OTC steroids?
Writing this with one eye. I ran into something called "iritis" yesterday. Fairly excruciating pain, but there shouldn't be any permanent vision loss. The treatment is prednisone eye-drops, along with long lasting dilation drops. This got me thinking - most of us have some supply of low-level cortical-stgeroids on hand, but how about more powerful stuff? A cursory examinayion of Google didn't show a readily available source for more powerful steroids, such as prednisone, without a prescription. Reading up on the uses of the more powerful steroids it seems like it would be a good thing to have on hand.
Thoughts from SF?
No OTC sources I know of. Can be good but some very wicked side efects are possible
Everytime I or my boy get poison ivy to where we have to go to the doc, we get the prednizone pill script. Usually the doc will give us an auxillary refill if we "need" it. We always "need" it. I have a stash in the fridge.
I also have herpes that presents in my eye. Happens rarely and usually during stressful conditions. (once every couple years, tops). Used to be an ointment named Stoxil. (steroid). Had to TELL the doc (who wouldn't believe it was herpes or that I needed a steriod) what I needed. She cross referenced the (now defunct) stoxil and scribed me another.
Steroids are to be used with great discretion. Some can do more harm than good. They no longer inject cortizone for ivy. (cleared it up in a day or two, when I was a kid). Reason is that it doesn't leave your body and causes some harm over the years.
Docs use them when the ailment is very serious and threatens permanent injury. If you're gonna aquire them...know what you're doing.
Steroids suppress immune responses and should be used with significant caution. If you have an inflammatory response to something, say, an allergic reaction, it is fine to take it to tamp it down. If you have joint inflammation and need steroids to reduce pain, they work well. That being said, I wouldn't want to take steroids for an extended period of time or without the oversight of a doctor. If an infection were to take place, we have drugs that can treat them. In a survival situation, you may not have access to these drugs and with a compromised immune system, may not be able to fight off the infection.
