Can we discuss drugs?

[Salamok]

The side effects of blood pressure medications all pretty much suck.  Hypertension without blood pressure medication really sucks.  Choose wisely.

Care to elaborate, I may be needing to go on one of these soon.

I'm curious about injected localized pain medications.

My dentist has been in the process of repairing several old amalgam metal tooth filings with composite resin fillings that are tooth colored.  This work has been generally preceded by injections of Lidocain directly under the tooth and in the back of the jaw.

However I'm finding that at least three injections are necessary, and take a very long time to 'take effect'.  The last time I waited for two hours until my lower jaw was numb, and the drill into the nerve was like being tortured.  He ended up directly injecting into the jaw bone which was interesting but seemed to work.

Anyone know of other injectable pain medications (or other dental techniques) that I could recommend he try for next time?  He said I had a very think jaw bone which makes it difficult for the liquid to reach the nerves in the center of the bone.

While it certainly isn't localized I am pretty sure they hooked me up to some sort of sodium pentathol drip when I had my wisdom teeth out.  This was without a doubt the single greatest drug related experience of my life, 20 years later I still can not hear the word drug with out immediately thinking of it.

On a side note, I've been having some neck problems lately and my dad let me steal some little white pill he said was the equivalent of taking 12 motrin, that was some pretty good shit as far as anti-inflammatory/pain relief goes (I was completely without discomfort for the next 36 hours).

[apocrypha]

The side effects of blood pressure medications all pretty much suck.  Hypertension without blood pressure medication really sucks.  Choose wisely.

Care to elaborate, I may be needing to go on one of these soon.

Lots of different types, lots of side-effects.

Multiple therapy (i.e. taking more than 1 kind of antihypertensive drug) is vastly more effective than single-drug therapy but of course you get multiple side-effects too. Compliance is a serious problem with multi-drug treatment of hypertension for this very reason.

Just remember, the side-effects won't kill you. Hypertension will.

[Nebu]

Lots of different types, lots of side-effects.

Multiple therapy (i.e. taking more than 1 kind of antihypertensive drug) is vastly more effective than single-drug therapy but of course you get multiple side-effects too. Compliance is a serious problem with multi-drug treatment of hypertension for this very reason.

Just remember, the side-effects won't kill you. Hypertension will.

What I always found interesting was that introductory pharmacology preaches the avoidance of multiple antihypertensives.  Reality dictates the opposite.  I love to dig up old textbooks that state that the use of a calcium channel blocker with a beta blocker as being dangerous.  It's a nice way to demonstrate that practice can differ greatly from textbook. 

[Miguel]

I have been taking Lisinopril for hypertension and it's worked wonderfully with no side effects.  From what I understand (in my layman terminology), it's an ACE inhibitor (reduces the levels of enzymes that constrict the blood vessels) in combination with a diuretic (something that causes your kidneys to extract more water from your blood). 

It was amazing how quickly this medication worked:  I was routinely at 150/80 and within a few days my blood pressure dropped down to 125/70.

[Salamok]

ah found the name of the anti-inflammatory that ate motrins lunch: Meloxicam

[bhodi]

What I always wondered was that how much of normal things like high blood pressure are simply diet related, and how many are legitimate genetic or other random issues? Basically, people eating what they feel like and then using medicine to counteract the fact they are putting marginal poisons in their body?

[Vision]

Was going to start a new thread but figured it would fit in here.

I smoke between 1-2 parliment light's a day. Sometimes none, and go for extended periods (months) without a single cigarette. It depends on my environment. I'm relatively young, pre-25 and would like some straight up facts about smoking. I googled it and everything either used bold font to impress upon me the cancer's I can contract or used a type of scare tactics to tell me things I already know. Is there a link to straight up facts about death rates among young smokers? How often they smoked? Types of cancer those smokers contracted?

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

[Selby]

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

I don't think you're going to find too much out there in the way of "young smokers dying young" because cigarettes usually take many years for their damage to result in death related to smoking issues.  And of course it all depends on how old you are, how much you actually smoked, random factors, etc.  Although I am interested to see said studies if they exist, because all I've ever seen has been in the matter of "smoke 1-2/day or less for 30 years eventually did cause cancer" type results that the news media loves to use.

