Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with pills

Help me find a blanket that doesn't die in the dryer!

Thrillhouse — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:22:59 -0800

Why can't I find a soft blanket that doesn't fall apart in the dryer??? Several years ago I purchased a Woolrich blanket from Target for my bed. It's VERY VERY soft and washes beautifully. It wasn't expensive- maybe $50. The good people at Woolrich tell me that they just license their name to Target for the manufacture of these blankets but they're no longer available at Target.
Every attempt at buying a new soft blanket has resulted in unbelievable pills after drying. The last one we got a Kohl's left balls of fuzz in my dryer the size of my fist!
Every time we get a new one we follow the cleaning instructions and they still do this.

Please help me find a REALLY soft, warm blanket for my bed that will also launder properly without falling apart. I wish this Woolrich one was still available but I can't find it anywhere! Help!

Should I Eat This (Color Changing Vitamin)?

oneswellfoop — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 17:14:51 -0800

I have a vitamin tablet that changes appearance when in the same pill organizer with my other daily meds. Should I be concerned? I got a big jar of Kirkland Mature Multi Vitamins & Minerals (compare to Centrum Silver) from Costco recently and started tossing it in my morning pill organizer along with the antidepressant, Glyburide/Metformin and 3 heart/bloodpressure meds I'm supposed to take EVERY day. I have 2 weeks of organizers so I do it for 2 weeks at a time but by the time I get to the end of Week 1, the appearance of the vitamin tablet has changed from having tiny brown specks to having LARGE BROWN SPLOTCHES. The pills in the big jar are not changing at all, just those in the same compartment with other meds. Is this something I need to be concerned about? Is it reacting to one of the other pills? Is this affecting the chemical content of the vitamin? Could this be affecting the other meds (none of which have changed in any visible way)? I really don't want to bother with taking the vitamin separately, but should I?

Help me help myself take vitamins?

ersatzkat — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 18:15:10 -0800

I want to take vitamins/multivitamins, but I have a very difficult time swallowing large and/or uncoated pills. I'd like to add a multivitamin and perhaps some additonal stuff in the B family to my daily routine, but I have a wicked hard time swallowing pills. Anything larger than a Tylenol caplet, anything uncoated, anything odd shaped and I gag on it. I've tried taking pills with thicker liquids (think chocolate milk or tomato juice) and while it helps somewhat, it's not a sure thing. I would appreciate any advice about a) how to get over the "hard to swallow things" thing, and b) if you take a multivitamin that is smaller/smoother/whatever, can you tell me what kind it is? (You can't just open up bottles at the drugstore to check it out - *trust* me on this one.) Is there a liquid multivitamin that doesn't taste like butt, maybe?

Female, late 30s, generally healthy. Thanks for your help!

A spoonful of sugar doesn't work well with cats.

grapefruitmoon — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 08:01:53 -0800

Confuse-A-Cat-Filter: How to best trick a cat into swallowing a pill. Help, plz. So, we have this cat. Who has to swallow this pill. To pre-empt the "could you give her something that's not a pill?" inevitable derail: the pill is what needs to be given. Just how it is.

Now, how do we get the pill into the cat? We've tried burying it in wet food. We've tried crushing part of it and putting THAT into her food. No dice. Certainly trying to pop it into her mouth isn't working, especially since holding her down is like holding down an electric eel.

Someone must have at some point in time gotten a cat to swallow a pill. I would like their secrets.

How can I get my sister help for her addiction/depression?

Anonymous — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:15:07 -0800

My sister has an alcohol and/or prescription and/or depression problem. What can I do to help her, and in what order? Apologies for the long e-mail, but this is anonymous so I want to get as much of the story here as I can.

My sister was in town this weekend (from 250 miles away), and did some things that really alarmed us. She is a few years older than me, in her mid-30s, married with a boy and a girl who are 6 and 3. I see her a couple of times a year. My two girls are near in age and love to play with their cousins.

