worrying my allistic partner

[granolaturtle]

So he just found out that I don't take medication that often, even when I'm sick. I felt really bad, but it's hard for me to both remember to do it and not gag on the medicine. I have a tough enough time with something in prescribed.

but when I cough I shake and that sets off his nervous system disorder. I finally found some mucinex today and took it today, but I feel like I've completely ruined how he perceives me. like what if he's completely disgusted by me now???

 

[Bolletje]

Why would someone be disgusted with you for not taking medication? Am I missing something?

 

[Bolletje]

By the way, are you talking about over the counter-medication or recurring prescription? I can imagine your partner getting worried if you're not taking your daily medication regularly.

Other than that I really can't imagine why your partner would think any less of you for not self-medicating. I'm not sure where you live, and some countries are more medicalized than others, but where I live it's completely normal to not self-medicate.

When under the weather with flu/common cold/upper airway infection there's not that much you can do with medication to speed up your healing process anyway. You can alleviate some symptoms with over the counter medication, but that's about it. You'll have to tough it out either way.
On a side note, Mucinex hasn't proved to be more effective than a placebo against cough so far .

 

[Southern Discomfort]

If you're talking about psychotropic medication then you really need to take that stuff daily. It can do bad things to you if you start/stop it all the time. Have a look if you can get an alternative form of the medicine you're on, there might be dissolvable ones you can put under your tongue, liquid solutions or for some there's injections you can have once a fortnight.

I used an app on my phone to get me into the daily habit of taking medication twice a day. It's an easy way of handling it. In my teens I was bad at remembering to take tablets I needed and I didn't want to repeat that dysfunction so the app helped me there.

 

[granolaturtle]

with him it's more like the movement of me coughing when we cuddle causes him to shake afterwards. so there's no getting around that.

also I'm American, and I guess that affects it somewhat. here we take medications for everything. my avoidance of self medication really does make me an odd one out.

now that I've calmed down I don't think he thinks I'm disgusting. he just mentioned how me not taking medications when I have a cold could cause other people to get sick and I of course over analyzed it and freaked out.

 

[Bolletje]

Ah, being American explains a lot Extensive self-medicating is increasing in the Netherlands as well, but I'm glad most people stick to simple painkillers and the occasional nasal spray. Taking more than that is very rare here.

Also, when you have the common cold, the only thing you can do to prevent infection is covering your mouth and nose while sneezing/coughing, and washing your hands after you cough, sneeze or blow your nose. There's no medication that prevents you from infecting others.
Sorry for the lesson in medicine you didn't ask for, I'm a medical professional and I have the habit of correcting any incorrect assumptions about medicine I see, whether people asked for it or not. I hope I didn't sound condescending and I hope you don't mind

 

[Judge]

Extensive self-medicating is increasing in the Netherlands as well, but I'm glad most people stick to simple painkillers and the occasional nasal spray. Taking more than that is very rare here.

I realize I'm "preaching to the choir" responding to your post, but it does bring up a critical point. Emphasis on that word "occasional", in that context.

I was an oxymatazoline hydrochloride addict for three years.

Nose drops can be an effective way to relieve a stuffy nose, but only on a very temporary basis. Otherwise the continued use of them actually becomes the source of the stuffy nose and not a cold or allergy. So you get hooked using them. A classic painkiller addiction scenario, although perfectly legal.

 

[Bolletje]

I realize I'm "preaching to the choir" responding to your post, but it does bring up a critical point. Emphasis on that word "occasional", in that context.

I was an oxymatazoline hydrochloride addict for three years.

Nose drops can be an effective way to relieve a stuffy nose, but only on a very temporary basis. Otherwise the continued use of them actually becomes the source of the stuffy nose and not a cold or allergy. So you get hooked using them. A classic painkiller addiction scenario, although perfectly legal.

That's such a nasty side effect of those nose sprays! They've changed regulations here so that those nose sprays can only be purchased at places where staff has had basic pharmacy training. These stores are not allowed to sell you nose spray without instructing you specifically not to use it for more than two weeks for exactly that reason.
Of course that doesn't stop people from using it for too long anyway, but it's a start in informing people.

 

[Judge]

That's such a nasty side effect of those nose sprays! They've changed regulations here so that those nose sprays can only be purchased at places where staff has had basic pharmacy training. These stores are not allowed to sell you nose spray without instructing you specifically not to use it for more than two weeks for exactly that reason.
Of course that doesn't stop people from using it for too long anyway, but it's a start in informing people.

Oh yes. I avoid them like any addict would avoid drugs or alcohol. Never used them again after 1979.

You take them to open your nasal passages, and then it is the perpetual use of them that closes them up completely. In a matter of hours or even less once you've abused their intended use.

From then on, they are the problem- not the solution. And "cold turkey" becomes your only real option. Now I'm apt to use only two things. Tissues and occasionally a safe-to-use saline spray. Though the nasal strips look quite effective, although horrendously overpriced for what they are.

Though I'm also quite reticent to use any heavy-duty painkiller beyond ibuprofen having been a caregiver to my mother who eventually ended up in "pain management", a euphemism for when the professional medical establishment formally cuts you off from powerful prescription medications which remain "controlled substances" in the eyes of the law.

 

[Bolletje]

I've been hit hard with the allergy stick so it's a bit of a catch 22 for me. I have a stuffy nose all year round and use a steroid nasal spray during peak pollen season but there's a few times a year when I have to use xylomethozaline, because I have the bad luck that anytime I have a prolonged period of nasal congestion I develop mid-ear infections. I'm very wary of using it for longer than a week though. I usually use steam to open my airways as much as possible.

 

[Judge]

I've been hit hard with the allergy stick so it's a bit of a catch 22 for me. I have a stuffy nose all year round and use a steroid nasal spray during peak pollen season but there's a few times a year when I have to use xylomethozaline, because I have the bad luck that anytime I have a prolonged period of nasal congestion I develop mid-ear infections. I'm very wary of using it for longer than a week though. I usually use steam to open my airways as much as possible.

With winter and the allergy season in spring I normally take .25 mg of generic loratidine (Claritin) every night to help with a stuffy nose. It's not perfect, but it keeps me from losing more sleep than I already lose.

I've suffered from Hay Fever issues my entire life. Made life intolerable living in the tropics.