helen-louise (baratron) wrote,
helen-louise
baratron
  • Mood: sick

getting quite sick of being sick

Today I survived Kingston Hospital! Saw a rather nice GP of African descent, who wins my personal gratitude for actually having read my medical history before seeing me. Apparently my lungs are still sounding clear, but the fact I'm coughing them up again and have crappy peak flow again means I got a prescription for erythromycin. It seems that the new out-of-hours GP service (Kingston Health On Call) are a bit more competent than the old one (Thamesdoc) - although I do believe that Thamesdoc lost the contract for being crap. I also believe this is the first time I've ever seen an emergency GP who's known what all my medications are. Perhaps he looked them up in MIMS immediately before I walked in the room, but I'm still impressed.

Also, some moaning principally for my own benefit, because I believe that I'm the only graduate chemist who reads my livejournal on a regular basis. My new medicine contains E124, which "may cause allergic reactions in people who are aspirin-sensitive". So I go to Wikipedia to find out why, and apparently "Since it is an azo dye, it may elicit intolerance in people allergic to salicylates (aspirin).". Now, I have a chemistry degree, and I have no idea WTF azo dyes have to do with salicylates. They both contain a benzene ring? They both contain a phenol group?! so do 90% of medications! Seriously, there is no obvious connection between azo dyes and salicylates that I can see, and this particular azo dye is not based on 2-hydroxybenzoic acid.

Still... why do drugs need to contain bright food colourings anyway? With the dye, these tablets look rather like Smarties. It would be very easy for a small child to eat them by mistake. Bah.
Tags: disease, medical phobia, moaning, science
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