Nice people thread part 8 - worth the wait

chewmylegoff

OH's parents arrive tomorrow. We're supposed to be spending next weekend with them and her brother.

Separately one of my best friends got tickets to Saturday of the Lords test match as a birthday present and asked me to go.

I chose the cricket.

I am persona non grata. I didn't get more than 10 words out of OH all night. She did say that I could go to he cricket if I really wanted to a couple of days ago but she obviously didn't really mean it and thought that I wouldn't dare...

In other news I went to see blondie in kew gardens last night. It was pretty average but at least D. Harry can still sing (sometimes) unlike some other geriatric bands...

Also, had a consultant appointment today. Except the consultant didn't turn up and no-one rang me to cancel. The difference between BUPA and the NHS is that they say sorry when they screw something up rather than treating you with rude indifference...

silvercar

Found some antihistamine cream, only 4 months out of date. Do t know what it is - all jn Italian from when I got bitten on holiday. Says antihitimico 2%. So assume it will do the job. Took another tablet too.

Red blotches paler on arm 1, but have now appeared on Arm 2!

silvercar

Separately one of my best friends got tickets to Saturday of the Lords test match as a birthday present and asked me to go.

Is your OH praying for rain

zagubov

Nikkster wrote: »

Could also degrade into something different/ no longer be preserved...

I'd probably have used it if I didn't have anything else, but I'm definitely not telling silvercar to!

I think we're not supposed to recommend medicines in the forum anyway. Do pharmacists get taught what happens to drugs as they age past their sell-by date?
I will ask one (not that helps any of us here right now).:o

Nikkster

zagubov wrote: »

I think we're not supposed to recommend medicines in the forum anyway. Do pharmacists get taught what happens to drugs as they age past their sell-by date?
I will ask one (not that helps any of us here right now).:o

Doubt it, could probably have an educated guess if they really liked chemistry though. Expect they would just say out of date = don't use.

How are your arms today, sc?

zagubov

Nikkster wrote: »

Doubt it, could probably have an educated guess if they really liked chemistry though. Expect they would just say out of date = don't use.

How are your arms today, sc?

I've looked around, and, I've found an anaswer that would satisfy me but I'm not sure I would trust to recommend to anybody else.

It seems that apart from the apart from tetracycline there's no evidence that drugs get more potent or toxic (and in that particular case they don't make the version that was associated with a bad reaction). There's a few specific heart drugs they're concerned could decay in an upredictable way.

In most cases the drugs simply become less potent but take months to decades to become useless and nobody officially wants to recommend its still safe to take them after the use by date. That's fair enough. I'll not recommend them either.

It seems that some alternative medicines never go off/ have no use by date but we can all think why that is. :rotfl:

Nikkster

zagubov wrote: »

I've looked around, and, I've found an anaswer that would satisfy me but I'm not sure I would trust to recommend to anybody else.

It seems that apart from the apart from tetracycline there's no evidence that drugs get more potent or toxic (and in that particular case they don't make the version that was associated with a bad reaction). There's a few specific heart drugs they're concerned could decay in an upredictable way.

In most cases the drugs simply become less potent but take months to decades to become useless and nobody officially wants to recommend its still safe to take them after the use by date. That's fair enough. I'll not recommend them either.

It seems that some alternative medicines never go off/ have no use by date but we can all think why that is. :rotfl:

I was thinking about this as I was making breakfast and decided that it was probably to do with stability testing - they will have tested that x% of the active is still present after e.g. 4 years of storage - so the date will reflect that.

In terms of them not getting more potent/ toxic. I think I disagree here - not that I have specific evidence, but things will degrade and could well form something not nice - or at least something which hasn't had all the safety tests done on it so no-one knows.

vivatifosi

zagubov wrote: »

I think we're not supposed to recommend medicines in the forum anyway. Do pharmacists get taught what happens to drugs as they age past their sell-by date?
I will ask one (not that helps any of us here right now).:o

Note how nobody is suggesting silvercar calls the NHS telephone number and asks what to do. Is this a damning indictment?

Hope rash is better today silver.

lostinrates

Nikkster wrote: »

I was thinking about this as I was making breakfast and decided that it was probably to do with stability testing - they will have tested that x% of the active is still present after e.g. 4 years of storage - so the date will reflect that.

In terms of them not getting more potent/ toxic. I think I disagree here - not that I have specific evidence, but things will degrade and could well form something not nice - or at least something which hasn't had all the safety tests done on it so no-one knows.

To totally bring this down several levels, I fancied shampooing my hair last weekend after swimming (I very rarely shampoo) and asked DH to bring me a hotel bottle (we have loads in a fish bowl) and he brought be one which I was just about to open (unopened hotel sized bottle) when I looked through the side of the little container and saw what looked a little like some form of mollusc inside the bottle. :eek:
Thank goodness is was a clear shampoo not a creamy one and I could see whatever yucky ness that was. I wonder if I would have noticed if I hadn't seen it. Most of my bottles are not clear sided. Kinda makes one squirm a bit, huh?

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

Note how nobody is suggesting silvercar calls the NHS telephone number and asks what to do. Is this a damning indictment?

Hope rash is better today silver.

I think we all know that the NHS number would have to stick to legal guidelines and advise you to chuck out old stuff and buy fresh new medicines. After all they don't know how the stuff's been stored since purchase, which is another variable.

It got me wondering how a non-food material like a medicine would go off apart from chemically oxidising. Food goes off because it's off living origin and therefore has trace minerals and major nutrients that microbes can exploit.

Do medicines have the same? I think I'd be a lot more worried about a medicine that could have a microbe growing on it than one that simply oxidises in the air, but I don't know if it's likely that could happen. I know that any food made from nuts can become dangerous if mould grows on it (liver cancer's the risk there).

Hmmmm, Plenty to think about:think: