Thursday, September 27, 2012

Afraid of Drugs

You know, as a teen, I did more than my share of dabbling with drugs.  In fact, you could say I was something of an expert when it came to various chemical recreational endeavors.  That's not a brag--nothing brag-worthy about being a stoner.  Not a brag, but a statement of fact.

Ironic that now, in my late forties, I'm scared to death to take even prescription medications.  I resisted taking medication for my arrhythmia for ten years for fear that it would make it worse, that taking a beta-blocker would create a second, competing arrhythmia.  While the beta-blocker has improved the situation, it hasn't solved it, and I'm too afraid of the medication to suggest upping my dosage.  So I put up with "improved, but not eradicated."

Months ago, I was suffering a pesky, irritating, increasingly scary pain in my neck and jaw.  Scary because I have a strong family history of thyroid cancer.  Went to the ENT, and he checked me out, then wrote it off as anxiety.  He prescribed Metaxalone, aka Skelaxin.  I haven't taken even one.  Which is convenient, because my PCP just suggested prescribing that very thing for my back pain.  I told her not to bother, I had a full, untouched script at home.  So she sent me home with a script for some NSAID for my hands and elbow.  I've taken one.  Didn't work any better than a couple of ibuprofen, so I'm not likely to use these pills, either.

Speaking of unused scripts, I also have a dozen or so oxycodones from my disastrous back injury two years ago.  A script for 30, I still have a dozen?  Like I said, I fear taking drugs.  I still haven't decided if that's a virtue or a vice.

On a totally unrelated note, the HOA's yard work guys came through today--blasted my new grass seed with their blowers.  We've been struggling to get that front lawn to fill in for six months now, no joy.  A couple of times, the grass seed has sprouted, all green and promising, only to die.  If this round is unsuccessful, I guess we'll have to try testing the soil and maybe adding lime.  It's very frustrating--we're on a super-tight budget, and we've dropped well over a hundred bucks on multiple attempts with seed, fertilizer, etc.  The back yard, which has much more compacted, clay-like soil, has come along nicely, it looks quite lush.  Of course, it gets sun all day.  The front?  Shade all day because of the flowering pear.  If this doesn't work, I'm tempted to throw in a shade-hardy ground cover.  The HOA may not like that, though.

On the bright side, my mums are just ramping up to go crazy!  We bought them late last fall, felt sure they'd died over the winter, but WOW, have they come back!  I think I'll pop in a picture!


No comments:

Post a Comment