Sunday, December 31, 2006

Heaven's Gateway

My immune system may break down often, but it usually puts up a good fight when it's down. I'm never so sick that I should miss class. The last time I was really weakly, terribly sick was a couple of years ago, thanks to Jenny's dad's fateful prophecy. Otherwise, I'd feel weak for a few days, take some OTC stuff for the symptoms, and be fine.

As for the OTC medication, at the Bo', they give out Pseudoval, ibuprofen, and lozenges for free and the trio works wonderful. Pseudoval is a brand of pseudoephrine, the active ingredient in Sudafed. Works like a charm. Susan may have mentioned something about her doctor father not letting her take it when we roomed together freshman year, something about carcinogens I don't really recall, but whatever. I love the stuff.

And I desperately want some right now. Went to Walgreen's for some Sudafed today and noticed that all the decongestant medicine now proudly carry the label "does not contain pseudoephrine." In its place is phenylephrine, which, I've come to learn, is not half as effective, but also not half as conducive to manufacturing methamphetamine as pseudoephrine. Most major labels are now switching to phenylephrine because of the controversy. Under different circumstances I might poke fun at the Bo' for still handing out for free a drug that can be easily reduced to meth and has a lot more side effects than the widely available alternative, but my entire face is red and sore because I've spent the entire day blowing into tissues non-stop. Right now, I'd like a little no-longer-widely-accepted decongestant. It's not that I want it. I need my fix, y'all. I need it to feel good again.

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