On prescription drugs and a weak stomach
Too many daylogs, too little inspiration
Long story short: The root canal treatment I got last October was incomplete and I found out about it last Friday, laying on my bed in pain after 600mg of naproxen. On Saturday morning I went to the dentist and he told me that the last guy was only an intern of sorts and he did only the bare minimum to keep me from having pain (even though he charged me full price).
Two hours later I was on my way out, completely anesthetized and relatively happy because the pain was gone (as well as any kind of feeling in my mouth). I went on to buy the prescribed drugs, happy with my adult decision of taking my health seriously.
But I'm a relatively healthy young man and I'm not used to ingesting drugs besides the occasional acetylsalicylic acid and bismuth subsalicylate. Now I have to get an analgesic (Ketorolac) an anti-inflammatory (Loxoprofen) and an antibiotic (Amoxicillin) for the next 5 days and my stomach isn't feeling well. I need to force myself to eat before the pills because I haven't been hungry sine I went to the dentist. My farts smell like an hospital.
On prescription drugs and scientific literacy
That same Saturday, I happened to see a friend of mine, who is about to graduate from medical school. He told me amoxicillin wasn't really necessary and that I could also use Dicloxacillin instead. I took the post-it with his preferred dosage, thanked him and went on my way. I ended up buying Amox because 1) my dentist told me so, and 2) post-it notes do not legally count as a medical prescription to buy antibiotics (who knew?)
However, it got me thinking about scientific literacy for us mortal folks. I like to think that I'm scientifically literate enough to detect most some of the bullshit the media throws at me. Books like How to lie with statistics have raised my awareness of innumeracy and some hints on how to counteract it.If everything goes well, I'll start a masters in scientific journalism next year.
But still, medical knowledge lies beyond my reach right now. This is expected, of course, since I haven't devoted any time whatsoever to further it, much less the eight years a doctor spends in training to attain minimal mastery.
But me, being as knowledgeable about medical issues as anyone else how could/would I make a good decision about the drugs I should take? How much trust/faith do I have to place upon my physician? How can I recognize a good one from a bad one?
I'm sure none of these are novel questions in general, but they are new to me. As I said, I'm in relative good health and I've only been in an hospital to take a small blood test. Nobody in my immediate family has ever had need for extended procedures, complicated surgeries and whatnot.
I can't be the only one with these doubts, but now I realize that the very least that I should do is to start doing some more research on whatever pills I have to take and maybe try to get the background of my physician. Regarding medical literacy I may not be the most responsible patient, but I'll try to be a better one.
On London crashing
I'm scheduled to arrive on the afternoon of August 4, 2014. Apparently the only thing I need now is a cheap hostel or whatever to crash on that night. Then I'll be transferred to an hotel near the Barbican centre and then I DON'T KNOW.