will not be sold more than one box/bottle of pseudoephedrine product at time, and you have to go to the pharmacist window to ask for it.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

That is wonderful news.

[batwrangler.livejournal.com]

Phenylephrine, pseudoephedrine, oxymetazoline, and previously phenylpropanolamine (now considered too high a stroke risk to use) seem to make up the available stable of decongestants. You have a lot more options with anti-histamines, but they're not the same.

[kadymae.livejournal.com]

You can try Dimetapp, which uses phenylpropanolamine as opposed to pseudoephedrin, but phenylpropanolamine is also a stimulant so it might screw with your sleep cycle, too. (But I think it clears the body faster. You'll want the 4 hour tabs. Enough to get you to sleep.)

The reason it's hard to find new decongestants that are safe is that decongestants work through constricting your blood vessels (which is why they raise blood pressure) and pretty much every chemical we know of that's a vasoconstrictor is also a stimulant. (For example, cocaine is a great vasoconstrictor and a cocaine solution is often used in surgeries to stop small bleeds.)

It's all chemestry.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I think I used phenylpropanolamine as a diet aid when I was a teenager.

Sudafed actually works really well for me with minimal side effects - except I really cannot seem to sleep on it. Maybe if I take it early in the day (pre 7am?).

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I think there is a new incentive these days to develop new decongestants. There has been some talk of banning the liquid form of Sudefed (or making it significantly more difficult to get) because it can be used to make methamphetamine.

I am wearing my sunscreen every day. I even shelled out for the fancy stuff with zinc. And I promise to ask about skin checks when I go to my other cancer-avoidance-related doctor's appointment next week.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

Ohh - I need to actually make the appointment for the other cancer-avoidance thingy soon. Unless you are talking about the other other avoidy thing and I really should possibly consider bringing that up with my GP - and now is possibly a good time to get a GP...

Man - getting older sucks. There is too much to remember.

[jackiekjono.livejournal.com]

I've already graduated from cancer-avoidance thingy #1 and am on to stage two cancer-avoidance thingy. The likelihood of actual cancer is still very low but, I'm at the point where they feel the need to reassure me constantly that I don't have cancer which just makes me more nervous.

[jebbypal]

Actually, you can also look at pseudophedrine/guafenisen mixes. Pseudophed is the decongestant of choice since it has less propensity to probs w/ stroke though it still does bad things to blood pressure. Guafensisen is an expectorant -- it helps to make the mucus and stuff so you can cough and get rid of it easier while the decongestant just makes it run. By combining them, you generally don't have to use quite as high a dose of pseudophed a lot of times.

You can also now buy (i forget what it's called---i think it mucinex or something like that) guafenisen by itself OTC...it's being marketed primarily to the high bp crowd as a way to treat colds and allergy related congestion. I haven't tried it, but heard people say they like it.

You body adjusts to the pseudophed eventually and the side effects go away after a while. I've always had bad allergies (including those I didn't know about) and had to take pseudofed/guaifensin mixes pretty much since I was 3 if I didn't want to have massive sinus infections ALL the time. Never really noticed too many side effects till this last time I stepped up the dosage due to having problems w/ work related environmental allergies and stuff. If you have to take for a week or more, the side effects should dissipate some.

And interestingly, decongestants are just hard to make due to the molecular mechanisms that they work by. The chemicals we have seem to be the ones that do it, and well...discovering new molecules isn't all that easy, let alone making them safe enough to consume.

Okay..those were the science facts of the day. Back to my experiments.

[sisabet.livejournal.com]

I've been on allergy medications since I was little. I've had chronic insomnia dating from this same time. I never connected the two until recently and it is like magic. I don't take Sudafed - I am able to fall asleep and stay asleep. I do take Sudafed and it is 4am and I am miserable and awake.

It is actually writing in this LJ that made me notice that my insomnia had a pattern that follows my allergies.

So while most of Sudafed's stimulant-like side effects do fade in time, like the appetite suppression is gone in two weeks with regular use - this does not appear to be one of them. Cause - I remember being nine years old and asking my grandmother "How do you fall asleep" cause I just assumed I didn't know how to do it. And this fits because I *always* took my allergy meds at night (and in the mornings in season) so I could keep, y'know - breathing.

[laurashapiro.livejournal.com]

Seriously, if it's just about breathing at night, try making 3pm your latest dose of Sudafed, and spraying your nose with Afrin (once in each nostril) about ten minutes before you lie down. The stuff lasts for 12 hours.

Beware, though, of the rebound effect: if you use Afrin more than 2 days in a row, your sinuses actually get *more* blocked up. In allergy season, I try to restrict my nasal spraying to twice a week.

Steam is also good for opening you up. Try a nice hot shower at night with your bathroom door/windows shut.

If you are willing to get your hippie freak on, there's always the neti pot (http://www.bytheplanet.com/Products/Yoga/neti/Netipot.htm). My sister swears by it; she used it during her last pregnancy (since you can't take drugs when you're pregnant).

[cheesygirl.livejournal.com]

I can't take pseudoephedrine after about 4 or 5 PM or I toss and turn all night. Luckily my sinuses usually act up in the morning when I first wake up and sometimes in the afternoon.

Drixoral

[revdorothyl.livejournal.com]

Whether it's a cold, flu, or allergies, NOTHING de-congests my head as well as Drixoral, and with as few side effects (the only noticeable side effect for me is that it dries me out so well that I tend to wake up in the morning with a dry mouth and a full bladder, if I take one at bedtime).

I know some people swear by pseudophedrine, and if that works for you, more power to you, but it doesn't do squat for me.

These days you have to look hard to find Drixoral in the drugstore cold medicine section, but it's worth it to me to be able to take 1 pill and be relatively unstuffed-up for the next 12 to 24 hours.

For whatever it's worth.