Cute, and uncute

[desperance]

Dozing this morning because I didn't want to get up, I dreamed that I was in a van parked by the zoo and I'd just acquired a new cat from a passer-by, and I was holding her in my arms wondering whether she was going to stay there all the way home - and then I woke up, to find Mac-the-cat entirely snuggled in my arms and fully intending to stay there. Aww.

Which he did, until I had to move because of pain. I have sprung my back somehow over the weekend - probably drunken folly - and everything is very ouchy, to the point where I am thinking of visiting my doctor. Granted, he will only say 'give it six months, Chaz' - but he might give me megapainkillers, which would be welcome just now, given that the ibuprofen I can buy legally ain't touching it. But it'll be a week before I can get an appointment, and by then it will likely have faded anyway, to the point where ibuprofen is all I need. We have been here before.

Comments

[ellen-kushner.livejournal.com]

REally? What's the dosage on British ibuprofen? My doc had me on 600 mg, which I filled by taking 3 x 200mg pills. But when I ran out in Japan, I learned their government regulates the stuff (??!) so that 2 pill = 145mg!! Argh. I didn't mind popping 8 pills at a time, but it was expensive.

Most of my U.S. friends with back pain beg Brits to smuggle them Aspirin w/Codeine, which we can't get here. Codeine = Muscle Relaxant - maybe it will help?

[desperance.livejournal.com]

We can buy up to 400mg pills without prescription. I tend to take ibuprofen for back pain for the anti-inflammatory effects - but I alternate with Co-Codamol, which is paracetamol and codeine, and my painkiller of choice. There's a more punchy version, Co-Dydramol, but that's prescription only. Which I might try to wheedle from my doctor, but he's an ibuprofen fan and might not approve of my mix-and-match approach. The alternative is to wheedle one of my doctor friends - which I can do, but really dislike because it always feels like an abuse of friendship. I don't even like asking for medical advice, tho' sometimes it's hard to resist.

[julesjones]

There was and I believe still is a low dose of a stronger opiate available without prescription in combination with paracetamol, though I fail to recollect the name now. I know of it because after having a (simple) wisdom tooth extraction a decade or so ago, I staggered into the pharmacy in search of non-aspirin painkillers, and the pharmacist took one look at me and said, "You're in luck, they've just taken this off prescription." Except the pain turned out to be the that odd pain you get from the process of the anaesthetic wearing off, and when it finished wearing off I didn't need painkillers at all. Normally I take ibuprofen with codeine or aspirin with codeine if I want something with poppy juice in it, so I never actually took any of the whatever-it-was before it hit its expiry date.