Codeine blues

Well, hmm. The FDA has issued a warning to doctors to exercise caution in prescribing codeine as a pain killer to kids.

Now, as I have no offspring in the “children” age group, this isn’t something I have to directly worry about.

But back in the day when I was a kid, MDs must have been handing the stuff out like Pez, at least with respect to cough syrup. And I do recall (even all the way back into the last century) that cough syrup with codeine was the only thing that could kill my coughs, which I had with some regularity.

As I grew up, the frequency diminished but the severity didn’t. If I don’t nip an upper respiratory problem in the first couple of days, I’m in for a painful time, and so are the people around me.

Let me just say that when I cough, everyone in the office with me winces.

A few years ago I had one of these episodes and called my primary care office to get a prescription for codeine-infused cough meds. The nurse practitioner on the phone admonished me to try various OTC remedies before I resorted to the controlled substance, because “we don’t like to prescribe codeine.”

This pissed me off no end; you'd have thought that as a responsible adult with deep knowledge of my own medical history, I'd have got some respect from the broad. I did buy the OTC crap, with the expected results, and two days later I called her back and coughed down the phone at her. I got the script.

So I hope that the medical profession doesn’t go mindless on this ban. There are probably little ones who have the same capacity for coughing up their lungs that I do, and they really need the stuff.