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[eetmewithtoast]

I am still ill. My current state of health does not do anything to reverse my previous dim view of Western Medecine.

I am no longer ill with the throat virus that knocked me on my ass last week. No, the horse-pills of Amoxicillin thoroughly quelled that within a few days. I just kept bitching about it because I'm not used to feeling sick for

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[en_ki]

If I weren't antisocial toward everyone right now, I would probably offer to read you a story anyway. Since I am, I will talk only about practical matters:

If you had a throat virus, a drug was the wrong thing to give you and the best you could have done would have been a nice placebo or random untested treatment that would (at worst) make you imagine you were getting better faster. If the doctor gave you amoxicillin, though, you had a bacterial infection, which would have had a fair chance of killing you if you had not taken antibiotics: strep throat, for example, has a tendency to spread to your bones, heart, lungs, and so on, giving it an untreated mortality rate of 30% (and perhaps suggesting to you why the average lifespan was something like half as long a hundred years ago). The right answer next time is a probably a drug that does not end in -cillin; a fair amount of people, including me, are allergic to that family of drugs. "Eastern medicine" will do approximately jack shit in the case of emergent bacterial infection (except to the extent that it includes precursors to "Western medicine"), which is why you will find that people in China go to hospitals and take antibiotics same as you do.

But pretty much any antibiotic is going to give you the shits, and you should probably have some nice, holistic yogurt or suck some holistic breast milk to replenish your intestinal flora. You had an acute problem, which modern medicine is great at solving (though it may cause other problems in the process) and ancient "medicine" has always been terrible at solving; non-acute things modern medicine mostly doesn't care about, so it makes more sense to solve the problem in magical/intuitive/whatever makes sense sort of ways.

Oh, yeah, and you mentioned earlier that you were breaking up the pills. For future reference, Don't Do That without asking your doctor first: it makes antibiotics work less well, increasing your chance of catching/spreading resistant diseases.

"Steroids" is a term relating to the shape of the molecules, which is such that they penetrate your cells very easily. "Anabolic steroids" are the ones that bulk you up, make you hairy, shrink your balls, and lower your voice. "Corticosteroids", like hydrocortisone, mostly just reduce inflamation (and consequently itching).

[eetmewithtoast]

If I weren't antisocial toward everyone right now, I would probably offer to read you a story anyway.

Aw, thanks! I'm feeling much better today (ate stuff last night), but when I read my books I'll try to make my internal "reading voice" change to yours now and again. :)

you had a bacterial infection, which would have had a fair chance of killing you if you had not taken antibiotics:

It wasn't strep, but I guess it must've been some other bacterial infection. Not Dying is alright, I guess. I'm still not altogether pleased.

and you mentioned earlier that you were breaking up the pills. For future reference, Don't Do That without asking your doctor first: it makes antibiotics work less well, increasing your chance of catching/spreading resistant diseases.

That's unbelievable. Why would they make them easy to break (there was a line down the middle, so they broke neatly in two) if it's Bad to break them? They're just going to have to give me a liquid form of antibiotics from now on, I guess. I coughed, spluttered, and nearly-choked on those half-pills, especially when my throat was still swollen. I still haven't gotten the hang of taking small pills for my migraines, much less larger ones.

"Corticosteroids", like hydrocortisone, mostly just reduce inflamation (and consequently itching).

OK, got a question for you, then. I just took my last pill in a six-day course of methylprednisolone tablets, USP (whatever that means). When can I get thoroughly intoxicated? I've wanted to consume alcohol every day for the last two weeks. Can I drink tonight? Should I wait for tomorrow night? I've looked everywhere for mentions of mixing this steroid and alcohol, but it doesn't say.

Speaking of drinking, I have an extra free pass to the Pimp and Ho Ball at Club Hell tonight. Do you wanna go? Sounds like aeshnor is sick, so I guess you're the only person I know who doesn't already have a free pass.

I can also meet you for crepes or tea tonight, if you're available.

[en_ki]

If I had to guess, I would say that you could get away with breaking them if you don't take them both at once, but rather take the second half halfway between the first half and the next dose; but ask your doctor next time it comes up. The problem is that breaking them causes them to have significantly more surface area, which makes them dissolve faster, which makes more of the drug hit at once-so it doesn't last as long, so the bacteria get a chance to grow back before your next dose kills them again.

Regarding alcohol: RTFM that came with the pills. Alcohol with antibiotics is bad because it hinders the antibiotics. If something isn't safe to have with alcohol, it will say so.

I think I will get in around 8. I could hang out then if that works for you. Crepes would be good, but I shouldn't stay out all night.

[eetmewithtoast]

Not sure if this comment will show twice, but:

8 sounds fine. Gimme a call from the train or shortly after your arrival.