Guaifenisen
As mentioned on the Withdrawal post, I could not get off steroids until after I started taking gauifenisen for lung support at the suggestion of a good friend. You might know this OTC drug better by the brand name Mucinex.
It's an expectorant and a different friend of mine helped save my life by hand-packing pure guaifenisen into tiny little capsules one year as a Christmas present. That was possibly the first Christmas in my entire life that I did not end up in the ER and on antibiotics.
She later mailed me the remaining powder form and explained to me how to take it using tiny measuring spoons without packing it into capsules. I bought a special set of measuring spoons to get 1/8th and 1/16th teaspoon sizes, which are not standard on most measuring spoon sets.
I don't do well with Mucinex in part because it contains blue dye. After this very pure supply ran out and I was stronger, I began looking for "store" brands of gauifenisen.
Unlike Mucinex, they were typically NOT time released and did not contain blue dye. They were a lot cheaper and I tolerated them better than Mucinex.
I took this drug for several years actually and it was critical to my ability to get off several prescription drugs. It is an expectorant, not a cough suppressant -- and you need to get plenty of fluids and salt into you for it to be effective. It helps you get the gunk out of your lungs rather than quieting your cough.
I am not actually anti-drug the way a lot of people think. I am pro-health and this drug was very, very helpful to me for a lot of years and it beat the hell out of having to be on stronger stuff.
Towards the end, I tapered off of it. I can remember cutting pills in half and, later, buying a liquid children's version to get an even lower dose than the half pill.
Some general takeaways from this experience:
It's an expectorant and a different friend of mine helped save my life by hand-packing pure guaifenisen into tiny little capsules one year as a Christmas present. That was possibly the first Christmas in my entire life that I did not end up in the ER and on antibiotics.
She later mailed me the remaining powder form and explained to me how to take it using tiny measuring spoons without packing it into capsules. I bought a special set of measuring spoons to get 1/8th and 1/16th teaspoon sizes, which are not standard on most measuring spoon sets.
I don't do well with Mucinex in part because it contains blue dye. After this very pure supply ran out and I was stronger, I began looking for "store" brands of gauifenisen.
Unlike Mucinex, they were typically NOT time released and did not contain blue dye. They were a lot cheaper and I tolerated them better than Mucinex.
I took this drug for several years actually and it was critical to my ability to get off several prescription drugs. It is an expectorant, not a cough suppressant -- and you need to get plenty of fluids and salt into you for it to be effective. It helps you get the gunk out of your lungs rather than quieting your cough.
I am not actually anti-drug the way a lot of people think. I am pro-health and this drug was very, very helpful to me for a lot of years and it beat the hell out of having to be on stronger stuff.
Towards the end, I tapered off of it. I can remember cutting pills in half and, later, buying a liquid children's version to get an even lower dose than the half pill.
Some general takeaways from this experience:
- Details matter and vary from one brand to the next. I tolerate gauifenisen just fine though I don't tolerate Mucinex just fine. It's the other ingredients -- the blue dye, the time release stuff -- that I don't tolerate.
- If you are very sick, it's worth it to find the cleanest version of a drug you can possibly find. A former RN who knew how to buy the pure form and hand pack it etc gifted me that and it helped me climb my way out of a hell hole that doctors didn't think was escapable.
- Under some circumstances, very small doses can and do make a difference and can help you taper off successfully.
