Bah!
I’ve figured out that the decongestants that I can get here (containing phenylephrine not pseudoephedrine) don’t work. Pseudoephedrine is used to make crystal meth, so it’s hard to get – even in Australia I’ve read. BUT it works as a decongestant. So it wasn’t until about 1.30am this morning that Kate had her bright idea. Hayfever tablets! They dry the nasal system up just fine… So from 1.30am this morning, I slept reasonable well.
Bring on Christmas!! (4 hours 35 mins to go!)
That’s because phenylephrine is pure alpha-1 while ephedrine is mixed direct and indirect alpha-1. Thus, ephedrine always works better than phenyl. The neat thing to see is what happens when you put IV phenyl and ephedrine into the nose – clears up everything – which is usefull for awake direct laryngoscopic fiberoptic intubations. Hope your cold clears up soon.
Interesting, I looked into the chemistry/ mode of action of pseudoephedrine, turns out it’s chiral. The D enantomer is the commonly used one and the one which reduces to make crystal meth. The L enantomer does not reduce (therefore can’t be used to make meth) but for some reason Phizer, who own the patent, haven’t applied for approval… dunno what they are holding out for!