[Samwise]

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

Not me.  I had only one grandparent who smoked, and he died 22 years ago of cancer.  All of my other grandparents are still around.

A friend of mine recently had a stroke and required brain surgery.  He's in his early 50s and has smoked on and off for a good chunk of his life.  Luckily he seems to be recovering about as well as can be expected, but he's still hospitalized and the whole ordeal has been really scary.  It's got me worried about my mom, who has a long history of smoking and is quickly coming up on the age where that's likely to start catching up with her.

That's just anecdotal, but I felt the need to point out that for every anecdote of "my grandpa smoked every day and lived to be eighty" there are dozens more who didn't make it out of their sixties.  

Try googling "smoking lifespan studies" or something if you want something more scientific; the results I'm seeing on Google indicate that you can expect to shave 10-20 years off your life expectancy depending on how early you start.  Here's a page that claims to narrow it down according to your specific habits.

[Ingmar]

Yeah, honestly it sounds like you're looking for something to read that is going to tell you what you're doing is OK or not really *that* dangerous or whatever. You're not going to find that kind of validation, though, not from any kind of reputable source.

And of course I have my share of anecdotal stories along the lines of Samwise's, including our former company president, who was a lifelong smoker and despite her extreme dedication to exercise and taking care of herself in pretty much every *other* way, was left in a coma after a stroke and eventually was taken off of life support.

Or our former CEO, who hadn't smoked for years himself AFAIK, who had to step down recently due to a diagnosis of lung cancer. (Possibly because he spent a lot of time around said former president smoking? Who knows.)

[01101010]

I would like to see rates of cancer in different smoking populations though. Not sure how you would construct your smoking categories, but something along the lines of 1-5 cigs/day, 6-15/day, 16-20...etc. Finding a sample with those categories, even enough to weight them against each other for comparison would be interesting, but at the same time would probably never get funded for the possible inferences to the conclusions. I used to smoke a pack a week which ratcheted up to a pack a day when I was in grad school. Smoked for a good 12 years and 5 years in grad school was my peak, however my usage varied greatly from none a week to  packs a week, to nothing for a few months. Always did wonder if constant smoking was worse and how much worse than varied or sporadic smoking.

[Merusk]

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

Not me.  I had only one grandparent who smoked, and he died 22 years ago of cancer.  All of my other grandparents are still around.

Yeah, not me either.  One had emphyzema and a stroke while driving nearly killed himself and my grandmother.  Instead he lived like a quasi vegetable, in and out of consciousness, his body too well to die but to brain damaged to be functional for 2 years before dying of pneumonia.  He smoked between 5-10 a day.  The other grandfather contracted lymphoma 15 years after he stopped smoking his pipe and died of a complication from a minor surgery.  The complication was due to his lymphoma but I can't recall what it was.  He smoked his pipe for an hour after work and dinner.

Mom smoked since she was 18 but quit 18 years ago.  She's had breast cancer and pre-cancerous moles on her neck.  She'd smoked between 3 and 5 a day, but more often in social situations around other smokers.   I blame my adolescent asthma on her smoking habit, because when she stopped it began clearing up.  It went away entirely my first year in college when I spent only 5 days at her home.

You never had to sell me on "smoking does evil shit."  It was pretty apparent to me.

[Count Nerfedalot]

The side effects of blood pressure medications all pretty much suck.  Hypertension without blood pressure medication really sucks.  Choose wisely.

Care to elaborate, I may be needing to go on one of these soon.

Basically, the rule I've learned to go by is: when you start a new medication, assume that ANYTHING that changes is due to the medication.  That really can be just about any bizarre unrelated thing you can think of, including but not limited to:
     waking up in the middle of the night when you never used to,
     finger/toe-nail discoloration,
     an annoying scratchy throat/dry cough that gets diagnosed as asthma or allergies or anything but a drug-induced side-effect (YEAH, I'M LOOKING AT YOU LISINOPRIL, YOU BASTARD!),
     having to pee more (or less often) or pee being a different color or odor (OK, the odor one was just asparagus),   
     seeing halos/rainbows around lights at night,
     new or aggravated joint pains,
     food tasting different/wrong,
     headaches,
     depression,
     becoming twitchy/anxious or hyperactive when you never were before,
     insomnia,
     feeling fatigued, lethargic or unusually sleepy during the day,
     various digestive disorders,
     nausea,
     swollen ankles,
     groggy for much longer than usual in the morning,
     various personality changes including increased or decreased happiness, anger, paranoia, etc,
     changes in hair color, brittleness, thinning, etc,
     ...

