The best advice I’ve gotten all day: When getting a touch hypochondriacal keep googling ’till you get an answer you like.
The dentist dispensed some antibiotics to me today in preparation for fixing my root canal next week. The last time I had antibiotics, they made me sick as a dog. When his assistant handed me the bottle, I looked at it and it says “Take with plenty of water. May make you sick as a dog…” (well, my words, but you get it…) and I say, “Lovely side effects” He asks if I want the full write up on it, I decline, I can look it up when I get home.
So I do, cause I try to be a responsible & informed patient. Dear lord was that a mistake. From some of the descriptions out there, I might as well be calling in dead for the next week while I’m on these and if I’ve been prescribed them, I should really be dead already.
Finally, I get to the NIH website. Thank god, a haven of sanity, provided by my government, no less. Here, they say “Although side effects are not common, they can occur,” as well as listing the more mainstream reasons it’s prescribed, and the black death isn’t among them. Which is much less freakish than some of the other crap out there.
Then I look at the bottle again, and realize that the “may make you sick as a dog” message is continued around the corner of the bottle and I couldn’t tell that when looking at it in the office. It’s continued with “notify physician if this occurs” which is certainly better than, “so have a trash can at the ready.”
I still don’t wanna take the damn things. (I will, but…)
