June 07, 2005   Ross had to pick up a prescription at the pharmacy, so me and my kidney stone tagged along, mostly in hopes that chocolate might be bought, but also to ask the pharmacist if there's anything I can do to prevent vicodin from turning me into Vomitressa, goddess of chunk blowing.

And what did the pharmacist suggest? Benadryl, which made me wonder if the pharmacist knew the difference between mucus and pukus, because benadryl is for allergies. But, as the pharmacist informed me, benadryl is not only an allergy med, it's also an antiemetic (anti-nausea) as well.

I was wary of his advice, benadryl being able to stop the evils of vicodin seemed too good to be true, but I tried it anyway. And, oh, wonders of the universe, it actually worked. I did not get weak or dizzy, did not break out in a cold sweat and most glorious of all, I did not become nauseous or puke my guts out. Although I'm not sure if that's because benadryl prevents nausea or because you enter a sleep coma before nausea starts.

Now I can't help but wonder why Drs, drug cos, and pharmacists don't tell you that there's a remedy to vicodin's side effects. They include warnings about side effects in the patient info, but don't mention a thing about how to prevent them, which is a cruel thing to omit. Because there's nothing worse than being in horrid pain and then having pain meds make you violently ill on top of it. So, despite the fact that it probably won't do any good, I'm going to write the drug companies and suggest that warnings about side effects also include info on how to deal with them.

So, for anyone else who struggles with pain meds making them sick, ask you doctor or pharmacist about using an antiemetic. Because life, all too often, blows enough as it is, without blowing chunks on top of it.

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