I or someone in my immediate family has experienced every single one of those side-effects (not all from hypertension meds though!) and many others.

I used to ignore the list of possible side-effects, figuring knowing about them would bias my perception of them.  Now I go the other way and think really hard about each and every listed side effect to understand exactly what my status with them has been before I start a new med, then monitor them for changes.  Prior to this approach I've lost many thousands of dollars in income due to lost work time (not to mention Dr. and pharmacy fees) due to the side effects of meds that I wasn't able to identify/diagnose quickly enough.  It's a pain in the butt to monitor this stuff and educate yourself, but doctors these days can't be bothered/don't have the time/lack the knowledge/lack the tools to keep up with every single med given to every single patient and all the possible individual side-effects much less interactions.  If you want good treatment, you will have to be a whole lot more involved than just blindly obeying the professionals. 

The good news is there are lots and lots of blood pressure meds out there to choose from.  Figuring out which ones will work for you is still going to be a primitive matter of trial and error. The bit about using two or three meds to manage your blood pressure is true.  But start just one at a time and give it two weeks before starting another, monitoring all the while for any changes.  And keep monitoring for as long as you take them.  Some of the more subtle side effects (especially psychological) can take months to become apparent.

Technologically, it would be relatively simple to set up a computerized system with every known drug, its approved uses, known side-effects and interactions, etc, add in all your personal medical history, and track the before and after of each treatment you get put on.  When you show up with a new ailment, the Dr would input your symptoms and the system could cough up a list of possible causes (including the meds you are already on), suggestions for narrowing the possibilities, treatment options, etc.  But still leave the decisions to the Dr.  Then when the Dr decides on a treatment, that would also be entered so the system can flag if there are any counter-indications he missed due to your medical history, drug-interactions or whatnot.  And then the next time you show up and present with a new set of symptoms, those also would be entered as well as the results of the previous treatments & etc. Followup calls would need to be made to record the results of the treatments even if you never return to that Dr, so the data could still be entered into the database.  Connect that data (anonymously) to a regional database that can watch for signs of epidemics and catch them early on, plus prompt the various Dr's in that area who have patients that present with identical symptoms with the treatments that have worked best for the particular version of flu or whatever which is in your area.  Integrate those regional databases with a national database that accumulates statistical information about what treatment was tried and with what result, cross referenced with blood type, medical history, gender, race, diet, environment and everything else that might be a factor and then, THEN we might start learning just what the hell all these chemicals we are ingesting in the name of healthcare are REALLY doing for/to us.  And then we might start getting better treatment than the usual "here's three prescriptions.  Try them out and let me know if one of them works!"  Or at least maybe one of the three would actually work without making something else worse!

Ain't gonna happen in the good ole USofA for awhile though because there is no profit in it (except for the patients), and it would cost a lot to implement.  Not the databases themselves, which would be relatively straightforward, but the data entry, having someone in the Dr's office (obviously the Dr won't be doing this) asking a bazillion questions and entering all the answers into the system, not just on your first visit but on every visit.  Add to that the resistance of Dr's to having a computer "tell them what to do" no matter how much it would help them practice better medicine. 

oops, sorry.  /rant off

[Lantyssa]

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

My grandfather smoked half a pack a day all his life.  My grandmother died of lung cancer when I was 7, emotionally scarring me for life.  My grandfather died another 9 years later at 76.  He had emphysema and the last few years of his life weren't that pleasant.  The oxygen bottle helped a little.

Basically, it could affect you or not.  What we do know is smoking increases your chances of having a problem.  Until you're dead or have that problem which is exacerbated because of it, you won't know how the smoking affects you.  Like sex, abstinence will keep you safe, but if you're going to indulge, moderation and smarts can at least mitigate the effects.

