Ode to Sudafed

[cimorene]

Dear Sudafed, sweet Sudafed,
You really hurt my nostrils
When you work your sinus-drying magic
And I feel kind of high
Yet you enable me to sleep at night,
And not feel the torment of
Balloons trying to inflate
Inside my skull, exactly at the temples.
Sweet sudafed, you're kind of expensive
And sold only over the counter,
But you are totally worth it,
Even if you contain some dubious chemicals.
Oh Sudafed! Saviour of people with really stuffy head colds!
Why, oh why aren't you legal in the EU?
For my supply of you has basically run out,
And I didn't get around to buying more when I visited the US,
For I am a fool, who foresaw not
How I would want to shoot myself without you, the next time
I had a really fucking horrible cold.
I should have bought an extra suitcase full.
And now I must merely suffer alone,
And try to inhale steam and/or chili powder
In a futile quest for some relief.

Comments

[ukcalico.livejournal.com]

You poor thing!

Do you have other OTC decongestants? I tend to go for something with paracetamol & caffeine rather than sudafed, because caffeine has a similar drying effect on me, and paracetamol stops me thinking about it. Caffeine not so good at night, though.

Strong mint tea? *hugs*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Alas, the paracetamol/caffeine combination has a tiny, tiny fraction of the effect of sudafed on me, though I ingest a lot of it. The inside of my nostrils get a bit dry, but the inability to breathe/balloon-head feeling continues apace. There may be other otc decongestants that wax isn't sufficiently knowledgeable about, perhaps.

[buddleia.livejournal.com]

Sudafed? I'm pretty sure you can get it here in the UK. Want me to post you some?

[fingelverse.livejournal.com]

European sudafed has phenylephrine in it, not pseudoephrine like US sudafed. They've started selling European sudafed in the US as "Sudafed PE" and it's crap. It takes about twice the package dose of phenylephrine to have the same effect as the package dose of pseudoephrine.

pseudoephrine is a semi-restricted substance in the US now. You can only buy 96 pills a month and you have to show your drivers license and sign a ledger for it.

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Because it can be made to make meth, if I remember right. And I mean, it's... a steroid, so... maybe they have a point. (But when my head's about to explode, I don't really care.)

[fingelverse.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it can be made into meth. (It's an amphetamine, not a steroid. I misspelled it in my first post, it's psuedoephedrine)

[cimness.livejournal.com]

Oh. Well, that would explain how it's used to make meth, I guess. *cough*

[cimness.livejournal.com]

You can't post any sort of medications into the country, alas. :(