Ivories that Slice Sedatives in Half

On Thursday morning, I woke up to realize that the left side of my mouth was swollen where I got my wisdom teeth out - three weeks ago. I figured it would get better, and that it was probably just a reaction to something I ate - spicy food or something seemed plausible. But this morning it seemed to be a lot worse, so I called the Urgent Care center to make sure they were open (of course they were, considering how many idiots with access to fire crackers were running around today). I knew I had an infection, and really only needed antibiotics to clear it up, and it seemed like entirely too much trouble to go and sit in the waiting room at UC for that, especially when I wasn't positive that they would even give me a prescription. So I called Dr. Parker's office, and they got him on his cell phone. He offered to call in a prescription for more antibiotics and threw in another for Lortab as well (which, come to think of it, was a rather iffy move - I could have easily been lying to get more drugs).

Anyway, before I called Dr. Parker, I looked around on the Internet to see if there were any over-the-counter options I could use, only to find that it's illegal to sell OTC antibiotics in the US. But some other sites came up, offering brand suggestions in the UK - where OTC antibiotics are legal. This must be one of the many areas that the US and UK differ in - censorship, government, and health care. After doing a bit of research, I've come up with a significant list of pros and cons.

The most widely accepted reason for limiting public access to antibiotics is that excessive use could lead to the development of resistant strains of bacteria - rendering antibiotics obsolete, and leaving people in a whole lot of danger. However, an article I found in the Oxford Journals (naturally) states that there really isn't much solid proof that overusing antibiotics can lead to uber-bacteria.

Then we get into the fuzzy areas. The UK made OTC antibiotics legal so that the people would have more access to health care - trusting that they would use them responsibly and that it would only do them good. This is where the idea of universal health care comes in - it's thought that if you provide health care to everyone, the doctors and pharmacists won't be needed as much, and therefore lose business and jobs and money. But in my opinion, if more people can be helped at the expense of someone's already ample paycheck, then why not?

And, of course, if something in the US is illegal, there's going to be people finding ways around it. An article I came across listed four main options: pet stores, the Internet, back-ally ethnic supermarkets, and Mexico. Basically, they're all pretty risky. The "pet store" option is the funniest to me - the antibiotics used on fish are chemically the same as the stuff we use for ourselves, so you just go in, buy some, and take an extra large dose.

Sadly, I have a really bad reaction to Lortab, including nausea and dizziness, so I'm going to have to cut this short here. I'll try to be more prolific when I'm off these pills.