Oops...Not thinking at all
By emeraldisle
@emeraldisle (13138)
United States
February 21, 2007 4:57pm CST
Well a couple of weeks ago silly me hurt my ankle. Don't ask me how because I don't know how. I got up to walk out to have a cigarette outside and my ankle and the side of my leg were screaming in pain. Well all I have for pain medicine is over the counter medication. I took some ibuprofen and hoped it would help. It did somewhat and this went on. Then last week my foot and leg started to swell. I put it down to what ever I did to injure it. I was taking ibuprofen for the pain in it plus my normal pain I have every day (I suffer from several injuries and joint problems). I put my foot up and then alternated between cold and hot compresses. Nothing was helping. It just kept getting worse. Now if it had been both legs and feet I would have thought an allergy to something but it was only the one so I was really starting to worry. I'm thinking possible blood clot or something and trying to figure out how I'm going to afford to go to the doctor on it.
Well then last night I went to take some pain medicine and I thought wait, let me check. Yep there it was in the inactive ingredients. Povidone...for those of you who don't know it's a form of iodine used in many medications as a binding agent. I'm allergic to iodine. So naturally I didn't take it last night; I had to use plain aspirin which trust me doesn't do a whole lot. This morning my leg is down and my foot is slowly going back to normal. In the mean time though all I have for pain is the aspirin. From now on I'm going to be checking every single thing I take even if I have taken it before because some Ibuprofen doesn't have it in there and some does, depends on who makes it. It would be nice if they were consistent wouldn't it? So now I have to find a new over the counter medication that I can alternate between so I don't build up a resistance to it. Can't anything ever be easy?
3 people like this
6 responses
@gabs8513 (48686)
• United Kingdom
22 Feb 07
Well I am glad that you checked that out. I am actually Allergic to Asprin and Paracetimol so the only thing I can take and then I have to have it from the Doc is Iboprufen. Actually I am not allowed to take over the Counter Medication anymore. But I am really pleased that you have checked it out and that your Foot is going down now. You poor thing you must have been in a lot of Pain.
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
22 Feb 07
Well I'll be honest and say I don't know what Paracetimol is but I know what asprin is and I can imagine that has to make things rough. I know how that goes though with having trouble taking stuff. There is so much I can't take and most of it's hidden inside other things. That was the worst part. I'd be hurting so I'd take the iboprofen and that just made it worse over all. Viscious circle.
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
22 Feb 07
Heheh ok I know it by the other name. Thankfully I don't have a problem with that one, at least not that I have found.
@crazynurse (7482)
• United States
23 Feb 07
Thank goodness you knew to look and figured it out. Imagine how bad of shape you might have ended up in had you continued to take the ibuprophen! Can you take aleeve? I really think it does a great job with some types of pain. I take the generic one.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
23 Feb 07
I agree Aleve is usually great. I went and checked today because I will have to find a different pain med. It has it too :( I looked up Naproxen Sodium and it's in the inactive ingredients. Looks like I might be stuck with just asprin, Excederin or Tylenol. Have to check those last two but I'm hoping it doesn't. I usually try to alternate between meds due to not wanting to get a high tolerance to them but I might not be able to anymore.
@lingli_78 (12821)
• Australia
22 Feb 07
thanks for the reminder... well, i don't have any allergy to any medication at all but my husband does... he can't take anything that has pennicilin on it... so, he always very very careful in reading the ingredients of the medicine before he takes it and he always ask the doctor whether the medicine contains any pennicilin or not if he is given a prescribed medicine... it is better to be careful than sorry, isn't it??? :-)
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
22 Feb 07
Oh I bet that is miserable. So many doctors and pharmacists don't always realize what is in medications. I've had so many give me things that have iodine or sulfas (something else I'm allergic to). They figure well it's trace amounts or it's sulfates not a sulfa. Doesn't matter I'm still allergic. It's always best to check everything out first.
@FraYFaN09 (1558)
• United States
22 Feb 07
Wow... it's a good thing u caught it because who knows what could've happened! I really think that the ingredients of food and medicines should be written bigger on products b/c of this very thing. Not many people pay attention to the labels probably b/c they're so small. If u have an allergy and u do this it can cause problems. For this reason the labels should writen a little bigger to get more people's attention.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
22 Feb 07
It would be very nice if they made the labels easier to read. I know when I was trying to read this one it was very hard to do so and it was one of hte better ones. It's not like we can make it at home.
@lifeiseasy (2292)
• United States
21 Feb 07
Well thats a good thing you figured that out ... thats why i am afraid to take even asprin ...they have some amny diferent things in them that I have no clue what the heck it is ... i have never liked to take pain medicines as they always make me so hyper ...I had an absessed tooth and they gave me hyrodcodone and i was awake for 2 days ...itching all over .. no rather have the pain myself ... its just not worth the risk for me ...
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
21 Feb 07
Ooh sounds like you are allergic to something in it. Not good at all. Sadly I'm in constant pain although some days are better then others. When it gets real bad I do need something to help. Just a royal pain to find one I can take.
@APMorison (424)
• United States
22 Feb 07
You know, sometimes it just seems like we are just lab ratz and we have been left on our own to negotiate the maze without a guide. Sigh.
I've gotten to where I read everything, even if I've had it before, just in case someone decided to change the formula or something.
1 person likes this
@emeraldisle (13138)
• United States
22 Feb 07
I feel that way at times too. It's sad that we have to check it each and every time. We should be able to trust some basic things in life.
