If you ever find yourself in need
You can submit your request in writing
And this is what you do

Send in a self-addressed stamped envelope
To PO Box 900
Los Angeles
California
90212
And I will fill your prescription with some degree of accuracy
And then I’ll send it back to you

— Dick Valentine, “I Buy The Drugs”

Since apparently I can be trusted with a prescription for reasonably serious drugs, but not to wait until getting home to take a one-time dose of said serious drugs, I was discharged from O’Connor empty-handed, and had to visit my local Walgreens to stock up.

My prescription sheets were apparently not entirely regulation, leading me to have to wait for a bit while one of the pharmacists sorted things out. I passed the time sitting in a demonstration HoMedics shiatsu massage chair, starting to write up my experiences in MarsEdit. (Little MacBook, I love you so much, even if your Intel-supplied graphics “acceleration” causes you to break a fan-wheezing sweat whenever you contemplate the existence of more than two dimensions at once. You are my constant and faithful companion through light and darkness.)

Anyway, I eventually got my medication. Here’s the initial loadout:

• Dexamethasone. I started off taking 2 mg of this three times daily, but we’ve already dialed it down to 1 mg twice a day, and will be dialing it down further over the next couple of days. A big-gun steroid — mainly intended, as far as I can tell, to prevent the lesion from swelling and crowding healthy parts of my brain, should it be so inclined. No ‘roid rage so far, that I can tell. Stop asking. I SAID, STOP ASKING!

• Levetiracetam, brand name Keppra: an anticonvulsant. Since what I experienced last Wednesday bore some vague resemblance to Temporal Lobe Epilepsy, this may help prevent recurrences until we have a better handle on what’s going on. Basically, the idea is to damp down electrical activity in my brain just enough to prevent any additional storms. I’ve felt a little dreamy — a little dissociated, the way I might after having half a glass of wine — since I started taking it. I don’t know for certain that this is a direct effect of the Keppra, but it seems a safe guess. It’s not at all unpleasant, and it doesn’t seem to produce any gross impairment. Initial dosage was 500 mg twice daily, and we’ve stuck with that.

• Pantoprazole, brand name Protonix. This is a “proton pump inhibitor”, intended to keep the other medications from causing acid reflux. As far as I know, it has no direct therapeutic function of its own. I’m taking 40 mg in the morning.