Ooo err... me balance has gone all squiffy.

[Tim Hall]

There was a loud ringing in my left ear first thing,

That would be your alarm clock.

But apart from that I hope it all clears up soon.

[Sergeant Pluck]

Hope it all settles down ASAP Wowbagger.

[Wowbagger]

Well, I've got my tablets and taken the first one, so it's no booze for 10 days. How distressing!

[toekneep]

Well, I've got my tablets and taken the first one, so it's no booze for 10 days. How distressing!

All that stress is bad for you, you know. 

[Wowbagger]

These tablets are used to treat all manner of mental disorders. You never know, there may be some side benefits. Sanity may prevail.

[fred the great]

Between you and me, in spite of taking some pretty strong tablets every day for many years, my Doctor approved me drinking one glass, not pint, of beer each day. I have now spread that out to two glasses by adding lemonade.

And I'm still here

[Wowbagger]

This last lot specifically talk about drowse-inducement. Probably unwise.

I've forgotten who I was talking to recently but the issue of giardiasis cropped up, and the strong antibiotic used to treat that delightful condition. Booze is definitely a no-no with that, and the whoever-it-was-I-was-talking-to had made the mistake of having a drink after finishing the tablets but while some of it was still in his system. A trip to casualty ensued, I think under a blue light.

[fred the great]

I don't think a shandy can be regarded as booze as such.

I was at the time taking the strongest available pain killers for kidney pain and they had to be strong. I was free of pain for no more than three hours at a time.

The Doctor told me one glass each day and no more. I did what I was told as you can imagine.

I have now kept to that instruction for at least 40 years and produced many more kidney stones during that period.

Now it's pills for a variety of issues and the usual daily shandy

And I think your constitution is probably stronger than mine or should be. However each person knows his own body better than a Doctor or me.

[TimO]

Isn't one of the classic "don't take with alcohol" antibiotic drugs metronidazole?  As I recall taking this with alcohol has a very similar reaction to drugs used for alcoholism (eg Antabuse), even small amounts of alcohol can make you very sick (as in nauseously vomiting sick, not "feeling a bit off colour" sick).

A few years ago my ex was taking metronidazole (iirc) and the GP said "You aren't drinking alcohol are you?", with the emphasis on the question, and as he read her notes it changed to "You aren't drinking alcohol are you." as a statement.

[hellymedic]

Indeed..
Metronidazole (Flagyl) and alcohohohol really should not be taken together.

The drug is prescribed for:
bad teeth
appendicitis
giardiasis
vaginal infections

and many more.

[Wowbagger]

Metronidazole was indeed the one I was prescribed for giardiasis. I didn't drink alcohol with it.

[Bledlow]

Prochlorperazine (marketed under the names Compazine, Stemzine, Buccastem, Stemetil and Phenotil)

Also prescribed as an anti-emetic. Known side-effects include seizures resulting in violent muscle contractions. Bloody painful ones, too. Try telling a doctor that you're getting violent involuntary muscle contractions when your jaw has been dislocated by one of them.

If you get any sudden twitches or the like, best to tell your doctor. Luckily, it's not a common side-effect, it's easily countered, & if you haven't suffered it yet, you're probably not going to.

Good luck with the balance.

[hellymedic]

These involuntary muscular contractions are commoner in younger people and can be reversed with intravenous Kemadrin. The instant relief is most rewarding for a young doctor.
I also saw them in a young lad who'd taken his older brother's schizophrenia medication 'for kicks'. Just deserts for a silly boy (but we did give him the antidote...)

[Bledlow]

Ah. I was 22 when it happened. On a weekend, if I remember right. And yes, the young doctor on duty was very gratified by the instant relief, but not half as much as me. I'm not sure what he gave me, but it left me pretty drowsy for some hours. I didn't care, in the circumstances.

He cottoned on pretty quickly when I walked unsteadily into the ward office where he was chatting with a pretty nurse, & made "uurgh, uurgh" noises while pointing at my face & intermittently twitching violently. He looked stunned for a moment, but recovered himself quickly, & his first thought was to check what drugs I'd been given. He remembered the side-effect, but had to look up the treatment. As I recall, his mutterings gave me the impression he had a good idea, but wanted to make sure.

Apart from him expressing regret that he didn't have a camera with him to take a picture of me with my jaw at an interesting angle, I was quite impressed by his performance. All sorted in a few minutes. The antidote worked a treat, & damn quick. The nurse also seemed impressed, which may have done him some good.

They'd given me the drug to stop me throwing up everything I swallowed (I think my body really, really didn't like the general anaesthetic I'd had), as it was a Bad Thing after abdominal surgery, & I wasn't going to get better if I didn't keep anything down.

I presume my experience with Stemetil (etc) hasn't been repeated, or we'd have heard from Wowbagger by now.

[hellymedic]

As this problem affects the young more than the mature, and I believe Wow is a tad older than the 22 year-old Bledlow, I'd surmise he's OK.
I remember seeing a 17 year-old lass when I worked in Glasgow. She couldn't open her mouth and thought it might be due to Shtermetool she'd been given. (Her voice sounded somewhat strangulated, in a way it's hard to mimic this in written form.)
She got a jab of instant cure and was well pleased.

[andrew_s]

Prochlorperazine. Also prescribed as an anti-emetic. Known side-effects include seizures resulting in violent muscle contractions. Bloody painful ones, too.

Well, I've got my tablets and taken the first one, so it's no booze for 10 days. How distressing!

Makes me glad that when I had labyrinthitis, I waited for signs of nausea before taking the prescribed medication, and therefore didn't take it.

[TimO]

I presume my experience with Stemetil (etc) hasn't been repeated, or we'd have heard from Wowbagger by now.

Well, he did fall over on the Solstice WARTY, but attributed that to a Ninja Badger attack.