Some ten years ago I went in to a GP for my annual physical, and during the prostate exam he found some nodules on my prostate. So he had me get an appointment with a urologist, to which I dutifully went. The urologist also felt the nodules, and said I should get a biopsy to see if there were any cancers there.
Then he explained the procedure for the biopsy, and went into rather great (and I thought, gory) detail about the potential side effects.
I thanked him for his advice, and left his office, having instantly decided on a policy of “watchful waiting”, and went on about my life.
The nodules did not get any worse, and gradually disappeared, so that now there is no sign of any trouble. As I said earlier, this was ten years ago, and for the last five or six years my doctors find nothing suspicious down there. And I still shudder when I think of the “side effects” of a prostate biopsy. Screw that nonsense.
I’m sure the rates of abuse are much lower than 99%. It is my understanding (correct me if I’m wrong) that you can use benzos up to 2 times a week w/o physical addiction. However valium has a really long half life, so I don’t know if that is the case with valium (why valium anyway, why not xanax)?
From what I know of them, benzo addictions are very hard to kick. Months of withdrawals that can make your life hell. However those stories are from people who were doing 10+mg of xanax a day, every day.
On the subject of the OP, I’ve had doctors prescribe me drugs for conditions I didn’t technically have. I had one prescribe me a drug that would’ve aggravated a condition I actually did have, luckily I never filled that Rx.
I’m asthmatic and take a steroid inhaler. It has the side effect of thrush, no matter what I do. I get oral thrush and it hurts.
I also have an old riding injury and spinal stenosis and chronic migraine. I can’t take NSAIDS, so I use a low dose of oxycodone. I also use Movantik, because opioid induced constipation is no joke and mine didn’t respond to OTC meds like Miralax, nor to adding even more fiber.
My GI doc recently prescribed a course of Diflucan for the latest round of oral thrush. No biggie. I’ve had it literally fifty times in my life. He has access to my medication list and we went through it before he prescribed the Diflucan.
CVS has apparently recently had an upgrade to their medication interaction software. It now tells them that Movantik and Diflucan are a “type 1” contraindication because it could cause “withdrawal symptoms”.
I explained to the pharmacist that I’ve taken these two meds together several times, and have had no problems, but I’ll keep an eye out. I’ve skipped doses of oxycodone more than once and been ok. The withdrawal was a little unpleasant but not terrible. I’d live.
Despite that, the pharmacist had to call my doctor, who said that I should take Miralax instead of the Movantik. I said, I took that before and it doesn’t work. Oh no, you CAN’T take Movantik and Diflucan. “But Doc, I have before, five or six times. Been fine.”
He insisted. I explained. It was like talking to a wall.
Finally I said, fine, I’ll take Miralax. I lied through my teeth, because it hurt to eat anything other than mashed potatoes or vanilla ice cream.
I’m taking Movantik and Diflucan, at opposite ends of the day (12+ hours between them). I’m fine. No withdrawal, which in my case would be minor and unpleasant, but less unpleasant than not pooping for two weeks or letting a Candida infection go untreated.
I’ve been told to give up cats by allergists before they look at the results of my tests. I’m not allergic to cats.
