Health is Wealth..

My sinus cavity is throbbing after I had a cup of MIL's beef soup a couple of night's ago.

It's something I've learnt to live with since I found out that I'm allergic to oily as well as MSG-laden food during my teenage years. At that time, there wasn't an internet to look up on, but thankfully I had a really good doctor - Dr. Khatijah, whose clinic in Taiping town bears her name.

The normal prescription was a red and blue coloured capsule that acts as a decongestant as well as a pain reliever (the pain actually subsides when the lining of the cavity stops swelling, thus pressure in the sinuses gets lowered, enabling the mucus to flow freely).

Nowadays, I get my medication in the form of Clarinase, Aerius and Cetrazine pills from the pharmacy. During my student days in the UK, Rinafort ('Rina' comes from rhinitis I suppose?) was the best working poison, but I was surprised to find out that years later it was banned due to some disconcerting side effects. I can't give you a link on that, just that a really good pharmacist looked in up in a drug reference book that they use and told me so. (BTW, Aeris, Clarinase and Rinafort are all produced by Schering-Plough, the drug company).

I have to say that exhaling cigarette smoke through your nostrils also provided some short-term relief, but I suppose smoking kills you faster that sinusitis..

The lady at the pharmacy where I bought my pills just now also recommended a traditional concoction that she says remedies the situation in the long term. I am yet brave enough to try that out, but I will surely post on how it pans out once I have the guts to!

I also found a really good link that you can use to look up your drugs. The fabulous thing is that it also shows you how the medicine looks like!

Let me just summarize my top fixes for my ailments as of 2008:

1. High Fever - Remafen
2. Migraine - Paracetamol
3. Cough with phlegm - Benadryl
4. Sinusitis - Aerius
5. Lozenges - Dequadin

Again, someone's remedy could be someone else's poison, so do please consult your doctor before chowing down my cocktail of western medicine.