The Exploding Pill: A bit of humor.

I presume that someday this story to find its way into Brain Storm, but, it actually happened much earlier, and is only tangentially related. But it is funny!

I have had a condition known as gout, for years. I was first diagnosed when I was about 17 years old by a doctor who was also a family friend. Prior to that, I have complained of pain in my knee for about two years and had the diagnosed with all kinds of strange ailments. None of them actually turned out to be true. . However, my mother sent me off to her friend. Knowing my history, he smiled the minute I walked in. You have gout! That's what he told me. He didn't even ask me any questions or look at my knee. My mom had filled him in on the symptoms. Of course, he had to do some blood tests to verify. He was right.

That was back in the 1970s. The treatment of choice for gout, at the time, was a pill called Colchicine. I took it every day. However, I was warned, take it with food. Well, I was late for work. I popped the Colchicine, hopped in the car and started to drive to work. Suddenly, I had indigestion. It wasn't bad, just a little uncomfortable. Then I burped! Blue smoke came billowing out of my mouth accompanied by a horrible aftertaste! I had no idea what was, but the discomfort when away, and I didn't think about it for a while.

A couple of weeks later, I was relating the story to a co-worker. I hadn't figured it out, but driving to work I mysteriously belched blue smoke! I cited the smoke and the foul taste. And she immediately started laughing. I agree, it was funny. But not that funny.

Then she told me that she had a similar experience. She asked me if I had gout. I said yes, of course. Then she asked me if I was taking Colchicine. Yes, I answered unexpectedly. She advised me that she also had gout, that she had been prescribed Colchicin, that they told her to take it on a full stomach -- and she didn't. The consequence was that pill blew up in her stomach causing her to belch blue smoke, have a lousy taste in her mouth, and, since she was obviously smarter than me, call a doctor! He told her what happened, said she was lucky, and told her not to take the damn pill on an empty stomach. anymore.

Now they use a drug called allopurinol. Although Colchicine has very rare uses -- it is also called the horse pill because then as now, it is used on thoroughbreds who get sore ankles! It's still a veterinarian's dream.