[Mattemeo]

Conversely, my paternal grandpa smoked a pipe from 11 to 92. He died of old age. My nana didn't smoke as far as I know, but died of some form of organ cancer (but definitely not lung) when I was 8. Both my maternal grandparents smoked like chimneys up till late middle-age; grandma's still alive but suffered a stroke 2 years ago, and my grandad died from an MRSA after successful surgery to remove a tumor on his spine. I don't think there was any plausible smoking-caused link made between either cancer or stroke in their cases.

[Count Nerfedalot]

While it certainly isn't localized I am pretty sure they hooked me up to some sort of sodium pentathol drip when I had my wisdom teeth out.  This was without a doubt the single greatest drug related experience of my life, 20 years later I still can not hear the word drug with out immediately thinking of it.

I had a fun trip when I had my wisdom teeth out also.  I'd had a real bad experience with a root canal as an adolescent that was still causing occasional nightmares at the time (I was 30 by then).  So I told them I wasn't afraid of them working on me, I just didn't want to be awake for or remember it.  But I think they misunderstood because they treated me like I was panicked about the whole thing and doped me up real good.  In addition to the sodium pentathol drip, they had me take valium before going to the office and gave me nitrous as soon as I was in the chair.  I had a blast, both before and after the blackout period.  Leaving the surgery I literally felt like I was a kite flying high in the sky, but flying free like a released helium balloon rather than tethered to a string. Then I slept for two days waking up only to take my next demarol and went back to work the day after that as if nothing had happened.

[Minvaren]

I had a fun trip when I had my wisdom teeth out also.

New thread idea : Wisdom Tooth Extraction Trip Reports.

For the record, mine mirrors yours to a fair extent.   

[Ozzu]

What I always wondered was that how much of normal things like high blood pressure are simply diet related, and how many are legitimate genetic or other random issues? Basically, people eating what they feel like and then using medicine to counteract the fact they are putting marginal poisons in their body?

The doctor told me when I had my issues with it that it all went hand in hand with being diabetic. That diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure almost always went together. So, in my case, it definitely was diet related. I bet a healthy lifestyle would keep nearly everyone from having that issue. I'm no doctor though.

[Samwise]

What I always wondered was that how much of normal things like high blood pressure are simply diet related, and how many are legitimate genetic or other random issues? Basically, people eating what they feel like and then using medicine to counteract the fact they are putting marginal poisons in their body?

The doctor told me when I had my issues with it that it all went hand in hand with being diabetic. That diabetes, high cholesterol, and high blood pressure almost always went together. So, in my case, it definitely was diet related. I bet a healthy lifestyle would keep nearly everyone from having that issue. I'm no doctor though.

I'm working on losing weight atm because my doctor warned me that my blood pressure and cholesterol were "borderline", and that it's probably mostly due to being overweight.  I've been wanting to slim down for a while now anyway, but my survival instinct is proving a much better motivator than ill-fitting jeans have in the past.  And I REALLY hate having to take meds, so avoiding the need for blood pressure medication or whatever is another good incentive.

[Sky]

I had a fun trip when I had my wisdom teeth out also.

New thread idea : Wisdom Tooth Extraction Trip Reports.

For the record, mine mirrors yours to a fair extent.   

I have all my wisdom teeth, except the one that didn't grow in. I think Jesus stole it. I wrote a song about it, a country number called Jesus Stole My Wisdom Tooth (I am a dumbass now).

Anyway, root canals. I've found my miracle oral surgeon, in and out with just some local, didn't feel a thing and went directly back to work for the rest of the day. He called me that night to make sure I was ok, I didn't feel a thing. He told me to take a couple otc (aspirin or ibuprofin, I forget) just in case. I did, because he's a doc and whatnot, but didn't even need it. I was amazed. I have amazing specialists...but I can't find a GP to save my life (hopefully not literally).