This weekend, my sister drank 2 bottles of wine each night by herself while everyone else (her husband, me, and my wife) had either soda pop or one beer each. She would get progressively more angry/aggressive (verbally) as the night went on, but was never in a rage. Just noticeably sharp-tongued and at the same time boasting about herself.

Then overnight last night things got really bad. Apparently, after everyone went to bed she woke up (or never went to sleep) and snuck downstairs. She either drank more (but we couldn't find anything she could have) or popped some pills (again, not sure what they were or could have been). She was up into the night posting incoherently on her blog and on Facebook. Then on her way back to our guestroom she fell on our stairs and bloodied up her face, and fell over into a door (this was at 5:30). When her family left this morning at 8:00, her husband had to literally pick her up off the floor, then support her as she stumbled down the stairs and out the door. He flopped her down into the car and they were gone.

Talking to my parents, this is at least the 3rd time something like this has happened recently. My sister appears to be in complete denial that there is any trouble, and for whatever reason I think her husband is not willing or able to address the issue proactively (or at least not initiate action himself).

My wife and I think she needs help, now. For herself, for her kids, for her husband, and for the rest of our family. Complicating factors are that she has been generally depressed for as long as I can remember, she has MS, and she is without a job (recently) and being chased by creditors (for a long time).

I don't know if we need an intervention or a direct talk with her. I don't know if we should talk to everyone and get them on board behind her back (which could infuriate her and set her off if someone tells her) or address her first (which could set her off into a denial/aggression cycle before all the pieces are in place to convince her to get help). I don't know whether insurance will pay for rehab. I don't know whether I can or should call her own therapist and express my concern/get his advice. I've never done this before but think that my family will look to me for leadership. I am concerned that she could hurt herself; she will surely be defensive/dismissive/angry when confronted. I love my sister and want to help her. She will not be happy that this is happening.

For those who have been through this: how did you do it? In what order? With the addict's knowledge or behind their back?

Thanks for any advice you can give. Throwaway e-mail is helpmehelpmysister@gmail.com

References to books in pill form?

Devoidoid — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 11:34:42 -0800

Desperately seeking references to books in pill form. Or liquid form. Or as a tasty spread. My memory and Google-fu have both grown weak with age. O mighty MeFi, can you give me the titles of any works in any form, books, articles, tv shows, comedy sketches, cartoons, whatever, that contain mentions of or references to books in pill form, or even any sort of acquisition of knowledge through physical ingestion?

help me sleep... PLEASE.

isoman2kx — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:35:06 -0800

Please help me sleep. Please :( This is going to be VERY VERY VERY long because my sleeping problems have a 2-3 year history. Any replies I get beyond zero I will be very appreciative of.

I've posted questions/threads this in the past but the past has spanned a while hasn't it? As the months have progressed, each time I post this I'm increasingly frustrated and saddened that I will never have a normal sleeping life to get through college and get my degree. I started having sleeping problems when I started college. To this day, I cannot recall anything particularly horrific happening to me to traumatize my sleeping patterns. 4 years ago I switched from high school to college. That's what a good percentage of Americans do right and? Right.

I have a history of depression and a history of anxiety. Both I would say are not severe. The depression is moderate to slightly above moderate most of the time. I take 120 mg of Cymbalta for it and have done so for almost a year. I have anxiety, I used to take Xanax 3 times a day at .5 mg a clip and now I take it all at night to see if it helps me sleep any since I can cope with the anxiety in the day better now.

My depression/anxiety stems from lack of self-esteem and energy from a lack of sleep. So far it's all making sense right? Ok, let's keep going then.

I've always had a hard time winding down for sleep since I can remember and definitely before I started college. I'm sensitive to light before going to bed and I spend way too much time on the computer before bed (even though I've incorporated at least an hour to 2 hour cool down period before bed now after turning off the computer). I currently see an ENT doctor and a psychiatrist (and a psychologist for talk therapy sessions just to kinda vent really, I never have any big updates to give lol) . My ENT doctor is outstanding while I feel my psychiatrist is useless and I'm strictly on a seeing her every 2 month just because that's what you do I guess when you have all this shit going on. My psychologist/campus counselor is outstanding as well.

