My Death Plans

I died once, so I’ve probably thought about death more than the average person. Well, obviously I didn’t die, but I was told my heart stopped and I was clinically dead. So, yeah, I’ve been dead before.

The subject of death plans recently came up here:

An important question

https://seachysuffers.wordpress.com/2016/01/12/death-it-will-get-me-and-you-so-why-is-it-taboo/

Most of us will not get to choose how we die (even though most of us have chosen the way we’ve lived, which doesn’t seem fair). But, unless you’re at death’s door, there’s no way to tell when it’s our time. So, it only makes sense to be prepared for the inevitable.

I guess a lot of people will visit an attorney to have legal documents prepared, like a will. But that’s really for people with money or property, not really for poor people, like me. Now you can find a lot of legal documents online, which you can prepare yourself, only needing to pay for a notary. In fact, hospitals have some legal documents (like DNRs) for patients to access, hopefully with an attorney available to answer questions at no charge. Now that Medicare is covering end-of-life counseling, legal assistance should become more readily available to the public.

So, really, all I need to worry about is what I want to happen after I’m gone. That’s easy, because I don’t want to be confined in a coffin and buried under the ground — leaving cremation as the only other option. (Not that I’d want another option, like being covered in chocolate and sent into space in a cryochamber.)

But, I don’t want my ashes confined in an urn, either. And I don’t like the idea of having my ashes scattered somewhere — I don’t see any point in that, and honestly, it seems kinda gross. No, I’d just like my remains to be taken out with the trash, disposed of in an environmentally-clean way…

Now, if I could save enough money to pay for a cremation before I need this service, that would be great. (But I don’t see that happening.)

As for funerals, I don’t like them. At one time, I thought it would be nice to request a party to celebrate my life after I die, but I no longer like that idea. Celebrate my life while I’m living — don’t wait until after I’m gone.

So, my death plans are cremation and no funeral. I do so hereby swear (to my blog), on this, the 12th day of January, 2016.

WordPress, what have you done now?

You’ve made changes without an explanation. You’ve really messed up my links. Why are you making my life more difficult?

Steroid Over-Prescribing

http://www.medpagetoday.com/Rheumatology/Arthritis/55586?xid=nl_mpt_DHE_2016-01-11&eun=g875301d0r

Almost half of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in the U.K. receive glucocorticoids from primary care physicians, and of those who are prescribed glucocorticoids, more than half receive more than 10 mg a day…

Glucocorticoids have been used for RA for more than 60 years, and are effective for easing the pain and swelling associated with the disease. However, these drugs are associated with many potentially serious adverse effects, and current guidelines recommend that they be used for the shortest possible time and at the lowest effective dose.

“In the general population, glucocorticoids account for 2.5% of all adverse drug reactions leading to hospital admission,” Black and colleagues observed…

The median cumulative time spent on glucocorticoids was 10 months, the authors noted. “This highlights that some patients are taking glucocorticoids for longer than recommended, placing them at increased risk of developing side effects,” they observed…

When Steroids Cause Psychosis published at The Rheumatologist in 2010

Corticosteroids are used to treat inflammatory manifestations of many rheumatologic conditions. Doses necessary to control disease are frequently high (e.g., 1 mg/kg or greater), and therapy may be maintained for prolonged periods of weeks to months. In this setting, one out of every two to three patients prescribed steroids may develop psychiatric symptoms including psychosis, mania, delirium, and depression. The most common symptoms reported with corticosteroid therapy are hypomania, mania, and psychosis…

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steroid_dementia_syndrome

Glucocorticoid medications have been known to be associated with significant side effects involving behavior and mood, regardless of previous psychiatric or cognitive condition, since the early 1950s. But cognitive side effects of steroid medications involving memory and attention are not as widely publicized and may be misdiagnosed as separate conditions, such as attention deficit disorder (ADHD or ADD) in children or early Alzheimer’s disease in elderly patients…

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001922/

(2010) Steroids as pain relief adjuvants

Withdrawal symptoms from corticosteroids include pain, nausea or vomiting, weight loss, depression, fatigue, fever, dizziness, and rebound symptoms that are unmasked when there is loss of symptom control once the corticosteroid is removed…

