Mutants
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Doctors worry me sometimes.
A few days ago I went to one in search of a prescription for heartburn medication, Gaviscon and Mylanta being unable to touch the might of my fetus-enraged stomach juices.
She: “OK, so the one we usually prescribe is omeprazole.”
Me: “Cool. And that’s safe for pregnancy?”
She: “Oh… let me look.” She pecks on the computer for a bit and brings up a chart. “It’s class B3. That means it’s been taken by a limited number of pregnant women without any bad effects. But it has been associated with fetal abnormalities in animals; but they’re not sure how relevant that is.”
Me: “Um. Great. Are there any other options?”
She: “Oh, OK! I’ll check.”
After some hunting about we decided on ranitidine, also known as The One That Doesn’t Cause Fetal Abnormalities in Animals and is Class B1. Is it just me, or would it not make sense for that option to be the go-to for pregnant women? She said they worked about equally well. Isn’t mutant-rat-babies versus no-mutant-rat-babies a fairly clear-cut choice? But then, I am not a doctor.