Roughly a year ago, I went in for a sleep study because as you'll see later on in this master thesis, I've tried every medication known to man for falling asleep and staying asleep. After an awful night in those horrendous laboratories they call sleep clinics, they said they had enough data despite my whopping 240 minutes of sleep. I was later diagnosed with sleep apnea and frequent arousals with my brain wave patterns. My options were CPAP, throat and uvula surgery (noooooooooo way. nooooooo way in hell), mandibular retainer, treating restless leg syndrome and jumping off a building. We tried a CPAP machine and I just got increasingly frustrating with the thing. At first the mask wasn't right, I got a new mask. Then I just detested all the maintenance you had to do to keep the piece of crap that didn't help me sleep all clean and functional. Later on, the sleep clinic and I tried to treat me for restless leg syndrome. Needless to say that didn't do a damn thing. I was on mirapex, although I don't remember the dosage. I just remember increasing it and then quitting the stuff. After I went back to them after all of that, I wrote them off as idiots and politely never scheduled another appointment with them again. I'm done with them. Best sleep clinic in Houston??? We fix the problems other clinics miss? Oh really???

So that led me to my ENT that I currently see. After a few months of trying nasal sprays (prescription), afrin, and useless saline rinses I decided to have sinus surgery on June 22, 2009. For the medical students out there... I had a balloon sinusplasty done combined with correcting a deviated septum (which doesn't cause problems in most peoples sleep) along with a right turbinate reduction. The surgery sucked balls but now I can breathe better, just no improvement in sleep. Hooray! :) The sinus surgery was my part one out of a two part plan for fixing my sleep. My ENT informed me that he could definitely get me breathing better but the surgery would not be primarily to fix my sleep. If it did so then that would be great, but if not then that was what we had understood going into the surgery so no big whoop. I secretly hoped it would though and had the surgery more so for that reason than fixing my day-time breathing. My second part would be using a mandibular retainer after my sinuses fully heal up. I think at this point, my ENT and I are "entertaining" the idea of when it's all healed I'll have great sleep. At this point, if I got a mandibular retainer it would be through a doctor that my ENT knows and not the useless sleep clinic that I previously went to. I don't even know what good that would do?

Now let us back track to what goes on once I manage to get relatively sleepy. I always eat before I go to bed because I've gotten so frustrated with every other method and medicine I've tried, so that's my first step. I then go to sleep and proceed to wake up anywhere from 3-4 times like god damn clockwork (for the past 4-5 years at least). I've consulted with other friends and they wake up too, but they fall asleep quickly. I usually eat before I go back to bed because in my mind I'm tiring my body out by using energy to digest food and thus it will help me get back to sleep. I know, but it's my theory, valid or not, lol. At this point when I post, I'm always asked well what do you think about when you wake up? Are you short of breath? What is your mood? How do you feel?

Well, I'm almost always irritated because I immediately think "great, it starts again. let's see how many times I wake up this night". Despite my severe sleep apnea diagnosis, I never wake up in a panic or short of breath. My mood of course is frustrated and irritated and I feel the same. Surprisingly, this is the point where I say there is nothing traumatic going on in my life that's causing me to wake up in the night like this. I've got the usual responsibilites such as being the man of the house since my dad passed away last year (again, sleep problems existed long before he passed away and I've discussed this with others at length), going to school trying to finish my degree through being tired as hell, helping my mom with daily house chores, running whatever errands I do, getting a good amount of exercise per week, getting together with friends, etc. It's not like I'm waking up every night 3-4 times because there's some lingering issue. If it's buried deep in my subconscious then that's where it must be and someone needs to Harry Potter my brain and extract whatever haunting fear or memory that is buried there with a magic wand because it sure as hell isn't anything out of the ordinary I can think of.

