Image description: A bottle of Ibuprofen containing 1000 tablets.
(Originally published earlier today on mastodon.social)
this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024
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Must not be many motherfuckers with arthritis over there if they've never seen bulk NSAIDs.
Shit, that's barely a month's supply for a good month for me.
The absolute maximum amount anyone should be taking in a single day would be 16 of these, and that's spread throughout an entire 24 hours, and not on a consistent basis.
Finishing this bottle in a month would require taking 33 of these pills a day, everyday. How are you alive?
I may be miscounting.
Let's see, three at a time most days, with 4 on bad days.
That's every five hours, unless I have shit to do.
So that's 3×4 minimum a day. On average it's higher, what with bad days and having a teenager which means having to do shit I can't just avoid. So 12 a day times 30 days is 360 minimum.
February, I got a new bottle on the second or third, and I have about 200 left, unless I miscounted. February was bad though.
But that does mean I was wrong in my guesstimate. I just end up buying a bottle every month, which isn't really the same thing as taking the entire bottle.
As to the consequences of the over use, it takes a lot of pepcid and other options to keep things under control. But the doc refuses to prescribe other NSAIDs because of the supposed heart risk, and aleve fucks me up even worse. Seriously, the amount of blood coming out of places it shouldn't on aleve was ridiculous.
But what else can I do? Fucking hands don't work without something to reduce the inflammation. You can't stay on steroids long term at all, and it isn't the pain that's what keeps them from working, it's the stiffness, so opiates are useless.
3 at a time is just enough to function most days. And there's days where it's every 4 hours instead of 5, but I do keep an eye on things. So far, no ulcers, no bleeding, just a lot of heartburn and some cramping. I think it helps that I always take them with food of some kind. Kidneys are doing fine as of October. No liver issues either, though that's not a high risk.
Plus, I do take breaks from it when I know I won't need the movement range as much. Every few months, even if I have to tell people to bugger off lol.
Damn though, there was a time when I had decided that I'd rather die from the medications than live with what they treat. The arthritis is mostly in my hands, but I have other musculoskeletal issues, and was essentially unable to walk without extra support for a year or two back in 08. So I was throwing down two Tylenol, 4 ibuprofen, and whatever herbal shit I could find at every dose, every four hours. If that didn't kill me, I reckon I'm going to survive as it is for a while longer.
Not to alarm you, but ibuprofen, like any other nsaid, increases the risk of stroke and heart related issues from as soon as the first week of taking it.
Cannabinoids are known to be anti inflammatory, have you tried that?
Nah, that's why the doc won't prescribe anything similar to it.
And yeah, I finally tried some CBD oil. It helps, but the price is such that it can't be an every day thing.
I was hesitant because I have bad reactions to proper marijuana, be it edibles or smoked. But CBD does work (and not just for the pain/stiffness) without side effects I can detect.
I've thought about trying delta 8, but that same concern over dealing with hours of unpleasantness places it at the back of the list along with its price tag.
I
Perhaps a combination of THC and CBD could help alleviate some of the side effects. But yeah, it is very pricey and it really shouldn't be, we're in a bit of a CBD gold rush.
You know you can look this up yourself right? This isn't an opinion of mine.
I don't need to look it up, my doctor refuses to prescribe them to me because of it. Did I fuck up somehow in my response? I am dyslexic, so I do sometimes.
No it's not that, but I took away from your reply that your doctor is implying that ibuprofen is ok, did I read that correctly?
No, the doctor is against it.
Ah ok, I misread you then, sorry I can see how my reply came off a bit harsh, that wasn't my intention!
What the fuck. Your stomachs dead
Pretty much :)
Holy shit dude, how's your stomach?
Pretty fucking rough some days. But it's the only real option.
The other two typically useful drugs for arthritis, naproxen and meloxicam are a no-go because of other issues.
This drugs can be prescribed in bulk, they just can't be bought without prescription in bulk over the counter.
This is part of laws to prevent suicide. Paracetamol is easier to suicide with and limited; Ibuprofen is not easy to take a fatal dose on but can cause serious side effect, and people are often ignorant about how deadly a drug is.
So to stop people taking ibuprofen instead of paracetamol, they're all limited to a certain amount per transaction.
And for someone with an arthritis they'd probably be getting the meds on prescription and for free rather than expected to go to a pharmacy and buy 1000 off the shelf.
Ah, gotcha! That males sense.
Alas, it's hard to find a doctor that will prescribe the higher amounts long term here, because of the cardiac risks for my age group.
My stepdad has arthritis, he gets prescribed packs of 600mg ibu, with like 5x20 blister packs in a pack or something around that number. It's mainly that at least in germany pill bottles don't exist, and probably some other EU countries too. Might be illegal for safety reasons or something, all I ever see in bottles are supplements and such. Medication is always in blister packs. I kind of dislike how wasteful that seems.
I have also never seen 200mg ibu though, only 400 and 600.
Yeah, blister packs seem like such a bad idea compared to a bottle, environmentally. I can see the safety issue for sure though.