when a (future) pharmacist gets menstrual cramps

What does she do, besides curling up on her bed and writh in pain?

Why, go over all the drugs in her possesion and decide whichever is the best choice for this purpose, of course!

1. Panadol a.k.a. acetaminophen
COX inhibitor. Anti-inflammatory analgesic. Hmm. But I have cramps wor. dunno can work or not? Never mind, take first, don't care liao. Since it's the closest to me. (I always keep panadol in my 'emergency pouch' which I carry around with me, my other meds are stored somewhere else)

2. Celebrex
NSAID analgesic. Not quite sure if it can work for menstrual pain, dad gave it to me for severe stress-induced headaches. And it's far away with my 'other meds'. Never mind la.

3. Muscle relaxant?
Actually I think I was somewhat delirious when I came to this, for I started thinking about today's DD2 class test material and how benzodiazepines can be used as muscle relaxants and the part in Rang and Dale where this is stated ('decrease decerebrate rigidity in cats and patients with cerebral palsy' wtf) Then I thought, oh cannot, I don't even have benzodiazepines on me! I only have SSRI (Prozac) which does not have muscle relaxant properties. Cannot.

4. Loratadine (antihistamine)
I was in so much pain and feeling like shit and dying so I thought perhaps I could use this to knock me out for a while then I can sleep while the panadol kicks in, so I'll wake up pain-free! But then I thought I'd seen somewhere that Loratadine is not much of a sedative. So cannot use also. Haiyah.

5. Peppermint essential oil
This is what I use for my headaches but I doubt it will work as well for period cramps since it's a stimulant and all, but it wouldn't hurt to try, would it?


Verdict:
It's 2 hours since the pain started and the panadol has kicked in, thank god. 90% of pain gone. But I know it's only masking the pain temporarily so I'll probably have to take another dose 4 hours later. Or maybe I should try celebrex for the next dose...?

It's almost funny to look back and think about what I thought just now, in so much pain! It's been years since I had such a bad cramp, the last time I was hit with such horrible cramps that I couldn't even move and could only lie down like an invalid was when I was in high school. Then I didn't know that panadol could relieve the pain so what silly me did was to hug myself in the fetal position and wait for the pain to subside. The weird thing is, the panadol variant which is supposed to relieve period pain has no effect on me, but the normal one does. I wonder why.

Do you get such bad period pains? if so, what do you do? =)



+:+:+:+:+

So today we had THE DD class test.

And Prof YPN was our chief invigilator for the test today.

(to digress a little: How nice it would be if I had Twilight's Edward's mind-reading abilities, I would be able to read all the test material off prof yeoh's mind and get 100%! Muahaha!)

As with any exam, the chief invigilator would say something like, "Time's up, put down your pens".
Guess what our dear YPN said?
"Students, you have a few more seconds to go....and three, two, one. Time's up!"

This, coming from a Quakeress governess-ish sort of lecturer, totally cracked me up! =)


xoxo