It’s like they know when I need to take a trip. And then try to screw it up. I am going out of town the country for a week, starting tomorrow. On Wednesday, my doctor prescribed a lower dosage of paroxetine, to help me wean off it. Cutting the pills I have in half was [...]
Fri, July 30 2010 » 1 » 1 Comment
Act III of the 4/02/2010 episode of This American Life will be interesting to anyone who has heard of helminth therapy to treat autoimmune diseases. It focuses on a man named Jasper Lawrence, who decided to treat his severe asthma with hookworms acquired the, um, natural way. He sounds like a reasonable guy on the [...]
Sat, July 24 2010 » 1 » 1 Comment
So last week, I was trying to get my Paxil prescription refilled before I left for vacation – despite virtually no cooperation from my pharmacy. On Tuesday morning, I called my doctor for a refill. “Sure, we’ll send that in.” A few hours later, I called the pharmacy. “Your doctor just called it in; it [...]
Fri, July 23 2010 » 1 » No Comments
For the last several months I have been taking a drug called paroxetine – the generic version of Paxil. Paroxetine is a selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitor (SSRI) used to treat people with depression. In my case, I’d been having difficulty focusing and getting things done, and my doctor felt that this might be due to [...]
Sun, June 6 2010 » 1, Uncategorized » 2 Comments
My latest post for Change.org is up, and I talk about my discomfort with the medical marijuana movement, and how there’s a plant I would much rather see legalized: I would be more comfortable — and supportive — if marijuana were the basis of numerous drugs currently used as medicine. Or if it had a [...]
Thu, June 3 2010 » 1, Uncategorized » No Comments
My latest post for Change.org is Health Reform Introduces… the “Gap Year”! ….I discovered that I had to go straight to college: my parents’ insurance would no longer cover me if I took a year off between. So I went to college with no real ambition or focus, and frittered away two years taking classes [...]
Thu, April 1 2010 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Did you have a good Thanksgiving? I had a good Thanksgiving. In fact, I had a really good Thanksgiving – maybe my best ever. Saturday afternoon, we were walking around town, doing a little shopping, and I felt so happy. I was giddy – like I was high. It might have been the weather, and [...]
Mon, November 30 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
Saturday morning I dragged myself out of bed a bit earlier than usual, so I could walk to the community center where the country was running its H1N1 vaccination clinic. I got there 30 minutes before the clinic started, and there were already 500 people in line. I stood in the rain and cold for [...]
Tue, November 17 2009 » Uncategorized » 2 Comments
This month is National Blog Writing Month, or some such, but I’m not participating. You probably already knew that, as sporadic as my posting has been. The thing about being sick is that even though it forces you to take time off to care for yourself, the stuff that you’re not doing doesn’t magically disappear. [...]
Tue, November 3 2009 » Uncategorized » 1 Comment
You know the one: “How Drug-Industry Lobbyists Got Their Way On Health Care“, by Karen Tumulty and Michael Scherer. It’s worth reading if you’re not familiar with the issue, but there are a couple of aspects important to patients that the authors don’t quite spell out. First, this bit: But there’s a dilemma: policymakers want [...]
Thu, October 22 2009 » Uncategorized » No Comments
A novel crime against decency by Duncan Cross
