Health Chaos

My scoliosis was first diagnosed when I was in college, way back in the 60’s. It is lumbar, one of the worst kinds. It didn’t bother me for years; I made it through 2 pregnancies with no pain. And then lo and behold, I lifted some heavy bags 4 years ago, felt a “pop” and here we go. Found  a pain specialist at a major medical center. Surgery is on his mind. Not for me. No one is touching my spine with a knife!

So my solution: an occasional 1/2 pain pill during bad days. A 1/2 muscle relaxant on bad nights so I can sleep. But the very best!! yesterday I had a private bikram yoga class taught by the teacher and founder at the local center who has scoliosis too. What a great relief from stretching out those muscles and vertebrae. I will be going back and taking classes.

The bottom line: lots of folks have scoliosis. I would recommend anything before, or instead of, surgery. I also found that over the counter Icy Hot does almost as well as medications. Heat helps too. The yoga teacher works in a highly heated and humid room. How can you help relaxing?

Why do I have scoliosis? I attribute it to the fact that the “girls” in my generation did no exercise. We read and studied while the boys all played sports. As an adult I was a runner for 30 years, but it was too late then to reverse the damage, and may even have made it worse.

The bottom line: if you have this condition, try anything but surgery. And keep the young ladies in your life physically active. My daughter in law was a basketball star and is now a runner. Lucky her!

i was dismayed to read and see all the news about blood pressure and cholestrol reducing drugs this week. i really  believe that my previous internist received her md by watching the drug ads on television.

i refuse to take more than one little pill for my borderline hypertesnsion. and i refuse to have my cholestrol level ever tested again.

 today’s local paper was (first section: the real news!) filled with articles about how great these drugs are. oh sure; maybe high blood pressure drugs can curb heart attacks and strokes if you take a bunch of them every day. but what do they do to your GI system? and that short newspaper section had no less than one full page devoted to a pharmacy that could get you all of your drugs, with a reduced price for generics. AND one drug company, advertising their cholsestrol reducing drug had a two full page ad!!!

 i refuse to have my cholestrol level measured ever again. with my low fat diet and walking my dog four times a day, i am not going to worry about little numbers going up and down. and i refuse to take drugs that maybe i need and maybe i don’t.

 here’s to your health. take charge.

i am still not sure what obama’s plan would be, but i am sure i do not want “hillbilly” in office with her shouting and her support from the drug lobbyists, and her cockamany plan to say that everyone must pay for health care, and it could even  be garnished from  wages. suppose you don’t have any wages? suppose your job was eliminated…

 have we forgotten about national health care like other developed countries?

 obama’s speech today offered, as he usually does, a new voice, a voice of hope, and not a republican in democrat clothing. he, i believe, will enable the fixing of our society, or make a serious attempt, including health care.

Having been unemployed for over a year, I have no medical or dental insurance. Pretty scary, as Barack knows. So I decided to go to my local dental college. It was pretty amazing. All the recommendations made by my local money mongering dentist were nixed by the student and her professors who are in the business of good service and care, not retiring next year with a fat income.

Having been a health professional student myself, years ago, I admire the interest in learning, interest in providing optimal care, integrity, not to mention learning how to navigate the halls of academia, without getting lost, before you graduate.

And all at reasonable cost. Takes more time, but it is worth every minute and every penny.

About 3 months ago I applied for a position with a 3 month asthma research project. I stayed in touch, looking forward to an interview. They wanted to interview me yesterday. Only yesterday. Well too bad, I had plans that I could not cancel or change. So, how nice. They would interview me today at 10, by phone. Guess what? No call. No call of apology. They offered the position to someone else at the end of the day yesterday. Would you really want to work for that place? This is how they treat their applicants? That was as bad as the realtors who need me and my dog to get out of my house, then they never show up. Doesn’t make you feel good about people. Stay positive. Can’t live without it!

Just read an aricle in my local newspaper. (yes; some of us still like to have that rag in our hands!)  my sons (now adults) and I moved to this city from Berkeley nearly 4 years ago. I can’t say the schools are any worse here. They were very “politically correct” to a fault there. But I did do a  9 day stint as a school nurse last fall, with the schools in this city. My application took months to process, to the tune of about $200. I was so disenchanted by the poor, no, incompetent communication within the school health staff. There are apparently 99 schools in

It goes round and round.

Just got a message from a dr’s office (spinal pain). Not willing to see me; “nothing more to offer me” how does he know? Hasn’t seen me for over a year! WHAT? That means he doesn’t want to do charity care. His office bills independently. Nice. I just wanted a damn consult about pain and budding incontinence. And the muscle relaxants he prescribed are outdated. He can’t even do that? Oh I get it. He came to this country to get rich. I forgot. So if I can’t pay 5k out of pocket, why should he bother seeing me? So I left another message for his scheduler. I will run her ragged. Who cares? I just want a damn consult, paid for thank you, by charity care for which I was approved till june of 08. His message was for me to see my usual provider. Well, thank you, fool, but my PA at the cheap clinic is not a spine pain specialist, and referred me to YOU. And I have no insurance. So I get no help anywhere?

Not sure what to do next. I am my own patient now…after all these years of advocating for others, no one advocates for me. screwed. I am really angry.

I have been a health professional, an advocate, for nearly 40 years. And now I find myself living like a health care indigent. NO INSURANCE AND NO WORK after being laid off twice in the last 7 years. So the clinic admin person just called. She will talk to the doc again. yah sure. We shall see.