So now we're done with describing this. Have you fallen asleep yet? :). Within the last 3 months, we've replaced my bed and I have a brand new tempurpedic mattress and tempurpedic pillows - both of which I happen to like. However, the new bed and new pillows are not helping my waking up 3-4 times a night any. It's more comfortable to sleep on, but it's not helping the issue I bought it for.

Ok, aside from that paragraph I've stopped taking sleeping pills. They just don't work. Here is a list of what I have taken and I have been on each of these medications for at least 2 week periods (which in my mind is more than enough to see a difference, I've never believed that crap about give it more time...give it more time. 2 weeks is enough god damn time).

list (most are official sleeping pills, some are not):

Ambien
Ambien CR
Lunesta
Restoril
Rozerem
Trazodone
Seroquel

regular things I've tried:

all the sleep time teas in the world
valerian root capsules
different herbal cocktails (like those bottles that have valerian root, chamomile, etc in their capsules)
different indian teas.
hot baths for at least 30 mins, about an hour before I go to bed.
hot baths with epsom salt (yeah, it doesn't help sleep specifically, whatever right?)
hot baths with different "sleep" salts and other sleep mixtures.

what I haven't tried:

overdosing on drugs and getting permanent sleep. I'm kidding about this as I've entertained the idea, but you get the point of my situation.

After all of that and I really am sorry I had to put you through reading it, but there's just no way to sufficiently describe my situation. I wake up 4-5 days out of the week wanting to kill someone upon waking up or wanting to punch holes in my wall (which I haven't done yet).

What do you guys recommend? I am seriously convinced that certain pathways in my brain are screwed up and that I should almost see a neurologist to see what else could be going on with me. At this point, what would you do? I have tried so many things... so so many things and for what? What has it done for me besides nothing? Who should I take my problems to? Who should I see for this? What battery of tests can help me?

- Travis

I took MDMA for the first time and have some questions

ascetic — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 11:48:49 -0800

I took MDMA aka ecstasy for the first time the other night. I was nervous about taking it, but now looking back, I don't regret it at all. I can easily say it was one of my best experiences. But... I would probably do it again, but I am afraid of damaging my brain. After all, I am only 20 years old and have a whole life ahead of me. I have a friend who goes to lots of jam band festivals and trips on psylocibin, LSD, and MDMA simultaneously. He is brilliant, and is very motivated and hard working. He says serotonin syndrome is BS and I don't have anything to worry about.

Is there any harm in doing it once every other month or so?

Where can I get my generic prescription pill analyzed for contents?

jnnla — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:31:02 -0800

Where can I get a prescription pill analyzed for chemical contents? I'm doing a little experiment. I recently ordered a generic version of my prescription drug from overseas for much, much cheaper...but I am a bit dubious as to the drugs actual contents. Currently there is no official generic of the brand name drug as it is still under patent - so for all I know I could be ingesting paint or dried toothpaste or whatever from India.

I would like to have one of my overseas generic pills tested against one of my brand-name pills to see if it indeed contains the same stuff, as advertised. If it does I would literally be saving hundreds and hundreds of dollars per year - so it is worth it to me.

Are there commercial labs that will run such tests? I am in Los Angeles. Could I take it to a med-student and have them run a mass spectrometer on it? Would that even be the tool used? Where can I pay to have the contents of a pill analyzed?

Bitter little pill

t0astie — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 21:01:13 -0800

I want to take birth control pills again. But in the past I've had lots of problems with the three different pills I've tried. I know you are not a doctor, or my doctor, and I will see my doctor. But your experiences with birth control might help me make my choice when I do see the doc. So please, tell me, have you ever taken a birth control pill WITHOUT loss of libido, mood swings, madness, weight gain and skin issues? If so, what pill did you take? Background
I've tried Diane-35, Triphasil and Marvelon at various times, all with devastating and completely unacceptable side effects. I stopped about nine years ago, after a particularly terrible six months on Marvelon. On all of them, I had mood swings, depression, weight gain, nausea, tearfulness and zero libido.

