Katey likes the blue dolls

In a moment of headache desperation, I asked my Romanian colleague if she had some aspirin, paracetamol, ibuprofen, anything to stop the pain. She did one better and with a gleam in her eye, dug into her purse and handed me her wonder pills.

"Take these! They are magic! From Romania."

"What is it?" I inquired, eyeing the package and not recognizing a single ingredient except for caffeine, which got me immediately perked up.

"Dunno, but take 2!" was the enthusiastic reply.

I get bad headaches. They come on unexpectedly and cane wipe me out for a day if I am not careful. Advil Liquid Gel caps are my drug of choice - the only meds that ever work and that I can swallow. But Advil had yet to have its Liquid Gel Caps infiltrate the Hungarian market. Regular ibuprofen just doesn't work - believe me, I've tried. I've tried everything in fact. Everything except these mysterious, uncoated generic white, flat pills about the 2/3 the size of a dime. I took two as suggested, sat down, and felt my headache just wash over me, leaving me within a mere 15 minutes, headache free, relaxed and ready to get back to work. I was curious, but not one to look magic in the eye and ask it for a reference, I quickly asked how I could get my hands on more of these wondrous and apparently over the counter pills from Romania! And proceeded to have a ridiculously productive afternoon.

I was convinced they were maybe some kind of codeine derivative, maybe a vicodin-lite. I feared addictive qualities in the long run, but figured that until my next visitor arrived with the gel cap delivery, whatever these dolls were, they would get me through the spring.

But file this (predictably) under too good to be true. I decided that ignorance was not the best policy when it came to meds, I did a proper (Google) search for the only to learn that metamizol sodic was actually banned by the FDA in 1977. Apparently, in .2-2% of users it can cause something to happen that could possibly lead to death. Whatever. A small price to pay for such good headache relief I say! I also learned that it is the most popular headache / pain relief med in other countries as well like Spain, Turkey, Mexico, Nigeria and other parts of Eastern Europe. The FDA spoils all the fun.

Did I mention it has caffeine in it?

This, of course, does raise some serious questions about differing standards across countries. At the same time, it really works! Ibuprofin is supposed to rot livers, but the pill that works even better 'might' kill me. Dilemmas dilemmas.

Ok, I will cut myself off from the wonder med, but not until someone comes to visit with a big box of gel caps! In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy my temporary new lover while it's around.

Exedrin Migrane anyone?