den: (rescues)
[personal profile] den
The phone rang at 7am. ugh

"HI DEN!" said Cheery Di. "This is your early morning wake up and rescue call!"

I didn't need this. I felt like crap after a bad night of coughing and wheezing. Di said the council ranger had found a sick frogmouth in Victoria Park, and I was the only one available to take the call. Another hour in bed wouldn't help since I'd be wheezing and coughing, so I might as well be up, doing something and wheezing and coughing.

The lawn was white with frost. I checked the thremometer: -2C outside. Oh goody.

First stop was at the mall to buy some cold and flu capsules. The pharmacy was closed but the supermarket was open. I hoped they had something stronger than asprin. They did! Apparetly. The box was labelled Night & Day Cold & Flu, but the list of ingredients were all herbal. Bugger. I wanted DRUGS, dammit! I needed something that would take to the symptoms with a cricket bat and would make my head go "Squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee-POP!" I didn't want something to sit beside the symptom and tell it that what it was doing was really really uncool, man.

So I bought the hippie drugs, a bottle of soda water and a packet of crisps, called that Breakfast and went looking for the bird. I found the ranger after ten minutes of wandering around Victoria Park. He was being intimidated by a fully grown frogmouth. The bird was snapping its huge beak and flaring it's wings. It was doing everything except trying to get away: not a good sign. He started telling me about how he found it, then he paused and said "There he goes again." The frogmoth had closed his eyes and was doubled over in pain. The spasm passed and he went back to his Big Scary Frogmouth poses.

"Oh boy," I muttered.

"What?"

"I think it's poisoned. It probably picked up a sick mouse. Have you laid rat baits anywhere?"

The poor ranger looked upset. They'd laid rat-sak in one of the storage sheds. Ugh. Bloody warfarin. I told the ranger about one of the local pest cortol companies that sells a non-heomorragic bait that doesn't cause secondary poisoning. The poor bloke looked really upset and I told him that very few people realise the secondary poisong effects, and at least the bird has a chance now that I could get it to a vet. I'll know later how the bird is doing. If it really is poisoned I don't have much hope it'll survive.

Two hours had passed and the hippy drug wad not helped my cold. On the way home I called in at a pharmacy and bought a packet of "Die You Filthy Microscopic Bastards" containing codeine and pseudoephedrin. I feel much better now.

Date: 30 Jul 2004 17:15 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] athelind.livejournal.com
Wow. You can get codeine without a perscription there?

Between that and the warfarin, this was Pharm 101 Day.

Date: 30 Jul 2004 17:22 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] dewhitton.livejournal.com
You can only buy limited amounts at any one time. But the pseudoephedrin is the one: get enough tabs with it and you can cook up amphetemines.

Date: 30 Jul 2004 18:13 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mactavish.livejournal.com
In California, codeine is prescription-only, but you can only buy limited pseudophedrin at one time because of the amphetamines issue.

Date: 30 Jul 2004 17:24 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hedgegoth.livejournal.com
Same in Canada - you can get over the counter aspirin with a bit of codeine (not as much as tylenol 3 but better than regular aspirin) called 222s, the theraflu equivalent has a bit, the good cough syrups do as well.

American meds are wimpy

Date: 30 Jul 2004 17:38 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] hafoc.livejournal.com
True. If you could get effective over-the-counter meds, after all, you'd never pay prescription prices to treat Just Another Cold. And if you cut the drug industry's profits, what would happen to our political system?

On the other hand, there are compensations. If I remember correctly, Canadian Mountain Dew doesn't even have CAFFEINE. Drinks without caffeine? What's the point?

:)

Date: 30 Jul 2004 18:13 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] mactavish.livejournal.com
Canada, too. Last time I was in BC, I tried to pick some up, but it was OTC literally -- one must ask the pharmacist to hand it over the counter, but it's available without a prescription, and when I had access to the market, the pharmacy counter was closed.

Date: 31 Jul 2004 02:02 (UTC)
From: [identity profile] targaff.livejournal.com
I discovered once - after a trip to the dentist for an extraction, whereafter she told me to get anything but aspirin - that you can buy it over the counter here in the UK, too.

My mum (nurse) wasn't that impressed to find I was using it as quick pain relief for headaches, though...

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