Monday, April 21, 2008
CANCER JOURNAL
It helps to have a sense of humor.
I was riding home from a luncheon recently with a friend who was a neighbor until recently. She happened to mention that someone we both know is taking Coumedan (a brand name of the generic drug Warfarin) and that it's difficult to regulate. Then she added "You know, it's rat poison."
"Oh really!" I replied. "I take Warfarin, and no one told me it's rat poison!"
Figuring that she might possibly be wrong, I looked it up. Wikipedia says:
Warfarin (also known under the brand names of Coumadin, Jantoven, Marevan, and Waran) is an anticoagulant. It is named for the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, which sponsored its development. It was initially marketed as a pesticide against rats and mice, and is still popular for this purpose, although more modern poisons such as brodifacoum are much more potent and toxic....
Pesticide use
Coumarins, a class of drugs of which warfarin is a member, are used as rodenticides for controlling rats and mice in residential, industrial, and agricultural areas. The active ingredient in rat poison is brodifacoum, which is sometimes referred to as a super-warfarin, because it is longer-acting than the drug warfarin. It is both odorless and tasteless. It is effective when mixed with food bait, because the rodents will return to the bait and continue to feed over a period of days, until a lethal dose is accumulated...
I wonder if I should Google "brodifacoum" and "chemotherapy"? No, better not. I just might find a match!
The new chemo drug I began taking today has a list of side-effects on the leaflet the pharmacist included that is daunting. Death wasn't mentioned, though. There is always something to be grateful for. :-) The first dose this morning has so far been relatively benign. If God is merciful, this will continue.
After reading the list of side-effects I did start to consider what outfit in my closet would look good with casket lining. I'm thinking pink lining and purple outfit. My apologies if dead-blogger humor bothers you. At this point I'm way past being disturbed by such notions, and we're talking about my last chance to make a fashion statement here. I'm better at laughing about such things some days than others.
