My mom steers clear of anything remotely in the NSAID category. When I go to a new doctor and they ask if I'm allergic to any meds, I tell them not that I know of, but my mom got sick from Clinoril, so I'd rather not find out I'm allergic the way she did. They usually mark down to steer clear of NSAIDs just in case.

Oh, and the big reason her Joliet doctor didn't think that her illness was a drug reaction was because NSAIDs were, as a whole, a relatively new thing in pharmaceuticals in 1979, and the side effects were being added to the list as they occurred. My mom's case (and the other eleven deaths) was the reason Clinoril added SJS to the list.

This ad is just so simple and straightforward: [link]

I love the super-saturated colors. I have several 1950s cookbooks where the color plates have that same effect-- it practically makes the food look like it's in 3-D. Those are some of my favorite cookbooks.

"You're putting my husband on rat poison?!"

It's more like the rats are being given massive doses of human anticoagulant.

They explained how it would work to the good and all that,

It's a bitch of a drug, but at keeping people from developing fatal blood clots, it's the best thing going.

Drugs ain't perfect, but they keep a lot of people alive.

Coumadin is a hell of a drug, though.

At some point, my mostly-blind grandmother was accidentally doubling up on it for a while (she got some bottles confused, so was skipping something else entirely -- the woman takes more pills than Danny Bonaduce), and ended up with a crazy bruise/blood pooling/I don't even know what situation on/in her arm. They did get all of it straightened out eventually.

Coumadin is a hell of a drug, though.

At some point, my mostly-blind grandmother was accidentally doubling up on it for a while

Don't get me wrong; it can fuck you up in a DEAD way if you take too much (because your blood is excessively thin and you bleed to death). But then if you don't take enough, you get clotty and arteries block and you die.

(I had lunch with my dad today, and we were talking about Coumadin, actually. Weird.)

It's a drug that really requires frequent blood tests to make sure the patient is at the right level of coagulation. It's kind of scary, but also works when nothing else will.

the woman takes more pills than Danny Bonaduce

Does she have one of those massive pill organizers? Like, bigger than a Kindle?

I know he needed it, and it worked, and they kept on top of the blood counts, but I've never seen a drug so tightly calibrated, with all the half-milligram variations. And it just squicked me no end to see Warfarin on the bottle.

I'd hate to be a vegetarian on that stuff, because anything containing Vitamin K was verboten.

I've never seen a drug so tightly calibrated, with all the half-milligram variations.

Plus some people take different doses on different days. It's crazy shit.

Does she have one of those massive pill organizers? Like, bigger than a Kindle?

Yep. So she can lay out several days' worth of pills at a time, lined up by when she takes them.

I'd hate to be a vegetarian on that stuff, because anything containing Vitamin K was verboten.

Oh, is that why she can't eat green vegetables?

I take a drug that has one of the scariest side effect notes I've ever seen.

One of the drugs I had for the side effects of chemo included "inability to move eyes" under its "rare but serious side effects."

My mom has been on coumadin for a decade or so for her atrial fibrillation. She was inclined towards spectacular bruising and nose bleeds before that. It has not been fun. Recently she's started have little eye hemorrhages, which I don't think her doctor is taking seriously enough. Dr. Google says they can be caused by the coumadin. She's 83 and given the choice between eyesight and death, I know which one she'd pick.