On Marvelon I felt possibly the worst I have ever felt in my life, ever.

I am not prepared to kiss my sex drive goodbye, be transformed into a raving unstable psycho, have my face covered in zits or stack on a stone to take the pill.

But. My period is agony, I am miserable and PMS-y for a fortnight each month, then exhausted and crampy and faint and sick for three days out of the seven I bleed for.

Have tried everything else I can think of to fix the period issues: acupuncture, lifestyle changes (exercise, cut down caffeine, increased whole foods, fruit, veggies, minimal processed food, a range of supplements including evening primrose); acupuncture; massage; anti-inflammatories; various prescription and non prescription painkillers. All of these have helped, but have not fixed the problem. Also, yes, I have been checked out, I don't have endometriosis, cysts, fibroids, or any other problem like that. At this point, it's so terrible and debilitating, the pill is finally starting to look like something I'd consider again.

When I go and see the doctor, I'm thinking of asking about new low-dose pills and giving those ago, maybe having my period six monthly, or quarterly.

I've read through a stack of birth control questions, and anecdotally, it looks like Tri-cyclen in all its forms cause depression and anxiety symptoms, as do Microgynon, Alesse, Loestrin and Desogen.

Yasmin, Yaz and low estrogen pills seem to show up in the ''it worked for me'' responses, with less mood swing madness. But they also seem to cause loss of libido. This is a deal breaker.

I looked at this table, but it doesn't cover loss of libido (a real deal breaker) and also lists Triphasil as good for s moodiness and depression. Which. No.

So: Does anyone have any recommendations for side-effect minimal birth control pills that might let me keep the lovin' feeling, stay a normal weight, and not go stark raving mad?

Yep, I know, in the end, it will just come down to me and my unique reaction. But your annecdata will help me decide what to try first.

I am NOT interested in: and IUD, a diaphragm, patches, nuva ring or implants.

Trying to decide if I should stay on birth-control pills or not.

CrazyLemonade — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 08:58:40 -0800

Trying to decide if I should stay on birth-control pills or not. Please help. I'm taking pills called Gynovin, composed of 20 mg ethinylestradiol and 75 mg gestoden. Some googling tells me those are very small amounts of hormones, which apparently "provides great acceptance in women and a high tolerance".

I started taking the pills about 8 months ago, two months before I got married. I don't think I've had any physical adverse effects except maybe feeling tired a lot, but that could be caused by other stuff. What makes me ask this question is that recently I've began to think that a lot of my emotional problems could be caused by the pills, but I'm not sure, as there's also been a lot going on in my life.

Some "symptoms":
-complete loss of libido, (which is funny, since we waited for sex until we got married, and I DID have a pretty fine libido before)
-I feel angry all the time, plus, I get very explosive
-I've been feeling "randomly" depressed sometimes during the last few months, watching tv for hours or feeling ignored and unappreciated

Things going on in my life right now:
-I'm a high school teacher with a lot of work (4 groups with a total of 118 students)
-I'm studying my master's degree online (almost all the work is done in teams)
-my husband are in the last stages of building a house, with lots of details to oversee and lots of people and suppliers to supervise
-generally adapting to married life (has been mostly easier than I thought)

So, sorry for all the info, but I really don't want to spend my first year of marriage angry all the time and having no fun with sex. It's no fair for me, OR my husband, who I really love, and has been getting most of the second-hand effects of my emotional craziness. Yet, I don't know if I should blame the pills or if I should just blame life. I've always been prone to feeling emotionally stressed and anxious, but the thing that makes me most unsure is the complete loss of any sexual desire (or enjoyment). I'm considering going off the pills and maybe using some of the natural methods, which mean a lot of work, but no hormones.

