A friend of mine shared this article, "Obama's Plan to Change U.S. Health Care System Will Cost Nearly Two TRILLON Dollars". First of all, "trillion" is spelled wrong ... I'm supposed to take this article seriously? Now, generally, I like Dr. Mercola - he often offers very practical advice. However, this article tells me that he's fallen from his Common Sense Pedestal, clearly drug down by the added weight of Ron Paul in his pocket.
"One of the problems in our current system, he says, is the lack of competition, partly due to too much government intervention." The only lack of competition is among drug companies - there are plenty of insurance companies, plenty of care providers ("conventional" and "alternative"). What's lacking is regulation of the insurance companies & costs. I'm not saying the Obama Healthcare Plan is perfect, and I usually agree with Dr. Mercola, but this article is full of broad, propaganda statements. "There is NO PILL that can make you healthier!" As someone who took charge of her health and tried every AFFORDABLE alternative therapy I could manage, I DO take a pill that makes me healthier (8/week) - much more so than any of the alternative therapies I tried over 4 years - my disease just kept worsening. As for the doctors leaving "in droves" maybe if more of them hadn't gotten into it to make big $, if they had more of a backbone & stayed true to "wanting to help people," "alternative" medicine would be more norm. (Dr. M should have drawn much more focus on Pamela Wible than Ron Paul.) Historically, holier-than-thou physicians created this mess by convincing people that they didn't know how to keep themselves healthy - the demise of natural childbirth, the "fear" that has been ingrained in women in the past 80 years (a monumental change in America in less than a century), is an under-appreciated example of this. We aren't dirt-poor, but we live barely better than check-to-check, sacrificing to raise our children into productive and responsible citizens, and can't afford basic medical care (or even many "alternative" treatments) for my disease because of unregulated insurance companies and greedy physicians - a disease that affects well over a million people in the US alone. I'm a drop in the pond of people in the same situation.
Thursday, July 2, 2009
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Here, Piggy Piggy Piggy
I'd gone off the Ketoprofen with the doctor's okay. I've been quite proud of myself, too. Sure, I admit I've taken it a few times on an as-needed basis. I'm not "reliant" on it like I was for 4+ years, and that - at least to me - is something worthy of cheers.
I've been doing things in the last few months, pushing myself perhaps, things that I have been unable to do in several years. I planted some new flowers in my flower bed. I even constructed a new small wildflower bed for my youngest child. (I enlist the help of my husband and kids, but I'm doing a lot of the work I couldn't before.) I've gotten in the floor to play with my sweet baby niece, and I didn't get stuck there waiting for someone to pull me off the ground. The doctor has warned me, specifically with my hands, that I need to take it easy. That means, activity = pain. As much pain as I have felt over the course of my disease progression, not to mention the emotional distress of the disease and sudden (and gradual) lack of mobility, I am confident I can deal with the pain in exchange for the ABILITY to do these things.
A couple of days ago, I was standing in my house, talking to one of my kids, and I must have shifted my weight because I heard and felt a big pop in my left knee and left foot/ankle. (It didn't hurt.) Popping has been occurring more and more, which is another thing that seems "normal" to me again. My joints have always readily (and often involuntarily) popped. (I cannot bring myself to actually purposely pop any of my fingers for fear that I will faint from the shock of it.) Despite it not hurting in the moment, bedtime was another story. Both the knee and foot were aching, but not enough for me to get out of bed to take a pain med or anti-inflammatory - I was too sleepy. The morning of my next doctor visit, I could hardly bear weight on my foot when I woke up. Dammit, should have taken the ketoprofen. Fortunately, I had to get a few things done before shuffling the kids off and going to the doctor, so I pushed through the pain and within minutes my foot was feeling better - not healed, but better. I noticed that the more I walked, the less pain there was. After sitting for a few minutes, getting up and bearing weight hurt again. I had to drive to the doctor's office, so - despite my best efforts to appear normal - I hobbled into the office where my chipper nurse noticed right away that I was limping.
The consensus of both nurse and doctor was I shouldn't be off the ketoprofen. DAMMIT. Doc's logic was that I started the study taking it, and since I was actually having pain while in the office (first time for that in a while), that could be mistakenly attributed to "the study drug" rather than the lack of a med I had been certainly-taking. She wants me to take it through the course of the study so as not to "muddy the study results". That was a big, fat reminder of my status as a Guinea Pig.
My labs from last visit were all "great" and I really think I will wait until the next visit before I fully cave to resuming the ketoprofen. I'll take it more often between now and then, but not every day. I don't need it every day, and even if they aren't confident in that, I am. I know that something - either just the MTX or the MTX/study drug combination - is enabling me to be active again. I am fully aware that it is easy for me to overdo things, and to expect pain after certain activity (like a normal person). I am still reliant on a medication, but it's giving me so much more than the ketoprofen alone did, I'm okay with it.
I've been doing things in the last few months, pushing myself perhaps, things that I have been unable to do in several years. I planted some new flowers in my flower bed. I even constructed a new small wildflower bed for my youngest child. (I enlist the help of my husband and kids, but I'm doing a lot of the work I couldn't before.) I've gotten in the floor to play with my sweet baby niece, and I didn't get stuck there waiting for someone to pull me off the ground. The doctor has warned me, specifically with my hands, that I need to take it easy. That means, activity = pain. As much pain as I have felt over the course of my disease progression, not to mention the emotional distress of the disease and sudden (and gradual) lack of mobility, I am confident I can deal with the pain in exchange for the ABILITY to do these things.
A couple of days ago, I was standing in my house, talking to one of my kids, and I must have shifted my weight because I heard and felt a big pop in my left knee and left foot/ankle. (It didn't hurt.) Popping has been occurring more and more, which is another thing that seems "normal" to me again. My joints have always readily (and often involuntarily) popped. (I cannot bring myself to actually purposely pop any of my fingers for fear that I will faint from the shock of it.) Despite it not hurting in the moment, bedtime was another story. Both the knee and foot were aching, but not enough for me to get out of bed to take a pain med or anti-inflammatory - I was too sleepy. The morning of my next doctor visit, I could hardly bear weight on my foot when I woke up. Dammit, should have taken the ketoprofen. Fortunately, I had to get a few things done before shuffling the kids off and going to the doctor, so I pushed through the pain and within minutes my foot was feeling better - not healed, but better. I noticed that the more I walked, the less pain there was. After sitting for a few minutes, getting up and bearing weight hurt again. I had to drive to the doctor's office, so - despite my best efforts to appear normal - I hobbled into the office where my chipper nurse noticed right away that I was limping.
The consensus of both nurse and doctor was I shouldn't be off the ketoprofen. DAMMIT. Doc's logic was that I started the study taking it, and since I was actually having pain while in the office (first time for that in a while), that could be mistakenly attributed to "the study drug" rather than the lack of a med I had been certainly-taking. She wants me to take it through the course of the study so as not to "muddy the study results". That was a big, fat reminder of my status as a Guinea Pig.
My labs from last visit were all "great" and I really think I will wait until the next visit before I fully cave to resuming the ketoprofen. I'll take it more often between now and then, but not every day. I don't need it every day, and even if they aren't confident in that, I am. I know that something - either just the MTX or the MTX/study drug combination - is enabling me to be active again. I am fully aware that it is easy for me to overdo things, and to expect pain after certain activity (like a normal person). I am still reliant on a medication, but it's giving me so much more than the ketoprofen alone did, I'm okay with it.
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