Awake yet? TGIF 🙂
Month: September 2016
What’s your #OpioidAwareness story?
After 30 years of intractable pain, no treatment remains untried. Opioids work best and that’s no lie. Forced to give them up, I now think of suicide. #OpioidAwareness #Painkills2
Clinton Foundation @ClintonFdn, Sep 24
“No child should ever die because of an overdose in our country.” @ChelseaClinton discusses our programs on @TheView. #OpioidAwareness
No one should ever want to die because doctors refuse to treat their pain. #OpioidAwareness #CDCuSuck #NoMoreDrugWar #Painkills2
Cory Booker @CoryBooker, Sep 24
Don’t turn your back on members of your community struggling with opioid addiction this #OpioidAwareness Week.
Don’t turn your back on members of your community suffering from chronic pain this #OpioidAwareness Week. #CDCuSuck #Painkills2
Red Balls and Raindrops
Red balls have fewer calories than Red Bull. But red balls can’t give you wings. 🙂
When will I become homeless?
A year and a half ago, I wrote to Social Security and CMS:
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/03/02/risk-is-stressful/
About three months later, I received a postcard saying my letter was being referred to another office (in New Mexico):
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/05/29/my-response-from-medicarecms/
Yesterday in the mail, I received a letter from the Social Security Administration in Kansas City, Missouri:
“We sent you a letter telling you that we were going to review your disability case. However, we do not need to review your case at this time. Therefore, we will not contact your doctor now. We will keep any information that you have given us. We will contact you later if we need to review your case…”
Uh, no, you didn’t send me a letter saying you were going to review my case. I sent you a letter and I never received a response to any of the issues discussed therein. Nothing. Nada.
I always feel anxious when I receive anything from Social Security, just like when I received letters from Unum, my ex-long term disability insurance provider. Since Unum terminated my benefits, I keep waiting for Social Security to do the same. See, disability providers believe that if you’re not taking medications (and seeing a doctor regularly), you’re not disabled:
https://painkills2.wordpress.com/2015/06/22/my-worst-fears-coming-true/
The DEA and CDC have taken away the most successful treatment for chronic pain. Doctors will no longer treat many pain patients. Medical cannabis programs, where they exist, are too expensive for many of the disabled. So, who has the money and access to see a doctor regularly? Is that a requirement to be disabled? And if you aren’t seeing a doctor, you get kicked to the curb?
No wonder so many people believe in conspiracy theories. Use the drug war to kick people off of disability. Genius.
Checking my mail is a stressful activity. When will I get that letter cutting off my disability benefits? When will I become homeless?
Do you know a bully?
“One of the worst things he said was about a woman in a beauty contest,” Clinton said. “He loves beauty contests, supporting them and hanging around them. And he called this woman ‘Miss Piggy’ — then he called her ‘Miss Housekeeping,’ because she was Latina. Alicia Machado, Donald — she has a name.”
Machado was the 1995 winner of the Miss Venezuela pageant. She went on to be crowned Miss Universe the next year, when she was 19. That’s when, according to Machado, she began to be bullied by Trump, who was then the owner of Miss Universe Inc., the company behind the pageant.
In an interview with Inside Edition in May, Machado said Trump bullied her “all the time,” mocking her weight and calling her “Miss Piggy.” According to Inside Edition, Trump wasn’t shy about confirming Machado’s story at the time, giving interviews about how he was taking her to the gym to encourage her to lose weight.
Speaking to the New York Times in May, Machado said Trump’s treatment of her left her with lasting harm.
“After that episode, I was sick, anorexia and bulimia for five years,” she said, speaking about Trump’s public admonishment of her weight. “Over the past 20 years, I’ve gone to a lot of psychologists to combat this.”
As Clinton said Monday night, Machado has become a U.S. citizen — just in time to vote in November’s election.
Do you know a bully? They’re very hard to deal with, even if you try to understand them. Best thing to do is walk away from a bully. Of course, if Trump becomes president, we won’t be able to do that.
Did You Forget To Breathe?
Try it now. You know you want to. In fact, you’re probably already doing it. I put the idea in your head because I’m magic. Some might even say I’m a witch. (I mean, bitch.) 🙂
Colorado Department of Health, You Suck
The alliance claims that the “Department of Public Health’s Board of Medical Examiners (BME) has begun pulling the licenses of physicians who are recommending a patient try medical marijuana for severe medical conditions that require extended plant counts.”
Michele Ross, Ph.D. and cannabinoid medicine expert says, “They used no scientific evidence or research to support the decision to pull these physician’s licenses, nor have they offered guidance on what plant counts they believe are appropriate for each condition so physicians have guidance moving forward.”
In an announcement, the alliance noted that the Department of Health issued a statement last year restricting physicians from recommending cannabis to more than 30% of their patients or potentially face action against their license.
“How do you make a doctor choose which 3 out of 10 cancer patients deserve access to cannabis treatment?” questioned Dr. Ross. “What is the scientific basis for this decision?”
Similar to how the number of pain management doctors is decreasing, the amount of doctors willing to certify for medical marijuana are few and far between. Meaning, the ones who are willing to certify end up getting all the patients.
It’s like that in New Mexico. When I moved here, I had very little choice in doctors to certify me. The first one I contacted refused to do so — over email. After I was approved, the doctor who refused to see me went to work part-time for the Department of Health in my state, certifying each and every patient application for medical cannabis.
Oregon is looking better and better everyday.
Beware of low flying trains
The wind is enjoying the advent of fall here in New Mexico. And I love the wind. 🙂
#ForAudrie
There’s a new documentary streaming on Netflix called Audrie & Daisy. If you’re a parent, you’ll want to watch it. If you’re a female, you definitely need to watch it.
The movie will make you angry and disgusted. And it will make you cry. After you watch the movie, if you want to talk about it, I hope you’ll come back and comment.
To all of the survivors who were brave enough to be a part of this movie — especially Daisy — I salute you! To every rape survivor, I can’t say this enough: It. Is. NOT. Your. Fault. And you are not alone. #StopTheShame
The Peace Rose
http://www.gerbera.org/gardening-magazine/the-gardener-index/june-2005/peace-rose/
The story of the ‘Peace’ rose is one that can be told over and over again because it encapsulates everything that we hold dear in roses – drama, love and greatness of spirit. This year marks the sixtieth anniversary of the naming of this enduring rose that remains an excellent garden rose, and a symbol of our desire for that ever-elusive peace…
On the same day that two doves were released into the American sky to symbolise the naming of the rose, Berlin fell and a truce was declared. It was sheer coincidence. In naming the rose, this simple statement was read: “ We are persuaded that this greatest new rose of our time should be named for the world’s greatest desire: ‘PEACE’.”
‘Peace’ went on to receive the All American Award for roses on the day that the war in Japan came to an end. On May 8, 1945, when Germany signed its surrender, the 49 delegates who met to form the United Nations were each presented with a bloom of ‘Peace’ and a message of peace from the Secretary of the American Rose Society…
The name ‘Peace’ seems to have outlasted all the others. The timing of its launch was perfect and it struck such a chord that within nine years some 30 million ‘Peace’ rose bushes were flowering around the world.
But it wasn’t because of sentiment alone. ‘Peace’ truly was a superlative rose, superior by far to the roses before it in terms of vigour, hardiness, and the long lasting ability of its blooms…
Peace, from Albuquerque, New Mexico. 🙂
All Things Chronic 