I know this isn't really a concrete questions, but I know there's a lot of Mefites out there with a lot more experience with birth contro. Help me figure this out, please.

Why does swallowing a pill feel so clumsy?

cowbellemoo — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 07:24:19 -0800

When I swallow pills with water, why do I frequently feel like the pills have gone out of my mouth and into the water's container? I don't have pill-taking anxiety or any fear that I'll choke, or even any worry that I'll have wasted or ruined the medicine. It's just a feeling that the pill has vanished one way off my tongue instead of another, but of course nothing so clumsy ever happens. A friend of mine actually brought this up and I understood exactly what he was talking about.

I know the mechanism of swallowing is complex, but what part of the process might lead to that feeling? Is there a biological explanation for this sensation? Or is it a trick of perception?

store in a DRY place -- storage of pills in rainy season

dbooster — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 15:12:05 -0800

What is the best way to store pills when one is faced with 90-90% humidity everyday because of rainy season? It's the middle of the rainy season right now in Japan, and that means I'm facing 90-90% humidity nearly everyday. That's so bad that when I get home in the evening, the morning newspaper feels damp to the touch. I never really considered my pills, but I was reading a newsletter from the city yesterday about how to avoid food-poisoning in the rainy season (very common due to the increased humidity and thus increased mold) and suddenly it hit me... oh, store in a cool, DRY place. I'm mainly talking about vitamins and headache pills here (advil and aspirin)

Alternatives to shoving pills down my cat's throat?

heavenstobetsy — Sat, 17 May 2008 14:05:43 -0800

Help me trick my cat into eating his pills. My cat Montgomery (Monty) has been diagnosed with some liver problems. I've been given 5 different medications to give him twice a day. He is somewhat of a picky eater. I haven't started giving him the medication yet. My thought was to crush them up into soft food (which he loves and is allowed for once) and hope he eats it, but my worry is, what if he doesn't? I don't want to waste those pills!

Basically, I'd prefer not to force him to swallow them. Suggestions?

gulp ack phtoo

showbiz_liz — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 17:07:25 -0800

Why make one enormous pill instead of two smaller ones? I recently bought some One-A-Day multivitamins (because my gyno guilted me) and tried, for days, to take them whole. I just couldn't do it, no matter how many times I tried- I'd always choke and have to spit the pill out. I finally just chopped one in half and took the halves individually, and there was no problem whatsoever.

I remember having this same problem when I had to take Valtrex for a really bad cold-sore-plus-staph-infection. That time, I was able to make myself swallow them whole because it seriously looked like my lip was going to fall off if I didn't, and because they were so expensive, but it was still pretty difficult for me.

It's maddening, because (aside from the whole 'One-A-Day' name thing) it seems like there's absolutely no reason not to make these huge, single-dose pills into half-dose ones, and just say 'take two'. Is there an actual reason for doing it this way?

Also- if anyone knows of a multivitamin that's two small pills a day, I'd love to know about it.

What are some tricks of the Dr. Feelgood trade?

Bookhouse — Fri, 30 Nov 2007 08:50:25 -0800

What are some techniques and tricks of pill-pushing celebrity doctors? A recent spate of articles about a celebrity suggested that she used an asthma inhaler not because she had asthma but as a weight-loss device. Some articles also suggested that she used an anti-narcolepsy drug to combat cocaine addiction. Whether or not that's true, what are some other illicit prescriptions that a shady doctor might give (besides obvious pain-pills-for-jollies)? I imagine that good doctors might prescribe drugs for other than their official uses, but I'm looking for strictly shady and/or dangerous uses like the ones above. Also, any articles or books about Dr. Feelgoods, particularly in the entertainment world?

(I'm reading the Don Simpson biography right now, which should have some good stuff).

