Posts Tagged ‘Tylenol’
Sex, Drugs and Root Canals
This isn’t the first time I’ve gotten myself a nice prescription and contemplated becoming addicted to some soothing painkiller. While some people have never had surgery or any pain of the kind that requires chemicals beyond what can be had over the counter, like many, I’ve had a few brushes with the good stuff.
Though I don’t remember what was given to me at age five when my tonsils came out, at age sixteen I had my wisdom teeth removed and that required large doses of codeine. It was at this time that my mother learned that I could swear like a sailor. There are issues with Codeine that anyone who’s had it knows about. The major problem is that – while it’s prescribed for pain – it does nothing for pain. Nope. Nada. Squat.
The only thing Codeine does is make you not care. The first afternoon, after the anesthetic wore off and the pills had time to kick in, my mother asked me “Are you feeling any better yet?” “Nope.” (I grinned my swollen-faced grin.) “Really?” She asked. “Nope Mom, it hurts like a mother@#$%^. I just don’t care.” Notice how I didn’t put in the second half of the word? Yeah, that’s because I’m sober. But that day, I said it. Not only did I not care that I was in pain, I didn’t care that I was going to be in future pain just for knowing that word and throwing it around, pain meds or not.
So Codeine doesn’t even make my top five list of painkillers. I’d rather have two Advil and tough it out, at least I know when the pain passes I won’t be held liable for something I might have said.