My premise is that there is less expected of health care professionals today. Is it just in this state, that I moved to 3 years ago? I think not. Professional positions that not long ago required at least a bachelors degree, if not a masters, now require an associate degree, or any educational level that provides the person with some very basic education and the employer can pay a LOT LESS in salary.

I see this trend not just in my profession, but in many, many professions. Yet we are told  that our economy is strong and there are lots of jobs! Sure, for slightly more than minimum wage, very limited or no benefits, and no job security. More and more I see contracts for a limited time vs. the days of longevity meaning you can invest in a retirement plan and your position is relatively secure. I live in an “at will” state which means you sign a paper,  a contract, which states that you can be terminated, at any time, without notice, with no warning and no reason given. On the other hand, you, the employee, have the same privilege. And I have exercised this right twice this year. Why?

 Now employers are looking for “technicians” or “specialists” which in health ”professions”  in this state, means a student, or an entry level worker,  who wants to earn a few dollars, with no higher goals, ambitions for professional growth.

 In support of my observations, I must say that I have found that the attitudes of those doing the hiring and firing has become very vindictive and demeaning. Perhaps because the ones “in charge” who have been promoted to the role of supervisor or manager are not qualified, educated, nor experienced for their role. Their communication skills seem to be nonexistent. ?the old “peter principle” at work again?

I have often talked about the misuse of drugs in health care. That is, prescribing drugs we don’t need, thanks to the pharmaceutical industry “training” our health care providers. But only recently have I observed this to also be inherent in veterinary medicine. Maybe I need to find a new veterinarian?!

 I took my dog, a 10yo Tibetan Terrier, to the vet on Tuesday because she was having some diarrhea. So what did I come home with?

• cephalexin capsules for her itchy belly
• bordatella vaccine (for potential kennel cough, which she has never had)
• a fecal test for ova and parasites (just in case that was the cause of the loose poop) just got a call; test normal!
• panacur (to add to her food to kill parasites that she MAY have had; and MAY NOT have had) obviously she didn’t.
• 8 cans of low fat food
• a creamy conditioner to rub on her belly to take away the itching. I believe that meditation and talking to her would have worked just as well.
• a topical spray when the itching gets crazy. She hates it. Smells and tastes like ethanol.
• a special order for the new drug that is being pushed for allergies: atopica. I have decided that I would rather deal with the allergies in a naturopathic way.
• biohazard fee. For what? recycling the   syringe used for the nasal inhalant bordatella vaccine?

The bill: $258.91. And I have decided not to give Sara most of this stuff. I am very sorry that I was in a naive mood and bought this junk. I was being stupid and forgetting my same anger toward the human medical industry. I need to find a naturopathic veterinarian.

Last week  I had a holiday dinner with several older women (72 to 92).  One of their big topics of discussion was “shingles immunization” i. e. “have you had yours yet?” or “who can safely have the immunization?” I felt left out. Is this an older women’s disease? What is this? Who gets this?

 Being at least a decade younger than all the other women, and having never experienced this condition, neither personally nor professionaly,  nor did I know anyone who had, I was perplexed. Better come home and read about this, like right now! Because I will be getting questions…

So from reading professional articles,  I found out that shingles is caused by the varicella zoster virus.  This is the same virus that causes chicken pox, which so many in my generation , and even our children, were exposed to, and generally acquired, prior to the days of immunization to avoid chicken pox. Does this mean we are less likely, or more likely to acquire “shingles”? 

 I am a 61 yo mother of sons who are now 22 and 25. So not that long ago, my sons missed preschool at Stanford University because they both acquired chicken pox which was running rampant through their preschool. At the very same time, a pediatric endocrinogist at the same university,  was hard at work in the her lab in the attempt to develop an immunization against chicken pox. Now chicken pox has become another childhood disease that is hopefully on its road to extinction, or at least, major reduction.

 My crazy ability to remember minutae recalls my memories of two little guys, home from “school”, bored and itchy, itchy, itchy in their little matching hooded red bathrobes. And though I didn’t want to expose other children, we HAD to go out for walks before we all went nuts!

 Well, back to shingles. Shingles is caused by the same virus that causes chicken pox, as mentioned above. One cannot “catch” shingles from another person who has shingles, BUT if you have never had chicken pox, you could contract chicken pox from someone who has shingles. As it goes, the younger, or older, that we are, the more these viruses tax our immune system, our bodies, our lives.  After one has had chicken pox, the virus remains dormant in some cells of the body next to the spinal cord, and can reactivate as shingles. One is more likely to get shingles as one gets older and the immune system is weakened, and/or if one already has a compromised immune system due to another diagnosis.

So I naturally asked these dinner guests what symtoms they had. They described a “band” or a “ring” of tiny blisters, or a rash,  somewhere on their trunk or limbs, usually limited to one side. They were described as painful. What may seem to present as a relatively benign rash can result in a more serious complications. So do see a health care provider if you have something that fits this description.

 As for immunization: The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone 60 and over consider vaccination. While the immunization will not guarantee that you never get this condition, you will more likely have a less severe illness. Keep in mind that your health insurance may not reimburse you for this vaccination.

For more information, please check these websites: http://www.ninds.nih.gov/disorders/shingles/shingles.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/shingles/dis-faqs.htm