I have alway had an extremely high tolerance for drugs.  Some people can take one or two Advil and it knocks them out (Tom); Give them half a Tylenol PM and they're gone for at least eight hours (Tom);  A Vicodin will erase a entire day (Tom); And just sniffing the bottle that held Ambien will be enough for those butterflies to flutter about (Tom).

When I had dental surgery years ago, the surgeon didn't want to take that last minute chance that I wouldn't be knocked out so we "experimented" with a few different drugs in the weeks prior to the surgery.  I already knew from an "experiment" in high school that Seconal made me sicker than a dog so we crossed that off the list right away.

First we tried Valium. It did nothing.
Next came Xanax. Nada.
Ativan ... nope.

Finally, we tried Halcion.  The instructions were to begin with half a tablet, wait thirty minutes and if nothing happened, take the other half. At this point, I should be in la-la land but in case I wasn't, I was to wait another thirty minutes and repeat those steps until I was. 

Saturday afternoon.  I took the first half.  And waited.  Took the second half.  And waited. Repeated the process.  And waited.  After the third full round, I remember thinking "this is ridiculous" and walking into the living room to make some phone calls.

That's all I remember until the next morning when I called the surgeon and said "I think we have a winner!"  When he asked how many I had to take and I told him, he was amazed.  He told me that one whole tablet would have knocked out a full grown man. Two would have put an NFL linebacker out of the game. Three ... well, I seemed to have the constitution of a horse!

I don't remember the surgery later that week, but apparently I had a great time. I was insistent that I needed no help walking up the stairs even though my feet were no longer connected to my brain. In the middle of the procedure I insisted that I had to use the bathroom (which was outside the office and down the hall).  I jumped up out of the chair, strolled through the waiting area, blood and saliva dripping down my chin, cheerfully greeted the waiting patients, and whistled my way down the hall.

Since I haven't had a full nights sleep in so long, I've been wondering if Halcion is still on the market.  But after taking half a Vicodin last night for a headache and sleeping almost all night, maybe I should forget it.

I have a feeling my tolerance level might have dropped a bit.  From what I (don't) remember though, that Halcion was a lot more fun!