The Devil is a patriot, a proper party man
After a weekend of worsening listlessness, brainlessness, and general malaise, I finally saw a doctor and seem not to have any of the currently circulating plagues, but was sent home with a new inhaler and instructions to medicate myself like the nineteenth century on account of my lungs sounding terrible. I would so very much like to be able to think about anything that matters to me. Have some links.
1. Courtesy of![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
thisbluespirit: a substantial cache of British television plays on YouTube, as usual for however long it takes for the BBC to notice.
2. Courtesy ofdavidgillon: the ongoing investigation of HMS Erebus on the clock of climate change. I had somehow forgotten the pre-printed Admiralty equivalent of a black box recorder.
3. I had occasion last night to share Donald Swann's recording of "Lord of the Dance," from his Sydney Carter-penned EP Songs of Faith and Doubt (1964). I am never going to get over the existence of this version and I also happen to like it.
4. I am delighted that the latest bog body discovery went through the normal stage of checking out a recent homicide before settling on the Ice Age, but I really love the universal and automatic association with Seamus Heaney.
5. Ainsley Hawthorn's "The Sea, Like Glass" (2024) is a marvelous haunting of sea and selves.
1. Courtesy of
thisbluespirit: a substantial cache of British television plays on YouTube, as usual for however long it takes for the BBC to notice.2. Courtesy of
davidgillon: the ongoing investigation of HMS Erebus on the clock of climate change. I had somehow forgotten the pre-printed Admiralty equivalent of a black box recorder.3. I had occasion last night to share Donald Swann's recording of "Lord of the Dance," from his Sydney Carter-penned EP Songs of Faith and Doubt (1964). I am never going to get over the existence of this version and I also happen to like it.
4. I am delighted that the latest bog body discovery went through the normal stage of checking out a recent homicide before settling on the Ice Age, but I really love the universal and automatic association with Seamus Heaney.
5. Ainsley Hawthorn's "The Sea, Like Glass" (2024) is a marvelous haunting of sea and selves.
no subject
Ominous! Is it Godfrey's Cordial or Lydia Pinkham's? More seriously, I am very sorry about your lungs and hope they are more comfortable soon.
no subject
Thank you. It's more on the Godfrey's order of things: I am supposed to take codeine on a daily basis, something I have avoided doing for years not because I have ever showed signs of addiction, but because painkillers traditionally do not work very well on me and the side effects haven't been worth it. It still won't work very well on me as a painkiller, but I should get some benefit otherwise.
no subject
no subject
Interesting! Is there any idea why? Most painkillers do not work on me and my relationship with anesthetics is also tenuous. Morphine was a notable exception, but for obvious reasons is not an at-home solution.
no subject
"Genetic differences in the expression of the CYP2D6 enzyme results in differences in the extent to which codeine is metabolised. Patients deficient in or lacking this enzyme cannot convert codeine to morphine and therefore may not obtain adequate analgesic pain relief."
https://www.medsafe.govt.nz/profs/PUArticles/Mar2013Codeine.htm#:~:text=Genetic%20differences%20in%20the%20expression,obtain%20adequate%20analgesic%20pain%20relief.
and
"CYP2D6 is responsible for metabolizing a number of important drugs containing amine functional groups, including members of the following psychotropic classes: anticholinergics/parasympathomimetics, antidepressants and monoamine modulating drugs (for example, serotonin 5-HT3 receptor antagonists, monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs), serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs), and tricyclic antidepressants); antipsychotics (typical and atypical); opiates; and synthetic opiate derivatives. CYP2D6 also metabolizes several cardiac drugs from antiarrhythmic classes as well as beta blockers; some antifungals; and the antiestrogen tamoxifen.
...
Four potential CYP2D6 phenotypic subgroups exist. These groups are usually defined by the respective number of their functional alleles: ultrarapid (3), extensive (2), intermediate (1), and poor metabolizers (0). Most CYP2D6 polymorphisms result in an allele that lacks metabolic activity. However, the prevalence of poor metabolizer phenotypes varies by racial/ethnic group: Asians (∼1%), Caucasians (5–10%), and Africans (0–19%)"
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/biochemistry-genetics-and-molecular-biology/cyp2d6#:~:text=Most%20CYP2D6%20polymorphisms%20result%20in,%E2%80%9319%25)%20%5B58%5D.
Amazing one enzyme is involved in the metabolism of such a wide variety of drugs.
no subject
I mean, it would account for the experience of damn near no psychotropic drugs ever working on me. (In 2006–07, when the chronic facial pain which was eventually identified as a kind of nerve damage was first diagnosed, I was tried on just about everything legally indicated for pain, including of necessity a number of antidepressants and antipsychotics. I racked up an impressive collection of prohibitive side effects without relief. A lower-than-therapeutic dose of amitriptyline helped me sleep a non-zero number of hours a night after the first year, but the effect burned off after about three years. Consequently I have a strong aversion to experimenting with any other brain drugs despite the state my brain is in. I don't even like to take new medications if I can avoid it, which the experience of anaphylaxis has only reinforced.) Thank you for these links.