Needle in a haystack

I picked up the purple (violet, maybe?) capsules, turned them over in my palm. Were they familiar, something I remembered?

It was hard to say for sure, but somewhere in my memory there was a flicker of recognition.

That said, when I was a kid mum had always seemed to be taking medication for one thing or another: aches, pains, nerves, insomnia. The chances of remembering one particular pill, tablet or capsule seemed slight.

But about one thing I was certain. She certainly suffered from migraines - in fact, at the time it had seemed her migraines made everyone in the family suffer.

I put the capsules back on the table. "She'd said the attacks had got worse when she was pregnant with me, as a matter of fact," I said. "She certainly took something for them."

"Hmm, not untypical," Mr Smith said. "The hormonal changes can intensify migraine episodes.

"At the time, Lucidar was promoted as being so free of side-effects that it was safe to use while pregnant. Of course, things are very different now. Not just from the point of view that most medications are to be avoided during pregnancy - but in the case of Lucidar, there were some very specific unintended consequences."

"Such as?" I asked.

"Birth defects in the form of physical deformities, unfortunately. In such low numbers that the manufacturers escaped the attention of the media - but enough for the drug to be deemed unacceptable for pregnant women.

"Also enough for its overall efficacy to come under some intense scrutiny. Ultimately, it was quietly withdrawn."

"Birth defects? Well, if my mother did take this drug, it doesn't seem to have caused any problems, thankfully. I'm struggling to understand what all this has to do with me."

Mr Smith paused, as if unsure how to put something.

"Alan. It seems that not all the side-effects of Lucidar were so immediately apparent."



Story begins here.