Keeping the drugs

One of my various conditions that tends to slow me down and put a brake on the headlong rush that is usually me is hayfever ...

It doesn't hit me in the breathing too much nowadays but what it does do is make my eyes water. Endlessly. It starts at the rubbing of the sleep out of the eyes in the morning and escalates as I poke 'em. Most days, I can handle it and get it under control again using a cloth to dab 'em. Some days though, I have to resort to drugs because the constant watering turns my mindset towards one usually associated with causing watering eyes ...

I'm not one for taking drugs to sort a problem, most of the drugs out there seem to be some sort of mask to cover up the real issue. Like painkillers to get people moving again, even though moving would cause more damage to the injured limb. Anti-biotics for something that will cure naturally in time - that's one of the vectors for MRSA getting a foothold. Stimulants for getting a little more kick out of a too tired body.

I'll go the stimulant route, even to joking about the Pepsi Max and Crunchie combo that's almost guaranteed to give me a short term energy boost. That's no endorsement of those two by the way, as the boost from Crunchies will come from nasty E number yellow colouring and I bet the Pepsi Max effect is just placebo. Every drug has a side effect though, which is why I tend to try and avoid taking them. Like the combo above that gives a short term energy boost which is balanced by a longer term crash.

I'm in the throes of hayfever drug side effects at the moment. The brand name one is what I've had stored in a cupboard at work for a while, it's in date but I've made the link between that and the side effects ... Which are :

Depression. Tiredness. Joint pain (well - aches, shoulder hasn't stuck it's hand up yet). Lack of appetite. Feeling of worthlessness. Lack of motivation (depression?). Clouded thinking. Inability to focus. Tingling limbs (could be the way I'm sitting right now !)

But I haven't had to wipe my eyes since I took that pill this lunchtime. So a result in one way - but sometimes I'd just rather have the symptom instead of the side effect.

It's funny in a way, because I used to jokingly refer to the hayfever drugs as performance enhancing for the cricket. I'd take one at about 4pm, so it would take full effect before cricket starting at 6pm. I could breathe all right - but when I went to run, I'd wonder why there was absolutely nothing in the tank. I'd pull the trigger on the sprinting muscles but there would be absolutely nothing there to fuel the engine.

Ok - that's been a fair bit of outpouring about a problem I'd rather not acknowledge too much - lesson time : If you take a drug, whether it be prescription, off the supermarket shelf, from the bar or acquired any other way, make sure you can know the full effect it may be having. So that's :

Not running like a loony now that leg pain has been dampened by the painkiller.
Is that hayfever tablet having side effects ?
Don't drink & drive ...
Will that narcotic fry your brain.
Is that coffee masking a body that needs a good feeding ?

We take drugs of all forms for a multitude of reasons and pretty much all of those reasons are good ones. (Can't understand narcotics users there) But what we should be doing is keeping a level headed monitor on all of the effects of that drug. Not to be a hypochondriac but to try and catch the bad effects before they become crippling.

I probably could walk into the Doctor's surgery tomorrow (well - tomorrow being on an arranged appointment time) and walk out with a prescription for painkillers for my various joint issues but I know that the painkillers would only be masking the real damage. Plus any drug has a side effect. I think I kinda prefer the occasional mopping up of the eyes to the lack of energy and associated depression that comes out of that particular hay fever tablet ! And besides, I like the occasional milkshake for more reasons than it getting calcium in to shore up my shins.

Right - tablet got taken at 12noon today, it's a 24 hour tablet, so that means about 14 hours to go before it starts getting out of my system. All I want to do right now is sleep but I have the inner sense in me warring at that to try and keep me sparky. I did have about half an hour sleepytime when I got home though, before rousing to check out the commotion of the shop people who park in front of the house leaving to go home. I doubt whether I'll be interested in opening a game up tonight but I should be able to make more of a dent in Arthur C Clarke's 3001.

PS Not giving the name of the hayfever tablet I'm having trouble with cos everyone's different. As one drug affects me, other's will be fine with it.