h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I had been taking Aspirin since I was a little nipper. With no side effects at all.

It was only when I was in my mid-teens did I start to notice strange reactions to the drug. It all happened pretty quickly really, one day I was in the throws of a student hangover and I took some aspirin. A few moments later, it all came back up. Putting it down to the hangover I took no notice, but I was actually my body refusing the drug. I really should have read the signs!

Anyway, three or four days later I wasn't feeling too hot again because of another night of the loopy juice. I once again lobbed a couple of aspirin down and went about my business with no side effects straight away.

Later that day I went to my then girlfriends house for a family dinner.

While there I began to feel unwell and made my excuses to leave home early. In the twenty minutes it took me to get home, my windpipe had almost totally closed up and my stomach was trying to clear itself of all and sundry. I was rushed to hospital where I was kept in observation overnight. Not a nice feeling at all.

I won't go into detail but I wasn't a pretty sight as my body tried to get as much air as possible into the body by bringing all the veins in my body to the surface of my skin.

I'd be interested to hear from other people with a similar problem to such an everyday drug.

Allergic reactions can get worse with each exposure. Don't take it again!

I suspect I didn't need to tell you that though

I had a very nasty allergic reaction to morphine when I had an operation about three years ago - never again!

My aspirin reaction was not as severe as yours, but I did get all puffy and swollen all of a sudden, even though I too had taken aspirin all of my life. My doctor told me never to take it again.

Silly me, I thought he was bonkers. So a few years later I took a single aspirin, got a severe headache much worse than the one I was trying to get rid of, and a ringing in my ears. Learned my lesson.

But it is strange that something so common can suddenly cause a reaction. Also, my doctor had started to explain that a reaction to aspirin isn't really an allergic reaction, but he never explained why. I think it has something to do with the way aspirin is processed by the body, and when that process fails there is a build-up of toxins - so essentially it is a poisoning, not allergy. I'm guessing. I never did finish that conversation with my doctor.

Hiya!

d'Elaphant: Your doctor was right, it is *not* an allergic reaction as such, because it doesn't involve the immune system. It is, as he says, a type of poisoning called salicylism, which is, simply, an overdose of aspirin (side effects in the entry). The fact that both yourself and Jay have taken it all your lives may be a factor, as 'salicylism can occur with repeated injestion of fairly large doses of salicylate [ie aspirin]' according to my pharmacology book.

Your doctor would probably give you a better explanation of why this may occur; I'm only a med student, thus my experience is, not as much as a fully qualified

Oh, Orcus; I had a freind who had a reaction to morphine, she described some really strange black and white hallucinations....

Stay ,
WD

Really, I didn't get that - it was more like a heart attack
Very, very frightening!

That does sound frightening.

And when I say I took aspirin all my life, I don't mean in large quantities. Two aspirin for a headache or a fever, now and then, maybe 3 or 4 times a year or less. Although when I had my first reaction, I was in the midst of a genuine allergic reaction, hives all over my body, and I reached for the aspirin because I had nothing else in the house and I was desperate. After reading your article and seeing the connection with histamines, I can see that was a pretty stupid thing to do.

Oh I don't think is was a stupid thing; I mean, I don't think that they put it on the bottles as a warning... Totally understandable in the circumstances As for the salicylism, I'm not quite sure why it happens in some and not others...

Orcus, how come they gave you morphine? Was it a wisdom tooth thing? Sounds horrible though - hope you were ok afterwards...

Stay ,
WD

Oh, I had a ligament reconstuction operation on my ankle (10 years after a very nasty football injury had left my ankle very weak). They gave me a morphine jab when the anaesthetic wore off - a totally routine thing. 2 minutes later I started getting what i thought was an indigestion type pain but it got worse and worse. I called the nurse who thought the same but as she went away to get some antacid it got REALLY bad and the next thing I new I woke up with a crash team arounf me! It then came back and I can ony describe it as a terrifying pain in my diaphragm - it was so bad I was screaming (this was at 2am. - oops, woke everyone up) and I went out again for a couple of seconds. Apparently it wasn't a typical allergic reaction to morphine and a medical student has since told me that those are good symptoms for the ventricles of the heart siezuring.
It gradually got better but it was terrifying as there was nothing I or they could do about it - THAT is scary!

I think I'm safe from being a heroin addict - I won't ever have that again!

Ouch! Well, at least it should be in your notes now... Sounds horrific - I stand in awe of you for going though that...

How's your ankle now? Are you still able to play footy?

Stay ,
WD (Eng 2, Ger 1 going into the second half... looking good if the fans behave...)

And now 3-2!

I mean, 3-1 (sorry!)

5-1

According to the Doctor:

Footy no
Tennis no
Squash no
Rugby no

Ignore doctor - yes (at least with the middle two anyhow)

5-1, 5-1, 5-1, 5-1.... away too!

OOOoooh, I feel happy all of a sudden, but there is still Albania to go...

You play squash! Excellent! What colour ball do you use? I'm a yellow myself.

Blue or white

Nice

So, who will win out of England and Albania tonight? And what will be the score?

Hi, don't ask me - I lectured my brother on the phone at how stupid he was being when he reckoned Holland v. England in Euro96 would be a good match. 'Boring draw' said I and guess what - it was 4-1

In fact that probably makes me a born football pundit much like Alan 'You can't win anything with kids' Hansen

So, OK I expect England will win by at least 2 goals.

Don't blame me if Albania now win.

BTW, does this count as topic drift?

Well, if you find yourself taking aspirin for the stress/tension headache created by 'The Match' then probably not

I find Alan Hansen quite funny, the whole, 'Oh they'll never win like that, being contrasted to the 'Oh I always knew that they could do it' when they carry on in exactly the same way...

I took 300 mg of aspirin daily for twenty years after cardiac bypass surgery. I hve suffered from tinnitus for about fifteen years,
I was advised two yeas ago to reduce the dose to 75mg I doubt I will lose the tinnitus. jaxcoping