I smell turkey (in my mind). 🙂
Month: November 2016
Southern Belle In Black And White
I finally scrubbed my toilet, thank you very much. I even thought about scrubbing my floors, but decided to make spaghetti sauce instead. (Can you smell the garlic?) It’s been a good day because of good bud. I hope your day was full of whatever helps you survive. 🙂
After a doctor sells out to industry, credibility is lost
http://www.acsh.org/news/2016/11/22/trumps-wall-and-opioid-crisis-10450
My comment:
I’m a believer in science and logic. I’m also a believer in questioning everything, like who is Dr. Josh Bloom of the generically-named American Council of Science and Health? The internet does not have very nice things to say about your group, Dr. Bloom, but I suppose you know that. I figure your group gets funding from industries like Big Pharma, so really anything you say is tainted, even if it’s scientifically sound and logical, like this article.
Google showed me your recent Reddit thread and an article from CBS News in 2014:
“But Dr. Josh Bloom of the American Council of Science and Health says these chemicals have been used in the U.S. for at least 60 years and pose no risk. ‘There are so many hundreds of things more dangerous in everyday life than this that it is not even worth thinking about,’ Bloom said.”
Hmmmm, pesticides are not even worth thinking about? You have an interesting way of looking at this issue, Dr. Bloom. Why worry about something we can’t change? It’s not like chemicals are going anywhere, right? In fact, you’re now talking about opioids, which are also chemicals.
And speaking of the CDC and DEA’s war against opioids, perhaps you should look at their side. They believe that reducing the supply and creating regulations will prevent addiction in the future. This is more important to these agencies than the current grumbling of thousands of pain patients and a few hundred suicides. After all, pain doesn’t kill, right? Drugs can kill immediately, but it takes time for pain to kill you.
The opioid war is not about the treatment of pain — it’s always been about the treatment of addiction. And focusing on the real causes of overdoses doesn’t mean focusing on which drugs are being used. If that was important, then the drug war wouldn’t be such a huge failure and we wouldn’t be in the midst of this so-called opioid epidemic.
It’s nice to see your organization paying attention to the opioid war and the suffering of millions of pain patients, but I wonder how much good it will do. Who will listen to you, Dr. Bloom? Was it worth it to sell your education and knowledge to the highest bidder, as you’ve done in your career? You may be a doctor, but I think you’ve sold out your credibility. But thanks for trying.
Addition on 11/23/2016:
Alex Berezow [Mod] painkills2 • an hour ago
“The internet does not have very nice things to say about your group, Dr. Bloom…”
And like most of the internet, the comments section has no editorial standards, which is why you are uniquely qualified to write for it. After posting 11,871 comments, one would think you would have said something remotely interesting by now.
painkills2 Alex Berezow • 12 minutes ago
The internet is a big place, with both good and bad sources. What kind of source is this website? As a reader, that’s what I have to determine. And as someone who’s suffered from intractable pain for 30 years, I would think you might be interested in my opinion on the opioid war. No? Well, that’s your choice.
I’m sorry, did you have something interesting to say?
Mothers, teach your daughters about sexual abuse
After dozens of people alleged sexual assault against a former physician for the USA Gymnastics team, he has been arrested and charged for his apparently habitual abuse of underage female patients, CNN reported.
Dr. Larry Nassar, 53, worked as a doctor for the Michigan State University gymnastics and crew teams, and for the United States national gymnastics team during four Olympic Games. After his arrest on Monday, he faces three counts of criminal sexual assault against minors under the age of 13.
USA Gymnastics also stands accused of ignoring and even covering up his behavior. Coaches Bela and Marta Karolyi face a lawsuit for having allowed the abuse to continue unchecked…
News of Nassar’s misconduct broke in mid-September, when the Indianapolis Star reported that two women — an Olympic medalist identified in her lawsuit as Jane Doe, and Rachael Denhollander, a former gymnast Nassar treated at Michigan State University — had accused the doctor of having sexually abused them. After the Indianapolis Star published its story, the number of victims who came forward climbed to over 30.
Denhollander told the Indianapolis Star that she began seeing Nassar in 2000 as a 15-year-old. He treated her for lower back pain, his actions becoming more inappropriate over the course of five appointments, she said. He groped her breasts and her genitals, and also digitally penetrated her vagina and anus, according to Denhollander.
