i will forget the sun behind the ymca

[hummingwolf]

As the day
with us who are stoutly fighting
with the shades at landing time,
the chastening stripes must cleanse them all;
and the sungod blotted out the sun;
and his ears hear nought of the cities of men with mortal sins, angels never cry

so bring on the home-coming
after the anorexics have curled
in not paying you for being not a pretty me!
i feel closer to your life.

--MegaHAL

There's a story in there somewhere. Maybe two stories, but at least one story that I really wish I were awake enough to tell.

Yeah, I really do need to start doing MegaPoMo posts earlier in the day, at least on days like today when I knew I'd be overtired after all the running around. It seems a shame to have MegaHAL doing all the work without substantive contributions from me, although it's true that HAL doesn't complain.

On an entirely different note, I loved tonight's House episode. Road trip!

Coughing now. Sleep in a moment. Talk to y'all tomorrow.

Comments

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

Aha. You need Mucinex, or some other guaifenesin-only product, in concert with plenty of water.

Interestingly, there's a putative fibromyalgia treatment out there that includes massive doses of the the same drug (as well as complete 100% avoidance of salicylic acid in all forms). Seems a weird connection to make, but I imagine there's some relatively sound science behind it somewhere.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

What I've been taking is some OTC stuff with guaifenesin, decongestant, and some cough suppressant that doesn't do a thing to suppress my coughs. Also, plenty of tea, since tea seems to make my lungs feel better (not sure if that's due to theophylline or just the moist heat, but I'll take advantage of it anyway).

Yeah, I've heard the guai protocol. The earliest versions of it didn't involve salicylate-avoidance; that bit was added as an attempt to explain why just guai by itself failed to help many people. The theory is that the guaifenesin helps the body to eliminate phosphate buildup (and the salicylates make the guai less efficient or something). As far as I know, the only completed clinical trial of theh protocol had inconclusive results. I've toyed with the idea of trying the protocol anyway, but it's not something I can do too easily while trying to eat a healthful diet on a food stamp budget.

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

The xanthines in the tea are going to act as vasodilators, and the steam is going to help too. Double whammy.

As to combining guai with other meds, I'm sincerely on the fence. It depends on the nature of the decongestant, and on the cough suppressant. I take it they're phenylephrine and dextromethorphan, though? PE seems to have a greater variety of effectiveness than pseudephedrine; maybe you're one of the unlucky ones.

DXM mainly comes as hydrochloride or polystirex, though the hydrocitrate form is faster-acting and easier to digest. The polystirex form is the "12-hour" or "24-hour" version, and IMO is not worth a dry fart. DXM is fairly sensitive to bodyweight, as well as to your CYP2D6 liver enzyme. As I recall, you're fairly slim, though, so bodyweight shouldn't be an issue.

There may be chance that your 2D6 might be abnormal. You're neither Middle Eastern nor North African, so you're not a risk group for overactive 2D6, which would be the most obvious cause of DXM underaction. It's a mystery, at least to me. Do you have small_chicken friended? I notice you've interacted in the past, and she's a whizz at this whole cellular biochem stuff.

[hummingwolf.livejournal.com]

You got the combining meds right--PE and DXM HBr. I think the PE does help decongest me a little, which is something I want right now. DXM has never seemed to do me any good at all, which is just as well since I'm not yet trying to suppress my coughs and I couldn't find any cough syrup with decongestant that didn't have cough suppressant too. Of course I could've bought decongestant separately, but guai + additions sells for the same price as plain guai syrup, and lack of money still is an issue.

Nope, as far as I know, small_chicken and I only know each other from comments in your journal.

[darth-spacey.livejournal.com]

D'OH!

Not hydrochloride. Hydrobromide.

Me stoopie.