Posted at the Facebook page for Opposition to Kentucky HB 1-Reform HB 217 aka “Pill Mill Bill”:

(17 hours ago) Harmed Patient:  It should also be noted that in KY it is not only chronic pain patients being denied care, but also acute pain. Urgent care centers are prescribing toxic steroids for short term injury pain.

http://erbclaw.com/updates/steroid-injection-overdose-causes-auto-immune-syndrome/index.html

Plaintiff, currently age 41, suffered from low back pain and was given the recommendation to go to a pain clinic for treatment per her primary care physician. Plaintiff presented to Defendant doctor at his advertised pain clinic in June of 2008. Defendant reviewed Plaintiff’s recently performed MRI scans, diagnosed her with scar tissue and arthritis, and indicated to her “I can fix this”. Defendant, who is not a trained radiologist, disagreed with the radiological interpretation that Plaintiff was suffering from a herniated disc, and instead believed she had scar tissue and an arthritic condition.

Defendant’s treatment regimen consisted of injecting plaintiff with corticosteroids, predominantly 40 mg Kenalog injections, at the L-4/L-5 disc space. Between June 2, 2008 and October 10, 2008, a time frame of only four months, Defendant performed 9 separate corticosteroid injection procedures upon Plaintiff…

After Plaintiff had undergone several of the injections, her toes went numb bilaterally. Defendant assured her this was not an issue and stated “Don’t worry about it”. One month later after additional steroid injections, her left thigh went numb from her knee to her hip. Following the October 10, 2008 injection, Plaintiff’s pain and numbness increased and she stopped seeing Defendant doctor. Plaintiff contacted the licensing board and was informed that Defendant had not been certified as a pain management specialist and according to the licensing board representative, Defendant was practicing outside his scope of practice.

Plaintiff was hospitalized for an infection following the second corticosteroid procedure and subsequently has developed high blood pressure requiring medication. Furthermore, she has been diagnosed with an auto immune process that was proximately caused by the massive overuse of steroid injections by Defendant doctor. Plaintiff has also had to undergo disc fusion surgery in her lumbar spine by a neurosurgeon to stabilize the area where Defendant injected her with massive doses of steroids…

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/10/151026093658.htm

(10/26/2015) Common steroid does not reduce chronic pain after heart surgery

https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/06/13/2013-the-risks-of-epidural-and-transforaminal-steroid-injections-in-the-spine/

Legally addictive drugs we love

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/coffee-flour-caffeine-baking_5693f6e1e4b0a2b6fb70ee9a

This Caffeinated Coffee Flour Will Put Some Buzz In Your Baked Goods

The flour doesn’t taste like coffee, but rather has a “nutty” flavor, according to the patent. Four grams of it the same amount of caffeine as a cup of coffee, Perlman told Eater. An average muffin has about 37 grams of flour, so you’d definitely feel the jolt if you use this in your baking…

Ask for lidocaine

I don’t know if doctors are getting stingy with the lidocaine or what, but if you’re having a painful procedure, don’t forget to ask for it.

Digging for Gold

Rather than going through the process of shooting me up with Lidocaine and slicing down deeper and purging out more junk, the surgeon took the stick end of a swab and used that to dig around in my wound – think of it as a meat tenderizer, he just kinda made hamburger out of my flesh – without any topical numbing whatsoever. I broke out in a sweat and I had tears rolling down my face. I knew I had to lay still but I was also fighting to get away from him and just make the PAIN STOP…

Be Wary of Deadly Mistakes in Health Care

“I can list dozens of errors in my own care. I am extremely active and have no diabetic complications after five decades, yet the primary care providers cannot see past ‘check the toes’ and ‘check the A1c.’

“I came in with a breast lump one time and the doctor was so preoccupied with checking my toes and rushing out the door that I had to call her back to check the lump, which was why I’d made the appointment. Once she realized I had a lump, she ordered a mammogram and ultrasound to help identify the lesion.

“Since I am a male, I think they wanted to dismiss it as nonsense. Fortunately for me, it turned out to be an abscess, but I had to assert myself to get any attention. Even so, the surgeon took the biopsy specimen from my nipple without using any lidocaine [local anesthetic]. What is wrong with these people? …