I died last night.
Just now, I awoke from death.
It’s really bizarre.
I believe that I am 'drug sensitive’.
Once, back in jr. high, the doc gave me a powerful codine-based cough syrup to knock down the cold ripping out my throat. One, maybe two good-sized tablespoons were all I swollowed before crawling back in bed. For the next couple of hours, I fried, froze, shivered and shook. Totally disoriented, I stumbled upstairs, trembling like a leaf, and spent the rest of the afternoon bundled up on the couch–just in case something that required immediate attention happened. Somewhere in that fog, I was scared. I never again touched that stuff, and my family doc surmissed that I may be allergic to codine–an opiate derivative, antitussive cough surpressant.
The shake, shiver and disorientation I suffered through as a result of two tablespoons of cough syrup, together with good sense, a series of bizarre hallucinations following inoculation against yellow fever–exploding teeth, glowing blankets, and a giant day-glow-green grasshopper with long pink wings and a pink, snakey-tail crawling in my ear–(not to mention allergic reactions to a couple different classes of antibiotics) have convinced me that not only narcotics, but any kind of recreational drug use is probably a really bad idea. Moreover, I decided that pharmaceuticals, in general, are to be avoided.
Now, I don’t even like to take aspirin. I get sick, I suffer and recover on my own, thank you very much.
Problem is, sometimes, pills are necessary. Over the last week, I’ve been suffering through a run-of-the-mill sniffle that turned into a cough, then bronchitis. cough cough PAIN Most of Sunday, I felt pretty good… I was getting better. Then, last night, the cough cranked up again, so I headed to the clinic for the standard bag-o’-pills.
My bag of pills
(listed on the off chance that the info may be useful, or that someone can help me fill in the blanks):
Mequitazine - an antihistamine prescribed in large quantities for the common cold.
Medicon-A - a DMH antitussive. Some website says, “antitussives are the ingredients used in pharmaceuticals such as cough linctuses to inhibit the cough reflex. Conventional antitussives such as codeine derivatives are morphine-related; they are narcotic and can be addictive. The fully synthetic antitussive Dextromethorphan Hydrobromide (DMH), effectively inhibits the cough reflex at the centre in the brain stem. It is non-narcotic and non-addictive.”
Fenoterol - opens up the bronchial tubes of the lungs.
Degiton - something like Ibuprofen
Tagamet 200 - a cimetidine-based histamine H2-receptor antagonist that inhibits the production of acid in the stomach. According to wikipedia: adverse drug reactions were found to be relatively common with cimetidine, and while it is still used, it is no longer amongst the more widely used H2-receptor antagonists.
Some generic before-bed cough surpressant.
That’s the bag. Swallowed those around 10:30 pm. Never fell asleep. I blame the wakefulness on a screwball sleep schedule and four cups of coffee. Chased the pills with a single extra-strength Tylenol around 3:00 a.m. Finally fell asleep shortly after 4:00.
Dreamed death
Sleep was something between the shakey disorientation I remember from codine–I coughed, and thus shook, the entire time–and the unpleasant yellow fever reaction & visions. The dream was extremely lucid, but disorienting and disturbing. Suffice to say, in the dream, I died. I felt myself die, as if rapidly drained. As this occurred, my vision changed, as though a roll of semi-transparent film was pulled down over my eyes; a film which filtered out 95% of all colour. A residual physical form I ‘wore’ was moderately transformed; I was transported to a house I last lived in 10 years ago; I found myself grasp at fragments of my life, then pulling back, time and again, with a startled realization that “this is NOTHING! I’m dead, and I’m worried about THIS?” I also found myself stunned by the realization that several things that ARE very important to me remain, and would always remain, unfinished. Ack.
Finally, I realized that I was laying on my stomach with one arm pinned beneath me, staring at a corner of the sheet and the headboard. It was about 6:00 a.m., and everything was a flat, dull grey. Still, I BELIEVED that I was dead, or perhaps just about to die and wink out of existence. Taking a couple of breaths, it dawned on me that I might not be dead, nor about to expire. Maybe. I WASN’T sure. Then I began coughing, again, realized that I was still, thankfully, here. Sat up dazzled.
I don’t care what the weather’s like today, it’s gonna be BEAUTIFUL all day. Alllll daaay. BEAUTIFUL.
What was this?
First up, I don’t EVER want to experience that again.
Second, I don’t KNOW that any of these drugs were responsible. I’ve had lucid dreams before. At one point, I could put myself to sleep and into a lucid dream state in minutes, if not seconds. This felt much more like the nasty pharmaceutical experiences described above.
Third, if the recreational experience is anything like that, users are freaking insane.
Finally, [color=blue]does anyone have any information on the drug cocktail I’ve been given, or non-pharmaceutical treatments for bronchitis?[/color] I think I’m almost over the illness this time, but it’s so common here… Also, insights regarding factors contributing to the onset of bronchitis? I’ve been looking through some relevant threads but I would like to carefully tie up the various threads of this episode and NEVER revisit it.
Oh yes, I’m on Day One of three days’ worth of pills. 