On the topic of nitrous: I used to go to my father's wacky dentist, some crazy old guy who worked out of the apartment over an ice cream shop (always got a free ice cream). He always used nitrous, he'd put 'snoopy goggles and scarf' on you and tell you that you were going to fly (like snoopy vs the red baron, it was the early 70s). You would then trip for however long he took, I still remember some of those wild rides. He also had a buxom young assistant (it was the early 70s). But he also liked to file molars flat, which my father swears by. In the long run, I do have to admit I have good teeth (according to my current dentist), which is amazing since I didn't go to a DDS from the late 80s until about 5 years ago when I finally got a cavity.

[01101010]

Anyway, root canals. I've found my miracle oral surgeon, in and out with just some local, didn't feel a thing and went directly back to work for the rest of the day. He called me that night to make sure I was ok, I didn't feel a thing. He told me to take a couple otc (aspirin or ibuprofin, I forget) just in case. I did, because he's a doc and whatnot, but didn't even need it. I was amazed. I have amazing specialists...but I can't find a GP to save my life (hopefully not literally).

On the topic of nitrous: I used to go to my father's wacky dentist, some crazy old guy who worked out of the apartment over an ice cream shop (always got a free ice cream). He always used nitrous, he'd put 'snoopy goggles and scarf' on you and tell you that you were going to fly (like snoopy vs the red baron, it was the early 70s). You would then trip for however long he took, I still remember some of those wild rides. He also had a buxom young assistant (it was the early 70s). But he also liked to file molars flat, which my father swears by. In the long run, I do have to admit I have good teeth (according to my current dentist), which is amazing since I didn't go to a DDS from the late 80s until about 5 years ago when I finally got a cavity.

I have to have everything canal'd when I get the funds for it. I have bad teeth with funky root structures. My curse. That said, the three root canals I have had done were flawless considering I have an irrational fear of dentists. Each time I go now, I am more reassured. Getting teeth pulled however is still a horrifying event.

As for nitrous...I can't have. Even in small amounts I get violently ill and have an instant headache. I think its aversion from my first dentist who tried to give me nitrous and overdid it. I have yet to try the sedation thing since my insurance does not cover the pill and I have no one to drive me to and fro. Anyone do the sedation thing? I heard it's Halcyon - which I have first hand knowledge of, but not in that context.

[ghost]

Anyone know of other injectable pain medications (or other dental techniques) that I could recommend he try for next time?  He said I had a very think jaw bone which makes it difficult for the liquid to reach the nerves in the center of the bone.

This is an interesting thread.  I'm an orthodontist and also have an MD, which makes all of the topics strike me as a bit funny.  The give and take between the professions of dentistry and medicine is interesting, to say the least.  

To answer the above question, my advice would be to get a new dentist.  Lidocaine injection blocks given in dentistry typically fall into two groups- infiltration, meaning you expect it to diffuse through thin bone  and directly effect the nerves as they enter the tooth, and blocks, in which you directly place the lidocaine close to a large nerve branch.  Typically infiltration is only usable on the upper jaw, although it does work some on the lower jaw for children.  If someone is having difficulty getting numb, you should be getting a block of some sort and where we do those blocks the nerve is not in the bone-  thus the "thickness of your bone" should play little or no role in achieving anesthesia.

If you guys have any other dental questions, please feel free to fire them at me.  My general advice on choosing a dentist is as follows-  be very, very careful about who you choose.  Dentists are not like physicians.  Many simply sit in their office and never have their work looked at by peers, as a physician would in a hospital setting.  Specialists are generally safe as, unlike in medicine, most specialists are in the top 25% of their class.  If you are concerned, ask your specialist who a general dentist with a good reputation is.  They can usually point you in the right direction. 

Commentary on drugs-  I find it interesting now that we have a "drug" for everything.  I'm a bit suspicious of research in this field as it certainly would benefit the drug companies to have us all on a drug.  Having gone to medical school, I can tell you that most "front line physicians" have very limited knowledge of medicines or pharmacology, in general (echoing Nebu) and would go so far as to say that a grand majority have no idea what they are really doing.  Medical school graduates are woefully unprepared for real life doctoring because the breadth of their training is insane.  There is little actual training as to how to simply be a family doctor, something we need a lot of in this country. 

