Pharmaceutical experimentation

I'm not one for pharmaceuticals. I don't trust them. I think many create more harm from side effects than they provide good in the form of whatever it is they are supposed to do. I think taking too much of a drug creates a resistance to it which renders the drug ineffective over time and thus, requires higher dosages to generate any benefits. Lastly, I think there are usually natural or herbal alternatives (such as my cure all for about anything, hot and sour soup (heals broken bones, even! OK, maybe not)) that can be just as effective.

I'm writing about this today because we are in the midst of an epidemic where I live. The rumor is that the boowah's school district set a record for most absences in a day ever yesterday. Teachers and students are going home early with fevers. Many are not making it in at all. Doodle's class ended the day with less than half the kids in his class and his teacher not making it the whole way through the school day. Doodle had the flu or whatever it was from Saturday through Tuesday but has been better for a couple of days now. His coach took a poll last night of the eight who had showed up for practice and found that all but one had already missed school because of this flu.

Gaga and I have largely staved this off. Gaga seems to find a way to stay well. It always cracks me up when we go to the doctor for his annual checkup. "Last time we saw you was when you were here for your checkup and before that it was when you were her for your checkup and before that it was when you were here for your checkup and before that...". You have to go back many years to find when he last had a sick visit. This always amazes me, too, because he had problems when he was born and was on a ventilator for a couple of weeks. The doctor said then that he would likely be susceptible to illness and respiratory problems as he got older. Fortunately, not so.

Well, maybe his luck is running out at the moment. Hard to say. He had an ortho appointment yesterday and got rubber bands on his brace. The pain has been bothering him and he has the sniffles. He was complaining about the pain and wanted something for it. I do keep some pharmaceutical stuff on hand even though I don't use it. I'm no monster. If one of the boowahs needs some relief from whatever ails them, some ibuprofen or cough syrup or what have you might provide it (along with a nice cup of herbal tea).

Maybe I am a bit of a monster. When I opened the drawer where I keep the drugs, I saw something that made me think about trying my own experiments with placebos. I pulled out the substitute and gave Gaga an orange tablet to take for the pain.

"Wait.....What is this?.....This is a PEZ!"

The New England Journal of Medicine is just going to have to wait.