Will prescription-strength ibuprofen have expired since it was prescribed in March 2008? [more inside]
posted by Countess Elena on Oct 26, 2009 - 7 answers

No matter how much ibuprofen, acetaminophen or naproxen I have, it does absolutely nothing for me. No matter how much coffee I drink, I'm just as sleepy as ever. What gives? [more inside]
posted by timory on Sep 16, 2009 - 26 answers

At what point is an adult fever too high? [more inside]
posted by dancinglamb on Jan 20, 2008 - 23 answers

Which PainKiller is best? Aspirin, Paracetamol or Ibuprofen? [more inside]
posted by complience on Dec 4, 2007 - 24 answers

Medical/pharm filter: Could use of NSAIDs end up looking like Crohn's or IBD? (Warning: contains potentially gross descriptions of Crohn's.) [more inside]
posted by anonymous on Sep 23, 2007 - 6 answers

IANAMDFilter: My wife is in her 25th week of pregnancy and has developed costal chondritis -- that is, her last rib on the righthand side is being displaced a little bit by her uterus, making it inflamed, swollen and very tender. It was recommended to her by an OB doctor at her clinic that she take 600mg of ibuprofen (an anti-inflammatory) every six hours for a few days, and to repeat this if the pain returned. Wanting a second opinion, another doctor at the same clinic said this would be OK for a few weeks, but that during the third trimester, ibuprofen should not be taken because it contains prostoglandin, and during the third trimester, the baby is sufficiently developed to react to the increased prostoglandin levels, which can cause one of its heart valves to shut prematurely, resulting in, well, unpleasantness. Specifically, the second doctor said that the baby was sufficiently developed to have this reaction by week 32, and recommended taking ibuprofen no later than week 28. But my wife is a nurse from a family of nurses, and still thinks that taking a course of ibuprofen even at this stage is too much of a risk because, apparently, not a lot of research has been done with fetuses and ibuprofen. So, rather than medical advice, I'd like to ask: Does anyone have any resources they'd like to recommend that we consult? The pain is intense enough to make tasks like traveling by car or picking up our 19-month-old pretty unpleasant, so we'd like to be able to take something (besides percocet) to make things more bearable, but there's something ominous-sounding about a prematurely closed heart valve. Any pointers?
posted by blueshammer on Jun 16, 2004 - 14 answers