Commentary on smoking-  stop.  Yesterday.  You may not die from cancer, but you will smell like death to those around you and make you look 15-20 years older than you actually are after many years of use.  This doesn't even consider the money involved with simply having a habit.  If you need nicotine, use a smokeless tobacco.  The reports of cancer issues with this are largely overblown and some recent research suggests that the risk of cancer with snuff/chewing tobacco is no more than baseline.

[NowhereMan]

We all know grandpa's who smoked their whole lives and died of old age, I just want some kind of factual layout. 

My grandfather smoked half a pack a day all his life.  My grandmother died of lung cancer when I was 7, emotionally scarring me for life.  My grandfather died another 9 years later at 76.  He had emphysema and the last few years of his life weren't that pleasant.  The oxygen bottle helped a little.

Basically, it could affect you or not.  What we do know is smoking increases your chances of having a problem.  Until you're dead or have that problem which is exacerbated because of it, you won't know how the smoking affects you.  Like sex, abstinence will keep you safe, but if you're going to indulge, moderation and smarts can at least mitigate the effects.

I know I'm a bad person for not actually citing any studies here but I'm reduced to referring to a BBC Radio 4 programme I hear a few years ago where they discussed the effects of smoking. Whatever the study they were focusing on, it had examined health effects based on age and, as far as I remember, primarily on the effects of increasing amounts of smoking. The results were, as far as I can remember, that the largest increase in chances of developing health problems was between those who didn't smoke and those that smoked 1-2 a day. From then on chances went up at a smaller rate until it got to 1-2 packs a day and anything more produced a negligible increase in odds of dying. Sucks to hear it (especially since I still smoke a pipe from time to time) but if you're smoking a couple of cigarettes a day you're not that much healthier than someone who's on 4-5. You're certainly doing better but you're comparatively much worse than someone who isn't smoking at all.

On the topic of illicit drugs I've always found hallucinogenics fascinating, mostly due to trying magic mushrooms a few times when they were legal (before being made class A substances) and I'm curious whether there's much evidence regarding long term health effects related to those sorts of drugs. I was lucky enough not to have had a bad trip, though I've not had LSD or any of the others more famed for bad experiences, and I'm curious about how much of the stuff regarding LSD potentially destroying your mental well-being is related to anecdotal evidence (exaggerated or not) and sensationalist journalism versus actual evidence. Hell I know one guy who had a psychotic break from smoking weed but I don't think I'd class marijuana as a substance that will likely cause psychological harm. Also if there are any easy and legal hallucinogenic substances I'm always curious

[Minvaren]

Wow, someone went there.  

On the topic of illicit drugs I've always found hallucinogenics fascinating, mostly due to trying magic mushrooms a few times when they were legal (before being made class A substances) and I'm curious whether there's much evidence regarding long term health effects related to those sorts of drugs. I was lucky enough not to have had a bad trip, though I've not had LSD or any of the others more famed for bad experiences, and I'm curious about how much of the stuff regarding LSD potentially destroying your mental well-being is related to anecdotal evidence (exaggerated or not) and sensationalist journalism versus actual evidence. Hell I know one guy who had a psychotic break from smoking weed but I don't think I'd class marijuana as a substance that will likely cause psychological harm. Also if there are any easy and legal hallucinogenic substances I'm always curious

On long-term psychedelic usage - there are mixed reports as to whether they (like weed) can activate predispositions towards some types of mental illness (bipolar disorder and schizophrenia seem to be the main two here).  When in doubt, better to be safe than sorry.  Of course, there is always the potential for a "bad trip," but proper set, setting, and consulting someone experienced with them can normally obviate those.  Outside of that, general long-term functioning is not significantly impaired as long as you give yourself adequate time between sessions, which is 2 weeks for brain chemistry to return to baseline plus however long it takes you to "assimilate" the experience.  But that's the great thing about psychedelics - you generally don't want to do them right away again anyway.    

But yeah, the urban legends of "5 hits of LSD and you're legally insane" or "they cause genetic damage" are just that.

