Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Poisoning Myself

I was reading the news online day before yesterday and discovered how many medications are actually very dangerous in combination with others. The only over- the-counter med I use is aspirin for occasional back pain and my leg aches and Vicks for my dried out tissues in my nose.

I got my bottle of Vicks and read the label. I discovered first of all, that it is good to combat nasal congestion. I knew that because I had used it for several years. Then I read further and discovered it is not to be used in the nose or mouth. It contains camphor which is a poison. I'm not exactly sure how it's supposed to help nasal congestion without putting it in the nasal passages except as my mom used to when she put it on my chest and then covered it with a flannel cloth.

But I have been poisoning myself for years by putting it in my nose at night. It eventually melts and rolls down the throat as I sleep.

Oh well....maybe I have been strengthening my immune system since I take no meds a this time of my life.

2 comments:

Linda said...

This reminds me of my episode this morning. Bob has a flare up of gout. I had him take some Naproxyn and then reported it to the hematologist's office, as I'm to report every thing no matter how small. In a minute the nurse called back to say the hematologist didn't want him taking anti-inflammatory drugs with his low platelet count. We have an appointment this afternoon with our family practice doctor to see if he'll prescribe something else. The hematologist does not like Bob being on Coumadin but the cardiologist won't agree to discontinue it. The more pills you take the worse it gets.

Remember when you could buy those Vicks inhaler things that were about the size of a chapstick? Perhaps you need one of those to whiff on to get the smell but not the actual Vicks salve.

Margie's Musings said...

Good idea. I wonder if they still make them?