I recall visiting the US and needing some paracetamol (acetaminophen), and the smallest quantity available to buy in the pharmacy was a bottle of like a hundred or something (may have been more)
Blew our minds. In the UK they come in packs of 16 max and you aren’t allowed to buy more than 2 packs at a time.
@twostraws but please have some sympathy or even pity on those within this system. chronic pain is really no fun, no matter where you are, but here it’s pretty bleak. and there’s little we can do about it other than than emigration.
The part where you need 1000 tablets, that’s more than a lifetime supply. If you need that many you’re better off visiting the doctor and fix whatever the issue is.
@twostraws that’s the size of the bottle to buy and put in the office break room so you have 25 people using some from time to time. Takes a couple of years to get through.
Someone obviously doesn’t have rheumatoid arthritis, or any other one of a plethora of painful diseases. Even with my biologics, flare ups happen, and ibuprofen takes the edge off.
On the other hand, maybe Europe has cured RA, and just hasn’t shared it with the rest of the world?
Sure, NSAIDS are great, but 99.9% of RA patients still shouldn’t need 1000 tablets of half strength Ibuprofen if they are actually seeing their rheumatologist. We usually use coxibs for prolonged therapy supplementing with paracetamole or paracetamole codeine as needed. Most of the time pain control is achieved quickly via steroids and we generally recommend patients to try and avoid NSAIDS once they are started on steroids.
@twostraws LOL Good thing you didn't ask for what they have behind the counter. That's where the "controlled substances" are that they sell without a prescription. :) We have an opioid epidemic fueled by prescriptions and probably China, but supposedly the items behind the counter are sold that way to monitor purchases becasue they can be used to make drugs. Overdosing is not on the radar here as far as I'm aware. If it was I feel like we'd all be naloxone certified.
You can’t buy more than 10 at a time here unless you have a prescription… On the plus side, you can almost get them for free if you do have a prescription
You can get them if you have a prescription so if the doctor seems a good reason, there is no problem. Note that its free to visit the doctor and free to get a prescription. Also prescribed medication is cheaper than over the counter medication even if it is the same medication. The state helps cover the cost of prescribed medications.
That said, it’s better to fight the cause of the pain instead of the pain, You can also get physiotherapy prescribed or other treatment that will help against whatever is hurting.
Also construction work is often very safe and protected both by education and insurance due to unions. Although its hard work it is often strongly regulated and controlled to follow rules that will protect workers from getting hurt or worn out
I used to have to use them about 3 to 5 days a week. Is had been going on for years.
Turns out my blood pressure was too high. Took some blood pressure medication and now I haven’t had one in close to 6 months. I wouldn’t have believed it myself if I hadn’t experienced it but you may want to get that looked at.
Hearing Europeans mock how much we pay for health care never gets old. I mean, the stupid high bills just don’t get the point across. I would be ecstatic with a single payer system supported by taxes. A system that doesn’t rely on an insurance company whose sole purpose is to deny me the coverage I am due. My favorite part is the fake astronomical prices they put on stuff just to charge insurance companies a “negotiated” price. I get that we, as a nation, truly suck. At best we are a corporatocracy. At worst, a straight oligarchy. We’ve got a feeble minded , racist, oompa loompa running for a second term as president. And he has a legit chance of winning! There is almost no part of our society that does not suck in some way. And the vast majority of us know it but the government is so bought and paid for that no real change is possible without bullets. But please, my European brothers and sisters, can you please stop rubbing it on our faces. I assure you we hurt enough already. (edit: a word)
No. This was purchased because someone thought it was a “great deal”. They will use about a quarter of the bottle before it expires and then just throw the rest out.
Not everyone is a lonely neck beard. Some folks live with families, and some of those family members might just have to take a daily pill or two daily.
That and to deal with the symptoms of their illnesses that have gone untreated because a) too expensive and/or b) doctors here gaslight you that it’s just anxiety.
My wife just paid $150 to go to a walk-in to check what is clearly a swollen blocked gland or something under her ear. It’s killing her. She was there for an hour. The doctor was in and out in under 2 minutes. He told her to take Tylenol and come back when it gets worse.
So yeah, it’s cheaper and you waste less time buying OTC pain killers in bulk I guess.
@twostraws I remember when my wife sprained her ankle in wales I went to buy her ibuprofen and they stopped me from buying like 2 8 packs or something and it was extremely frustrating haha.
@jeffkibuule With your nationality (and qualifications too!) you get to say that, but all the European folks piling in with anti-American trash can get take a hike.
@Drwave@twostraws Paul, go to a 24 hour convenience store and behold the cup sizes under the soda fountain. If you think that pill bottle is baffling...
@Verso@Drwave@twostraws the sheer volume of everything in the states is amazing, but with ibuprofen doubly so since you can't legally buy more than 12 capsules at a time here
@twostraws Oh yeah, those go by the 400mg, you’re right. Still take the largest one I can get, though I try to avoid Ibuprofen when I can. It’s rare that paracetamol doesn’t do enough for me, thankfully.
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