On your last item, Saliva Divinorum is still legal in most jurisdictions in the US.  Morning Glory seeds (buy organic so they're not coated with the pesticide that makes you fall sick or fall asleep) can also work in a pinch.  Outside of that, the "Analogue Act" took care of most fun legal (and even not-yet-discovered) psychedelics.  Grey-market-wise, there are also a variety of things you could refine yourself if are a do-it-yourselfer (DMT, HBRW seeds, etc.).

(edit to add : Dextromethorphan/DXM also works, if you enjoy dissociative anesthetics)

[Salamok]

My nastiest smoking story (pack a day+ of marlboro red/gold 100's  for 15+ years), I quit about 4 and a half years ago and a year and a half ago when I started swimming I could taste cigarettes after a workout.  Basically that shit was stuck deep down in my lungs for 3 friggen years. 

My grandfather smoked 2 packs of camel non's a day for 60 years, then spent the last 5 years of his life breathing through a hole in his neck and fighting cancer.  You could say that he got away with it for 50+ years but then again I don't know too many non-smokers that walk around breathing through a hole in their throat and unable to talk.

[PalmTrees]

The only thing I take with any kind of regularity is an over the counter sleeping pill when I have to get to bed earlier than normal. Don't like to though, about half the time I'll halfway wake up in the middle of the night just drenched in sweat, like I took a shower in my clothes.

[Miguel]

To answer the above question, my advice would be to get a new dentist.  Lidocaine injection blocks given in dentistry typically fall into two groups- infiltration, meaning you expect it to diffuse through thin bone  and directly effect the nerves as they enter the tooth, and blocks, in which you directly place the lidocaine close to a large nerve branch.  Typically infiltration is only usable on the upper jaw, although it does work some on the lower jaw for children.  If someone is having difficulty getting numb, you should be getting a block of some sort and where we do those blocks the nerve is not in the bone-  thus the "thickness of your bone" should play little or no role in achieving anesthesia.

Thanks Ghost, that was very helpful.  He ended up saying something along the lines of "I'm going to inject directly into the nerve of the tooth, however it's going to be sore as hell tomorrow".  Instead of giving injections into the back of my jaw, it was literally somewhere right below the tooth I believe.  This ended up working like a charm, and it did hurt like hell for a day....however it was nothing compared to the overwhelming feeling of a drill hitting the nerve sending you into spasms. ;)  This was in the lower jaw:  I've never had this problem on the teeth on the top.

It there a name for this technique, so that I can ask either him (or his replacement) to skip all of the other stuff and get directly to what works?

[ghost]

Most likely intraosseous injection.  Poke the needle through the bone.

[Zaljerem]

Hi - long time lurker, rare poster. How goes it, f13 ?


I've found www.erowid.org to be an excellent resource in my study of psychoactives.

 

[grebo]

Have to share my extraction story. 

Just local anasthetic for a lower left molar, but when it was injected it felt strange.  Extraction went fine, but the Novocaine seemed to take forever to wear off.  My tongue was still half numb the next day, and 8 months later.  It finally started coming back and was fine again at about the 10 month mark.  I googled it and apparently nerve damage like that is not all that rare and sometimes people never get the feeling back.

[Jeff Kelly]

Which is usually not the nerve getting better but just your body adjusting to the feeling of numbness.

I had something similar like this two times in my life.

Once I nearly cut of a tiny part of my left thumb while shredding cardboard boxes with a box cutter, the part is still slightly numb and I also lost some feeling on part of the skin just under my left nipple due to a zoster outbreak. The virus involved attaches to nerves in your body, that's why it can hurt so much it's also why you might even loose feeling where you have the outbreak.

Both areas are still numb but only to touch I don't generally feel it anymore.

[Samwise]

I pinched a nerve in my leg a while back, which led to me not being able to raise my foot up from the ankle (meaning my toes would drag on the ground if I walked without lifting my knees up extra high).  Scary as fuck.  Luckily it fixed itself after a couple of months.

[Nerf]

Modafinil is amazing.

Having spent the last week taking it, yes, yes it is.  I went to my doc and got a prescription for it today, and holy fuck is it expensive.  Nuvigil is $324 for a 30 day supply, but it might be covered by my insurance if my doctor calls my insurance company and says the magic words, which would bring it down to $60.