#lidocaine

[amazingdigitalheadcanons]

Caine is named after lidocaine not just as a dentistry pun but because either his presence was meant to numb the pain of trapped eternity, or because he himself was supposed to be "numb" (emotionless)

Interesting!

[alilaro]

oh lidocaine, my beloved...

[macgyvermedical]

History of Lidocaine please?

Lidocaine was discovered in Sweden in the early 1940s.

About 1/3 of the surgeries at the time, including hernia repair and goiter, were done under local or regional anesthesia. The drug of choice for this was procaine. And frankly, procaine kind of sucked.

It was stored as a powder and needed to be mixed with saline and epinephrine very carefully in order to be useful. It degraded quickly in this mixture and was only effective for about 17 minutes once injected. It was also toxic at repeated or high doses. So surgeons had to be fairly quick about their surgeries.

And the room was there for a longer-acting, less toxic local anesthetic agent.

In 1943 a compound called LL30 was discovered. The lab personnel that discovered it had done a quick test on their own tongues, which anesthetized well. But it needed to be proven against procaine in both toxicity and effectiveness before a product could really be sold.

In 1944 the trials began. A man named Dr. Torsten Gordh headed up the experiments, using colleagues, patients, and students as test subjects. For the colleagues and patients, he offered the equivalent of about $16 in 2024 money to be in the study. For the students, they could choose between a copy of Gordh's thesis or a packet of American cigarettes.

Most of them chose the cigarettes.

The results were so stunningly superior to procaine that statistical analysis was never done. LL30 lasted a stunning 70 minutes compared to procaine's 17. It was also significantly less toxic, meaning more of it could be used.

LL30 would later be designated as lidocaine and sold under the brand name Xylocaine, which is still used today.

[protoporphyria]

Lidocaine

A new Glorp baby because sometimes you need an alien puppy scientist because why the fuck not. I have been drawing I swear, I just can’t fucking post it on here. Hhhh.

[icequeen1371]

32 injections each week to my neck, shoulders, ribs, lower/mid spine & hips on Monday at my pain management specialist for fibromyalgia, degenerative disc disease & lumbar spondylosis.

That usually takes a day or two to feel okay.

26 injections every month to the back of my head, neck & shoulders yesterday at my neurologist’s for chronic & secere migraine, cluster headaches & occipital neuralgia. My head is always so extremely sore for days after, like a big bruise.

Today? I start my 1st dose of Ajovi. I was approved through their program to begin it as a new migraine medication. I have to take 3 auto-self injectors. Then in 3mths, I switch to monthly.

I’m so very tired of needles.

I know they help. They really do.

But today, is not a good day and I’m so very tired of needles.☹️🥺

[whumpfish]

Extractions! (Tooth vs. Nail)

I've been wanting to do this one for a long time, for all you torture fans out there...

So I metabolize lidocaine like a motherfucker, and any time I get a local, I always have to get a second one halfway through whatever is being done. For the most part, doctors and dentists listen to me when I say this... for the most part.

Tooth

(The oral surgeon did not give me my second shot when I asked for it.)

1. Any fillings you have will collapse under the pressure of an extraction, even a medicated one. (I'm not sure if this is true for metal ones; all of mine are plaster.) It produces a half-crunch, half-thunk sound that reverberates in that half of your skull and sounds absolutely terrifying.

2. The pain of an unmedicated extraction is acute and radiating at the same time. The acute part feels more like having a stiletto stabbed upward into that space than a tooth taken out in a downward motion.

2a. In maxillary extractions, the stab goes straight up, and depending on the location of the tooth, that stab can feel pointed anywhere from your eyeball (frontmost) to right into your brain (rear).

2b. Mandibular extractions* stab downward from the chin (frontmost) to the hinge of your jaw and straight down your throat (rear).

3. The radiating part spreads like a flower blooming, from a concentrated central point outward in a rolling movement.

4. Your ears might pop like an airplane taking off as that blooming pain reaches the hinge of your jaw. Sometimes only in the one ear.

Nail

(I have been doing minor self-surgery** for years because I am genetically predisposed to ingrown nails, and if I don't catch it in time, they grow straight down and I have to extract them to be able to trim them. If I really don't catch it in time, they grow straight down and then curl backward, and I have to get an actual surgeon involved.)

1. Self-surgery, split off edge of nail, 0 to 1/2" down and backward: You have to wiggle these in a sawing/rocking motion back and forth in order to get that tiny bit of root to let go, and when you "saw" backward it feels more like a steak knife than a butter knife, this time moving with the direction of the nail. Then it reverses when you actually yank.

1a. The yank hurts more than the sawing, sharp like a stab from a steak knife instead of one being pushed in slowly.

1b. You will get the best whump out of a whumper splitting off the edges of the nail and doing this and then yanking the middle part

2. Medicated: Locals in the toe/finger area hurt like a bitch. They're sharp and needling like a stiletto to a paper cut, then if someone tried to pry that cut open. At the same time, they feel hot, almost burning. (Hotter than anesthetic being pushed through an IV, if you're familiar with that sensation.) And there are so many nerves involved that just the first round of locals takes 3-4 shots.

3. Unmedicated, grown down and backward, 1/2" to 3/4": The last time I went in, my surgeon said "given the amount of times I have to shoot you up, you'll probably hurt less if I just yank." (She was right.) This sumbitch goes in both directions, down/back from where the root is, then forward. The down/back is a stabbing pain. The forward is like somebody trying to pry open that papercut, a sensation probably caused by the fact that you are in fact messing with something stuck in a very small cut in the skin, in my case the cut was just caused by the nail that has now been removed.

4. If it is a toenail extraction, you are going to bleed significantly more than teeth or fingernails, because your body has to work harder pushing blood up through your leg veins than it does pushing it down into your shoe. Especially when you take a step. Ibuprofen makes this worse. If you take ibuprofen at all that day, expect your shoe to fill up when you take a step. (Mine did, scaring the tar out of everyone present, including me.)

Pain Intensity Verdict:

Teeth > Nails. By a LOT.

Happy yanking!!

*Because of nerve fuckery, dentists using the sonic cleaning tool despite my warnings results in a pain on the level of extractions, and the sensations described here are based on my experience with that.

**This never fails to horrify my friends. They'll see what I'm fixing to work on and say, "Oh ouch, that's bad, go to the doctor," and I'm just like "nah, just get me isopropyl alcohol and some office supplies, I got this."

[batwynn]

I don’t know where else to ask sooo

Does anyone know how difficult it is to get Lidocaine injections in the usa? I know it’s not some kind of highly addictive substance, but it does seem like any mention of pain gets you shut down by doctors in seconds and I was only able to ever get a decent dosage of Lidocaine through the wound center in the past.

But the thing is, it seems to be the only kind of treatment for increasingly large tumor things growing in my arms. I can’t have any surgeries there thanks to my autoimmune disease, and I can’t keep ignoring them because they’ve progressed to now to be constantly pressing on nerves and I’m in daily ✨agony✨!

[stillfuckingtired]

Maaaannn, why didn’t I know lidocaine patches can affect heart rate. My back feels much better, but my beta blockers are working overtime to keep my hr down.