Flu

I have a flu, and can't even really go on sick leave, because there are things that have to be done. Therefore working from home. I hoped that I wouldn't have to go out in this weather, but had to go out to buy tissues anyway. Who stole all the tissues I bought the last time? Who always steals all tissues? I think those are the same aliens who always steal just one sock from the washing machine.

Luckily ibuprofen and pseudoephedrine are a person's best friend during flu. Unluckily the combination thereof is not sold in Finnish drugstores, not even by prescription , so I either have to bring a supply from the US or make my own here by combining ibuprofen with a prescription allergy medication called Duact. Such combination has an unneeded third ingredient, and antihistamine called acrivastin, but that doesn't bother me.

It never stops to amaze me how different medication regulations are in different countries. In Finland you can buy only a very limited amount of ibuprofen at a time without prescription, but you can buy pills with 400mg per pill. In the US, you can buy as many pills at a time as you want, but one pill cannot contain more than 200mg, or else you need a prescription. In the US most antihistamines are prescription medications, so you need prescription for things like Zyrtec and Duact (which has anither name there, which I don't remember right now) because of the antihistamine, but pseudoephedrine is sold over the counter. In Finland the reason you need prescription for Duact is the pseudoephedrine, not the antihistamine, and Zyrtec is sold over the counter. Etc, etc.

A friend has once told me that the reason pseudoephedrine needs prescription in Finland is that it does not combine well with MAO inhibitors and anything that doesn't combine well with MAO inhibitors needs prescription since the users of MAO inhibitors cannot be trusted to read the fine manual. Funny, I've known a few MAO inhibitor users and none of them had any problem reading. Well, maybe I never met ones who did. But anyway, I don't hear the misuse of pseudoephedrine with MAO inhibitors being a problem in the States, and also none of the doctors who have prescribed pseudoephedrine to me here has ever asked me about my use of MAO inhibitors or lack thereof. (In case anybody is interested, I don't use them and never have, but at least they could have asked.)

An what is it with dramatically different Finnish and American guidelines on safe amounts of alcohol?

A guy (the name of the guilty party is withheld) has just called me to ask who I am. He did not actualy ask the question because he recognized my voice, but he told me that that's what he called me for. Just found my number in his cell phone and wondered whose it is. For some reason I found it amusing.

I am still not quite accustommed to the Finnish manner of answering the phone with one's own name. I sort of finally learned to do it in the last 2 years, but it feels weird.