Four Different Topics

Horny Goat Weed... Fact or Fiction?

I went to the Rite Aid on Tuesday to pick up my Ambien and an antibiotic (remember those sliced ankles? Oh, yes. I cut 'em up much worse than one would think...) and standing in line, bored, I was doing what I usually do... looking around, thinking, just taking in the sights. While standing there, looking at the panorama of vitamins, I spied a bottle that read "Horny Goat Weed"... hmmm. And what do you suppose that is? A natural approach to Viagra? If that worked, then there'd be no need for Viagra.

Right?

Not that this is necessarily the purpose of this particular, uh, weed. Maybe that is just the name and this case the name is misleading. Very often names are misleading... but who knows? Curious as I was (enough to note the name in my book to muse about it here) I never did inquire as to its use. For one thing, I have enough hormones to sustain several women for many years. I hardly need any assistance there. For another, I was expecting a battle once it was my turn to purchase my selection of needed pharmaceuticals, so it went right out of my head. But here I am, musing once more on the little oddities that make up life.

I won't discount holistic and natural approaches to medicine, but I will argue that chemicals, while much more of an unknown quotient, will almost always be more potent and immediate than their holistic counterparts. Although an interesting fact about Viagra (and this may no longer be accurate as this was true at least five or six years ago) is that insurance will only cover six pills for a 30-day period. Imagine that. You can only get some action six times a month... That isn't right. Most people I know average once a week to several times a week. Certainly we clock in a lot more action than six times in one month!

Ambien and Nighttime Eating/Sleep-something Behaviour

I just read an article in the latest People Magazine about people who were doing odd things in their sleep like eating and driving and "even having sex in their sleep". Odd that after the driving and other odd activities, sex during one's off hours was listed with the qualifier "even" - like this is such a strange thing. Before I took Ambien we had sex when I was deeply asleep - and apparently I enjoy it greatly then, too! Luis has always had the green light to take advantage of me anywhere, any time. So sometimes he'd be awake - in every sense - at 03h00 and use me to bring on sleep. I responded positively and had a wonderful time, but I would not recall it and just knew on waking when I was sleeping in the dreaded wet spot that inevitably ensues following such activity. And so what? Everyone was happy, so what care I if some sex occurs when I'm asleep?

No harm, no foul.

At any rate, returning to the subject of this section, I have never had any such reaction to Ambien. Sure, there is the sex thing but Luis always initiated that. Hoist up one leg and have a party, honey; again, no problem for me! But sleep-snacking, sleep-walking and absolutely sleep-driving have never been an issue. Good thing! That is not a safe drug for operating any kind of machinery. But as I read the article it turned out that the only people experiencing this kind of weirdness are also taking other drugs such as anti-depressants. Oh, well. Did you think that other drugs would necessarily play nice with this one? Not to denigrate anyone, but think this one through. No one knows how different drugs will interact with each other and the user. This is the nature of pharmaceuticals. And then people are shocked when strange things happen to them...

My Ankles and Antibiotics

Well, you may recall that now I have had two posts about shaving and what a nuisance it is to have to do this. This last thing has elevated shaving from nuisance to dangerous! Both ankles became infected and resulted in my trip to the doctor's office, which probably put my blood pressure through the roof (it took 45 mintues of intense calling on my cell phone to verify that my $&!#&~!! COBRA was paid for and current and that the doctor could see me without my having to shell out far more than my $20 co-pay). At any rate, the ankles were swollen like sausages, oozing puss and the worst angry red colour that I had to go - I was worried that they'd turn septic and then I'd really have a problem! So it was worth it to go... but how stupid do I seem? This patient is the 38-year-old idiot that hasn't mastered shaving enough to keep from slicing both ankles and getting infected. After 25 years of shaving, you would think I'd have a clue.

Apparently not.

However, I'm despairing no longer. My ankles, thanks to the Bacitracin, bandaging during the day, airing at night and taking the antibiotics are healing now and not looking so hideous. And the constant work to sell better equipment for the general vanity of women has allowed for break-though technology for shaving without nicking oneself (although I could not in all honesty call either injury a "nick" - it was really much more severe than that). So I invested my money into a $9.00 razor that takes refill blades and has a pivoting head with something around the blades that really does actually ensure a much higher degree of safety when operating the razor. It did an exceptionally good job on my legs, bikini area and arm pits and not a single drop of blood was shed the last time I shaved.

Spring is Springing But Winter Is Not Leaving!

Well, the crocuses are up and looking quite pretty. The daffodils are not far behind. However, it is still consistently in the low 40s, and there had been snow in the weekend forecast... yuck. Yes, I know. It's March, not May, so there is a high degree of likelihood of snow in some form before spring really kicks in (assuming it will, which is an enormous assumption. When's the last time we even had a spring?). Still, this winter has been rather endless and I would really love to see a spring of some kind! And I want to resume hiking.

At this time, it seems that I want to return to bed. My writing is less than inspired and it is 05h19 - much more a time to sleep than be awake. I'm sure something will strike a chord or hit a nerve at some point this weekend and then I will be the better writer for it!