Birth control blues

madmamasmith — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:00:19 -0800

I am in my foruth month of Microgestin pills. I started taking the pills to help control my blackheads but just this month I started breaking out with really bad cystic acne. I tend to get deprresed easily and have always had severe cramps. I was wondering if anyone with matching ailments has any advice on birth control. I have taken several and quit early on due to spotting or worsening cramps. I am thinking of switching to Yasmin because of its reputation with acne sufferers. Any suggestions?

Mother's little helper?

backseatpilot — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 07:22:53 -0800

What the heck is in Actipril, and what is it used for? Long story short: coworker got sucked in to one of those "sign up for four things and get a free iPod!" scams online. He canceled all of the programs he signed up for, but now has a package of Actipril pills. He thinks they're just "energy" pills and, knowing my love of caffeine, offered them to my cubemates and me.

I'm not planning on actually ingesting these things, but I'm curious what is in them. There's very little information online, and most of it seems to be shills spouting off about how they lost 25 pounds in three weeks just by taking these pills. So, are they diet pills or pep pills? And just what is in them?

safe combination?

Baby_Balrog — Tue, 24 Jul 2007 11:32:18 -0800

I just took two tylenol, two advil, and two little white blood-pressure reducing pills with a little z on them. Is this ok? Felt a migrainne coming. sort of panicked. what might the blood pressure pills have been? they were really small. fyi i get aural migraines with vision impairment so forgive any spelling errors.

What are some simple ways to remember to take my medication 3 times a day?

dino terror — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:43:43 -0800

What are some simple ways to remember to take my medication 3 times a day? I'm taking glucosamine + chondroitin and I'm supposed to take a pill 3 times a day, and I assume I want to spread that out relatively evenly so once in the morning, once at night and once somewhere in the middle. I have the biggest problem with the middle one and also forget the night one sometimes.
Life keeps getting in the way and I am out of the house and I say I'll remember to take the 2nd pill when I get home and I forget, etc.

Pilling the impossible cat

mendel — Sun, 01 Jul 2007 17:57:11 -0800

I've never had a cat as hard to pill as this one. What can I do to get her to take her pills? Mouseycat has had a tooth out and might have a low-level liver infection so is on twice-daily Clavamox. For the first two weeks, pilling went fine; she wasn't happy, but the pill went in and down. But she was also underweight and weak then, and now she isn't.

Currently, we're pilling her by wrapping her up like a kitty burrito in a towel, lifting up her head, opening her mouth with pressure behind her remaining canine, and using a pill gun, but she responds by chomping her jaw, which makes it really, really hard to get the pill in her long, narrow Balinese maw, and the chomping's causing her bottom canine to cut her lip where the removed canine used to hold it out. Even then it's probably taking 4-5 tries per session, and one pill lasts about two tries before it's too mushy to use. Even though the "how to pill your cat" instructions I've seen say that the mouth automatically opens a crack with the head held back, hers doesn't.

She drools like crazy, too, which means that if the pill doesn't get alllll the way back she'll taste it right away and everything gets twice as hard because of her extra resistance and the pill's mushiness.

She's never liked food that isn't cat food -- not even treats so hiding it in a treat hasn't worked, and she can tell it's in her food, so adding it to her food hasn't worked. (It's very, very important that she eat now because she was significantly underweight, so I don't want to risk her not eating.)

We've tried putting the pills inside #4 gelcaps to avoid the bitter taste, but that hasn't made it one bit easier, and it probably even made it harder since it doubles the volume of the thing we have to get down the cat and because they get sticky once they get a bit of cat drool instead of getting slimy.

I'm going to call the vet on Tuesday to talk about the problem, but that's another four doses from now, because it's a long weekend up here.

She doesn't get angry (hiss bite claw) about the pills. I think it's closer to being terrified. She's always been an easily terrified cat. Five minutes after we're done (or we give up for a bit) she accepts ear rubs and chin scritches.

I've run out of ideas. How can I give this cat her pills? Both techniques I've missed and refinements to the ones I'm trying are very welcome.

