Saturday, November 17, 2012

Guinea Pig**

Monday Cam and I went into Gelibolu to the bank.  Afterwards, he got a shave and a hair cut and I did some shopping, then we went for lunch. On the way home we bought ice cream and parts for his work related plumbing adventure. By the time I got home, I had a burning pain in my chest and a funny little cough. Of course nearly a week later it’s blossomed into a full on cold with all the symptoms and I’ve passed it around. So today Sam is coughing like a pack a day smoker and Johanna is laying on her bed wishing she knew how to nap.
For some reason before we returned to Canada for the summer, I never thought to inventory our cough and cold remedy supply. Our first cold at the end of September depleted what little we had on hand after I threw out everything that had exceeded its best before date.
Today Cam and I went to a pharmacy to see about cough medicine. In Canada, my pharmacy of choice is located inside my usual grocery store. Behind the counter are white coated pharmacists and assistants who dispense doctors’ prescriptions. On my side of the counter are lots of vitamins and medicines which you can choose without a prescription. In Turkey, pharmacies are separate businesses. They sell a few sundries, but all the drugs and vitamins are behind the counter. There were two fellows in the pharmacy we visited. Both were dressed casually.
Cam Google translated cough syrup before we went and I mimed symptoms. They sold us something called Asist. Helpfully the fellow wrote dosing instructions in English on the exterior of the box;  1 teaspoon morning, afternoon and evening. When I got the box home, I discovered that it contained a glass bottle half full of a granular substance like Koolaid. I did a quick Internet search and discovered the active ingredient is for pneumonia and  acetaminophen over doses. Not exactly what we had in mind when we went looking for cough suppressant.
I Google translated some of the instructions and did as instructed (add boiling water to fill line on bottle – shake). After the mixture had cooled, I took a teaspoon full. When I felt neither better nor worse after half an hour I gave a teaspoon full to Sam.   It's been a couple of hours now and let me just say so far so good - not cured but not worse either.
The good news part of this story is that Cam saw vials of vitamin C, clearly labeled vitamin C, in the pharmacy and we convinced the guy to sell us a 40 tablets. 
**a person who is the subject of an experiment 

1 comment:

  1. Sorry to hear you have a houseful of hackers. No fun at all. A friend of mine who is a pharmacist told me that the best thing for coughs is codeine, and whenever her daughter needed a cough suppressant she would give her a Tylenol 3. Hope you all get better soon so we can continue to be entertained by your adventure while we are freezing our backsides off here.
    Jenny B

    ReplyDelete

Thanks!