I want my pseudoephedrine, damn it!
(Just ignore the coughing and hacking and assorted other cold-like noises in the background, will you?)
So I’ve got the first cold of the season. As a result, I’m trying out the various and sundry OTC ‘ephedrine-free!’ formulas now on the market. Nyquil? A mere shadow of its former self. Tylenol multi-symptom cold tablets? Well, it doesn’t relieve the congestion. Which means it can’t really relieve the cough, or the sinus headache now, can it? So the number of symptoms actually ‘relieved’ = a big fat Zero.
I can tell you that Airborne has some spiffy new flavors (including a hot apple cider nighttime version, now on sale this week at Walgreen’s.) But I can’t seem to find anything to clear up a stuffy nose any more. Unless I cough up money for an office visit and get a prescription. Or drive over to Vancouver.
Right now? I’m sorely tempted to grab a car and do just that…
You see, kids? It starts with excessive condiment use, and you think ‘hey, that isn’t doing anybody any harm’.
Then the next thing you know, you’re crossing state lines to purchase controlled substances.
It’s sad, really.
i’m in AZ. do i need to visit walgreens for my fellow blogger?
No need, dieselboi…Mister Fishbones works in The Couv. Worst case scenario I get him to stop on the way home one night-he does it for me on a regular basis!
I would also like to point out the recent ads on TV for Claritin talking about how they didn’t change their formula at all, it’s just available behind the counter now. Good for them! Except for here…
Ok, I am the last person in the world to pick up on new-age hippie crap (especially when it regards my health), but my Kaiser physician (back when I, you know, had health insurance) recommended a neti pot to help with stuffy sinuses related to colds and allergies. I upgraded to the squeeze bottle kind a while back, and while I still get sick (like I am right now), colds don’t last half as long and I’m not turned into a mouthbreather.
I had links. They ran away. The squeeze bottle is http://www.neilmed.com/ and the neti pot is http://www.netipot.org/
Daily hypertonic saline irrigation is the nicest thing you can do for your sinuses. It’s also the best way short of antibiotics to treat a sinus infection. But when you tell people you do it, they look at you funny….
How very funny – I *just* got back from Walgreen’s, where I purchased a Neilmed squeeze bottle. Before I read any of these comments, no less!
I used to use a neti pot, but have a deformed head – proven by a wondrous sinus cat scan – so it doesn’t work so well for me.
But I’m still going to lament the unavailability of my Aleve Cold and Sinus pills, though, if you don’t mind…
Girl, under the definitions of controlled substances, it doesn’t even qualify. A new federal law goes into effect on Saturday. I’m on a mission….I just posted a big ole rant on my own blog. Do you not buy it because you have to fill out enough paper work as a loan app, or what? I can still buy it, I just can’t buy it conveniently.