I have a request of medication and other pain relief item manufactures: you know how you try out your product on people to see if it works and how much they should use and such? Try out your directions and packaging as well. And don't try out directions and packaging on people who are not in pain - that is not really testing it's effectiveness. Pain tends to dull the ability to read and analyze directions and get into annoying packaging.
Take for instance a few months ago when I needed to take some Nyquil. I do not take Nyquil all that often so I don't remember how much you should take. Thus in a semi-focused state I try to find the directions on the packaging. I would say it took me about 5 minutes and I ended up having to read nearly every word on there. Do you think they could maybe write the word Directions bigger or in bold or a different font or something so it would stand out? Might be nice.
Example number 2: Migrane meds. Anyone who has had a migrane knows that it is not an enjoyable experience. The least the pharmaceutical companies could do is throw me a bone and not make me take an IQ test to get to the pills. I'm not kidding either. I take Imitrex, which is a tiny little pill that is located in a cardboard package with 10 other tiny pills each wrapped individually. You have to tear off a little cardboard cover (kinda like opening a window in an advent calendar, but the little knotch that is supposed to make it easy to open isn't as big), usually one piece comes off and then you need to tear at it to get the rest of the piece, and then you have to pop it out of the metally plastic stuff afterwards. Oh, and of course half of the time when you pop it out it goes flying across the bathroom, so you get to search around the floor while trying to keep your dog from eating it. So imagine doing all that when your head is pounding, you are sick in your stomach, oh and just for fun it has to be done while not wanting to turn the light on because the lights hurt your head even more.
So, we come to today. I am trying to not take Imitrex as often because it works by spiking your serotonin, which I just figure is not something I want to mess with all that often (call me crazy). I've also started getting these combination headaches more often than not, so the Imitrex only helps one part of it, the other part doesn't necessarily go away and then the migrane comes back. So, I've had a slight migrane all day and have been holding it off with excedrin, sudafed and a heating pad on my neck at work (since I'm pretty sure it's a sinus/migrane/possibly tension combo) . When I got home I decided to do a few other pain relief methods to see if I could get it to go away with a less serotonin spiking method. I'm pretty certain that the whole thing was started with sinus pressure so I start with the Neti pot. In case you've not seen these they are wierd, but really do work. You put a saline solution in the pot, pour it in one nostril, it goes through your sinuses and comes out the other one. It's actually quite impressive at how quick it relieves sinus pressure. Directions say put 1/4 teaspoon of the salt they give you and add warm water. I'm in the bathroom so I guess at 1/4 teaspoon and add warm water. Let me give you a word of advise if you'd like to use the Neti pot. Measure the water. Now I don't know how much water you should add because it's not actually on the directions, but it should be more than I added. It felt like I had just put my head underwater in the ocean and inhaled - yeah, not a good feeling. I added some more water and did the other side, which was much better on the not burning the inside of my nostrils meter.
As can be told from the fact I'm blogging it did relieve the headache for a while so I wasn't as irritated as I may have been if I just had a burning sensation with no headache help. The bad thing is I can already feel it coming back. I believe I will go with a nice hot bath and perhaps another swig of saltwater through the sinuses before popping another Excedrin and heading to bed. Hopefully tomorrow it will be gone. If not we are going with the adjustment, headache traction and massage option during lunch, and if that doesn't work I need to go fill my Imitrex prescription and bring in the big guns. Day three of a headache calls for the ends justifying the means. Wish me migrane luck!
Oh honey, not the outcome I was hoping for! I feel sure the hot bath, pink thing, dark room and maybe one of those tiny wine bottles you bought today will do the trick! (no, you won't die of drinking the ounce of alcohol with the over the counter pain medicine- I do it all the time).
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