I have a good excuse for not having created new posts at my normal rate.
I have what could best be termed a metabolic derangement.
I've altered and adjusted my dietary intake to affect some change - with little success. One doctor tells me I have a hereditary predisposition for the condition, so I'm stuck with the problem. The problem - a fiercely painful problem called gout - was long referred to as a "rich man's disease" or a "king's disease" or the product of "indolence" - none of which apply to me (okay, maybe I am a little bit indolent, as I most often spend my hours at a desk and keyboard). Historians tell me that such luminaries as Alexander the Great and Isaac Newton suffered this problem.
It first dug into my hide last February, I woke up thinking I had broken my ankle during my sleep or something. (A true sign of aging, indeed - waking up having injured myself in my sleep.) I actually had to get a dang cane and hobble into the doctor, who promptly said "Oh, it's gout" and gave me a few prescriptions, which did scale it back to a more normal Joe kind of day pretty quickly. But it keeps coming back. It sort of feels like someone is pounding on my feet with a ball-peen hammer repeatedly. History, again, reveals that it was Ben Franklin who, suffering the condition, obtained a a medicine made from the autumn crocus, aka, meadow saffron, called Colchicine. The same medicine was prescribed for me. However, the medicine was banned last fall by the FDA, as it had never undergone the standard testing procedures modern medicines must undergo. It was also only 6 dollars a for a month's supply.
A new drug, Uloric, is being promoted instead, and it costs about 200 dollars for a month's supply.
What I have learned is that since Colchicine was "grandfathered" by the FDA since it had been used for centuries before there was an FDA, that allowed for a company called URL Pharma to step up in 2009 and pay for the FDA testing and for a new patent on Colchicine, now called Colcrys. The result of their actions forced all other makers of generic Colchicine to halt all sales. It's buy their product or nothing. Their product also costs about $300 for a month's supply.
Which all leaves me without medicine, as that price tag is too large. I'll have to try and get on a "patient assistance program". Which I am loathe to do.
And, frustrated, in pain, and more than a little confused, it's been tough to sit down and write something for my blog. And so here I am, offering instead far more personal information than I really wanted to provide. Who wants to read about my health problems? (And I am most grateful this is the only medical woe I have, as millions of others have far more horrifying conditions and limited treatment tales.)
Like millions and millions of Americans, I am left with a simple conclusion - doctors don't operate our health care system, but pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies run it instead.
I suppose I should be happy I don't need a prescription to use a cane ..... yet.
I'd have to turn in all my cult movie fan credentials if I failed to mourn the passing of cult cinema superstar Tura Satana, who fled this mortal plane on Feb. 4th.
With one single movie, "Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill!", made in 1965, Tura created a performance which earned her a much deserved legendary status. The NYTimes blog notes that it was another legend of cinema, comedian Harold Lloyd, who urged her to go for a career in movies.
Goodbye and thanks, Tura.
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A 2011 Super Bowl commercial submitted without comment.
"Peter Frampton and Mike Inez (who will be playing "Iron Man" with fellow Ozzy alum, Zakk Wylde) are definitely participating and our source claims artists slated to perform (but who haven't done their parts yet) include Steve Howe of Yes, Ian Paice of Deep Purple and the god among men, Brian May of Queen." And since I've made reference to Star Trek, then you should also know the sci-fi franchise that will not die has now been immortalized in a potato format.
