Acid green box

I am older than penicillin, which affects my opinion on many things, including drugs.  This post is about Keppra, and now about withdrawing from Keppra. 

I know little about withdrawing from drugs. Many years ago I had a steady dose of some morphine drug for surgical pain, and quitting it was awful. I lay stiff as a board for several nights, wide awake.

The experience was the basis of my future aversion of narcotics for any pain. I’ve been through hip replacement surgery and a broken shoulder, among things, on over the counter analgesics, to avoid narcotics. I didn’t even fill the prescriptions. I probably saved a lot of money.

After more tests than the American taxpayer should pay for, the neurologist cleared me to quit Keppra over a month’s time. Though I have no trouble sleeping at night, the first night, I was still awake at midnight, three hours after bed. The second night was a bit  better.

The picture is of Keppra. I refilled the script recently, and asked the doctor’s office to prescribe enough for thirty days, in the event it might be discontinued. This being American medicine, they gave me ninety days. The few pills on the desk top are the number to get me off Keppra. The last sixty days (two pills a day) remain in the bottle.

And that is the last problem. Disposal. Most municipalities in Ohio now have some sort of program in place to collect back drugs, which generally are incinerated. The programs took off in fits and starts, but most now are permanent. In Cuyahoga Falls, down the road, the first attempts were designated collection days at specified police stations.

The line of people at the station I went to stretched around the block. The intelligent outcome of that first collection was the permanent installation of a drug collection box. This box is nearest my home, but simply is no fun. You are buzzed into the station, and the collection box is a pull down door in front of a glass window. Makes me feel suspect for doing the right thing.

The very first collection system in the area was put in place in the neighboring township of Bath.  I think it’s brilliant. It’s an old US postal box. The blue boxes that were on street corners; mail was deposited through a pull down door.

Bath installed an old blue box at the police station, repainted acid green. I take a nice, out of my way trip through the valley, to put unused drugs in the acid green box. But, I’ll wait until spring.