Help me relate to my friends who have mental health issues

dead_ — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 10:43:59 -0800

How do I better relate with people on anxiety and anti-depressant drugs? This is a sensitive topic for many people, including many of my friends. I've tried to do as much empathizing as I can, but I still find myself having trouble associating with some of my closer friends who take anti-depressants and anxiety disorder drugs.

The problem is more or less as follows: many of my friends are on these type of prescription drugs and are very intelligent, fun people who offer many great things to my life (think mostly college poet/writer types). The rub seems to come in that they have a way of inserting their mental health issues into many conversations, and use it as reasoning for nearly all of their actions. They often make comments dealing with their mental health, and generally define themselves with their disorders in a way that seems almost self-obsessive. I find this extremely annoying, because if they never mentioned it, I wouldn't assume they had any kind of "disorder," and life would go on between us as it always has--with plenty of laughter and smiling and fun.

Is it normal for me to feel awkward or annoyed by this type of behavior? Am I way out of line? Should I shut up and be more accommodating and make a better effort at empathy?

I understand that anxiety and depression are serious diseases that people deal with on not only a daily, but an hourly basis (that is to say, all the time), but it hampers my friendship when it's all I hear about. "OK, time to go get some pillz!"

I love and cherish these friends and I want to be available to them, but I think my suspicion of the pharmaceutical industry, coupled with my own drug-less battle with depression a few years ago has left me jaded to the issue and feeling somewhat hostile when presented with otherwise normal people who define themselves by their diseases--and their drugs.

Are there any good books on the subject of living with loved ones who have these types of diseases? What about books that address the pharmaceutical and anti-depressant industry itself? I'm not entirely sure what I'm asking, but I'm trying to sort some things out in my head, so anecdotes or personal accounts may help here.

Also, is it completely out of line to be suspicious of someone's therapist and their relationship to that person?

Apologies if I've made any off-color comments here. I know this is a touchy issue and I simply want to be a better friend to people I care about a lot. Thanks.

Birth Control hiatus-- good or bad?

np312 — Tue, 06 Mar 2007 14:53:41 -0800

Birth Control filter: Is it going to negatively affect my health if I skip taking my birth control pills for a month (during which time I will assuredly be abstinent) and then go right back on them once I'm back home where I can renew the prescription for cheap? Here's the situation: my boyfriend is on a long vacation so I won't be getting any action for a month. As it happens, my birth control prescription needs to be renewed, but since I am currently out of my home state for the next couple weeks, I would have to pay 40 bucks to get my pills renewed for this next round of pills. (When I'm in my home state it's easy to get the prescription through my health insurance and it only costs a few dollars.)

I have just finished my last pack of Levlen 28 (which I've been on consistently for years, never skipping a month.) I'm wondering if I should shell out the 40 bucks to get an out-of-state prescription even though there is no way I will be having sex this month, just to keep my body from going through any unnecessary stopping/starting chemical hormone weirdness.

However, I don't know that such physical weirdness exists. Is it perfectly safe for me to stop taking my pills for one month's cycle, if I go back on them once I'm back home, exactly on the same day 4 weeks from now?

Of course, I would be careful for the first 7 days once I'm back on the pills, and use a condom, as if it were my first time taking the pills. I'm more concerned with whether or not there are any negative side effects to my body doing this on again-off again-on again thing.

Thanks!

Fish Oil Pills - Once a Day or Three times a Day

mmascolino — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:47:52 -0800

I've started to take Fish Oil pills and wonder about the prescribed guidelines. The directions say to take one pill three times a day (they are 1000mg's each BTW). It would be far more easy for me to take three at a time. Will I do any harm or will my body not be able to absorb all the goodness if I take them at once?

How do drug companies pick the colours for pills?

perpetualstroll — Sat, 28 Oct 2006 01:47:29 -0800

How does colour-coding of medications work? For instance, Prozac is typically the combination of green and white, and the generic brands also perserve this colour. Is there some kind of universal system that pharmaceutical companies adhere to? How are the colours of medications determined?