Don't Stand too Close to Me.

I think I brought home more than memories and gifts from the Loop Christmas. I have been fighting a nasal drip and sore throat since the trip. The same having been suffered through by the rest of my family, but I in fits of stubbornness have refused to take medicine nor go to the doctor. I snorted and sniffled my way through semester exams, and pretty have much felt miserable through our Christmas stuff here at home, at my Mom's, and at Brandy's Mom's. So this morning I got up, sounding about like I had a 2 pack a day habit, and as if i had gargled with Drain-O. That would not have been too bad, but I had one ear completely stopped up and hurting, and the other about "half full".

I gave up. It was time to go to the doctor...

Brandy and the kids use a different doctor here than the clinic I "use." By "use" I mean the mandatory physicals we have to take at school each year. I had been wanting to use Brandy's doctor after hearing how good he was with the girls. Unfortunately he was out of town until next week, so I resorted to use the clinic. So after waiting an hour and a half (not too bad as far as medical places go, but remember where we are talking here) I got in and spent maybe 5 minutes, to hear the guy say, "I don't think it's a bacterial infection, so... I can give you a steroid shot, but if its not allergies, don't expect much." Part of me wanted to spit a a big brown hunk of phlegm and ask him if he didn't want to run it over to the lab to make sure it's "not infected". But I remained polite while I think my temperature and blood pressure started to climb. Then he said, "I could write you a prescription, but there's an Over-The-Counter that will do the same thing to get rid of that mucus." My insurance plan doesn't have an Rx Card, so he gave me the name of it, "Mucinex-D" and told me I would have to ask the pharmacist to give it to me, since it is a variety of Mucinex containing pseudoephedrine.

I couldn't believe it, when I asked, and the pharmacist at the local drug store gave it to me, I had to give them my Driver's License, and then they entered my name and information into a list! She said they had to keep up with it where they could tell law enforcement who might be have the ingredients to make meth. I was thinking "Great, sell the Chemistry teacher a precursor to an illegal drug, and put his name on a list!" I wanted to ask the lady at the counter, do they keep a list of everyone who buys aluminum foil and "The Works" at the grocery store, just in case they might want to build a bomb? Or a list of everyone who purchases carving knives from Bed Bath and Beyond in case they decide to dismember their spouse?

I was checking news sites later in the evening, and one of the Digg sites mentioned the real reason for crap you go through just to get rid of a little snot, and why today's Sudafed is just about as good for your cold as taking cherry Kool-Aid, and its not because of the Meth-heads out there. The full article can be found here. The following are excerpts:

"Let's follow the money a bit. It seems that most all pseudoephedrine is manufactured in China and India, and very cheaply, much more cheaply than it can be made in the United States or Europe. What that means is that these companies don't have lobbyists in Washington who can make an effective case for their product.

Contrast this was phenylephrine, the world's largest manufacturer of which is located in Germany. The company is called Boehringer-Ingelheim, according to MSNBC. It developed the drug in 1949 for use in eyedrops. In the last two years, virtually every manufacturer of cold medicine has changed its formula to include the Boehringer drug. Some continue to make the old formula available but only with special access.

Is it possible that the move against wonderful pseudoephedrine and in favor of useless phenylephrine was really a form of protectionism in disguise? That it was really about rewarding a well-connected company at the expense of companies without connections?

If that sounds cynical, take a look at this. It seems that our friends at Boehringer Ingelheim are rather interested in American politics, with 73% of its donations going to Republican candidates for federal office. You can see here that Boehringer even has a PAC located in Ridgefield, Connecticut. Someone with more time than I have ought to check to see how the people it supported for Congress voted on the act that resulted in a massive shift toward their product, and has nearly kept its competitive product off the market.

Oh and look here. It turns out that this company spent $1.85 million on lobbying in 2005, and this was a huge upsurge over all previous years. "

I would continue to rant, however some CIA webcrawler will probably come across this and brand me an Enemy of the State AND a Drug Addicted Terrorist, all because I had a sinus infection and an earache. You might want to just say you've never heard of me, and don't know anything if guys in the black Crown Victorias drop by your door...