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It's only semi autobiographical
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Lies, damn lies, and edPsych
We spent a great deal of time listening to many, many words. They were seemingly connected with GnT, but curiously, toward the end of the lecture, between three of us, no one could actually think of anything she had said.
Well, she had said lots of things, but no actual problems, or concepts, or useful material was discussed. She had asked some questions, mouthed some platitudes, but when it came down to it, not said anything.
The next lecture was on how to get a job...
That is happening right now... wonder how it is.
Now I'm bored. To the pub!
Monday, February 05, 2007
Suicide is painless (Especially if you OD on 1500mg paracetamol)
Anyway, I have just had a minor disagreement. About drugs.
Now I, and the others involved in the discussion, have very different attitudes to mind altering chemicals. I, for one, drink rather more regularly and deeply that some might deem wise.
But today, the discussion was about paracetamol, specifically, Beechams.
Imagine the situation if you will... You are ill, feeling terrible, and you take paracetamol. about 3 hours later, someone turns up with Beechams, you know this will make you feel better, but wait... it has paracetamol in it!
... And it has only been 3 hours ...
...ish...
30 minutes pass... do you dare take the Beechams? Sure... it might not kill you... but what of the side effects???
I took the liberty of doing some research.
The 50% lethality level of one mass dose is 15G, or 30 tablets. Hospitals slash this to 26 tablets, to be safe. The pharmaceutical companies reduce this to 8 tablets on their literature, they obviously do not want litigation. Oh, and that is over 24 hours rather than one dose.
Now... if one has taken 2 tablets.... and 3 and a half hours later takes perhaps 500mg worth of paracetamol, that is about 1 tablet, do we really think there is a health risk? Actually, if you consider that if you were to just take the recommended dose, you would ingest 2000mg over 4 hours, and scale it back to 3 hours, that's 1500mg, exactly what you would end up taking with the Beechams. And by the time you worked that out, you would be well over the 3 hours you were worried about in the first place!
Ah, I hear you say, but what about other minor side effects? To which I reply with an incredulous look. You really think that at that dose, the side effects will be worse than the ILLNESS you are trying to cure?
Incidentally, it seems that one dose of 4000mg is likely to cause immediate side effects in most people. Which, coincidentally, is the recommended dose in a day on the packets of pills.
Anyway. I just found this intensely frustrating. Hearing someone complain of an illness, and then refuse to take medicine because they are worried about the side effects...
"My eye hurts!" "Well, stop putting vinegar in it then..." "But if I do that, and a wasp stings it, it would really hurt!" "Yeah but.... but.... never mind."
Now I'm tired, and I'm going to drink booze.
