The other day I was reading, among other things, about Ipecac. It used to be the most popular remedy when someone swallowed poison by inducing vomitting.
People with eating disorders also use it to get rid of all the food in their stomach after they pig out.
Ipecac is a plant from South America and the name comes from the language of the indians there.
With chronic use, ipecac starts to damage the muscle tissue and sometimes this can happen to the heart, that is called a cardiomyopathy and cause heart failure. Sudden death from cardiac failure is a risk of ipecac abuse. But since people don't need a prescription to buy it, no one is sure exactly how much ipecac is abused or how many people die from ipecac abuse.
They studied five women who showed signs of myopathy and only one of them survived.
And recently they've figured out that they can't prove vomiting helped prevent poisoning.
The other day I was organizing our closet and guess what I found?
"A gift to you from the pharmacy at (hospital name here)"
If I wasn't sitting down I would've fallen over laughing. I'm not sure how old it was. It might've been 4, almost 5, because I think Sarah was born there and the doctors hadn't yet figured out Ipecac didn't necessarily prevent poisoning until 2003. It was really funny though. And I only knew what it was because of my book.
The dose was 1 table spoon and that kinda surprised me. That seemed like a LOT of Ipecac to me.
I was curious and wanted to smell it but decided against that idea.
Oh, and did you see House, M.D. yesterday? When they were going through that kid's intestines and stuff?
That was really gross but that was also pretty cool.
The Nerd is in the house yo!!
3 comments:
I'd bet most US houselholds with children have a bottle around. It was one of the "must have's" (along with a thermometer and an aspirator) to give to your child if he or she swallowed something that could act as a poison in such a little body.
You should call the Poison Control Center before administering ipecac in any case.
I self-administered that Ipecac a year or so ago.
Barfing is unpleasant, generally speaking. Induced, unstoppable, uncontrollable, spastic, tortuous, turns-you-inside-out, Oh-Mommy-make-it-stop, take-me-now-Lord! barfing is....well...a bad scene.
Think I'll just deal with the nausea next time.
(I had been sick for days, on the verge of vomiting, but never quite making it to the edge. Tired of the suspense, I figured I would give it a little push. Little did I know, I had sent a slinky of barfing off the top step of Jacob's ladder, or something almost as tall as heaven. Whoa!)
Post a Comment