According to NBC, Nassar’s lawyers maintain that any vaginal penetration by Nassar was in line with osteopathic practice…
No, no, no. There is no pain treatment that includes vaginal or anal penetration. None. Zero. Zilch.
Mothers, please teach your daughters about inappropriate touching and what constitutes sexual abuse, even from a person in authority, like a doctor. I know my mother never talked to me about this subject, and I sure wish she would have.
Southern Belle
When I don’t know the name of a flower or plant, I give them nicknames. I call this one Southern Belle.
TGINMA (Thank goodness it’s not Monday anymore). 🙂
Approved by the people, not the FDA
“If you looked at all the studies, what you came to learn was that most of the studies were designed to look for harm, as opposed to designed to look for benefit. 94% of the studies over a 5-year period were actually designed to look for harm as opposed to benefit, so the whole system was sort of looking for that harm as opposed to saying that this could be a legitimate medicine.” Dr. Sanjay Gupta
“This is the only substance that has been sort of approved by the people, not the FDA.”
Everyone who suffers from chronic pain should have access to cannabis. Affordable and quality cannabis. Dr. Gupta says it’s immoral to deny patients this medicine, but I think it’s just plain cruel.
Should we have a war against love?
http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news/local-news/politics-pain-supply-vs-demand
For a small segment of society, such as hospice patients during the dying process, opioids can be one tool in the arsenal used to relieve torturous pain. Thus, the drug-makers’ efforts have made pain relief more available. But people recovering after a car crash or back surgery risk addiction they might never have been susceptible to otherwise…
Really? If you may be susceptible to an opioid addiction, does that mean you have to spend your whole life avoiding painkillers? Is abstinence the answer for every addiction? (Try telling that to people who are addicted to food.)
Is this article trying to say that surgery can be done without opioids? How many people would have surgery if they knew it would not include painkillers? Looks like the opioid war is going to put a lot of surgeons out of business. Good riddance, I say.
No one knows if they have the potential for addiction until they are suffering from it. Yes, your family history can be a clue, but it’s never 100% right. A person would have to not drink, gamble, have sex, or take drugs to avoid an addiction, whatever it might turn out to be. Sorry, but that’s not the way the world works. That’s not how humans work.
Those advocating for the opioid war say they are trying to stop addiction before it starts. Is that realistic? Is that the way addiction works? The experts tell us plenty of ways to prevent cancer, but that doesn’t stop everyone from getting it. As women, we know how to avoid domestic abuse and rape, but those crimes still happen every single day.
Law-makers say heroin addiction often starts when people abuse prescription pain killers. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say people who get addicted to prescription pain killers are 40 times more likely to become addicted to heroin…
If you suffer from an addiction to painkillers, you’re already addicted to “heroin.” Duh. Would a painkiller addict be 40 times more likely to become addicted to illegal heroin? No, that’s not right. This is just the CDC inflating incorrect statistics again, making them scarier than the reality. Like taking a painkiller is one step away from taking illegal heroin. Considering the number of people who’ve taken painkillers (without any risk of turning to illegal heroin) and the number of actual heroin addicts, the CDC’s numbers don’t compute.
“We’ve become dependent really on using strong pain killers for treatment of regular aliments, such as cancer and inadvertently many people have become addicted to those pain killers,” said Isenhart.
Yes, that’s right, medical experts are now saying that cancer is a regular ailment, not always deserving of treatment with painkillers. You think if you have cancer, you’ll automatically get access to opioids and adequate pain management? Not during the opioid war.
While the opioid war looks at painkillers as a curse, I see them as a gift. Yes, they can be abused, just like almost everything else on this Earth. Even love can be abused. Love can also kill. Should we have a war against love?
A message from my blog
I was born out of frustration, anger, and fear.
I grew with kindness, sympathy, and tears.
It’s been an educational and illuminating two years.
To all my buccaneers and musketeers:
Thank you kindly for your eyes and ears.
Your precious time and special care.
I’ve enjoyed your company in the blogosphere.
Sincerely, Johnna’s Blog
Can You Smell That?
I have a confession to make…
Sometimes I bake rolls just because I love the smell of yeast.
Smells like the holidays.
And sometimes I bake yeast rolls just so I can have something to put butter on.
It’s not like you can eat butter with a spoon, although there is such a thing as fried butter.
Those green flakes are fresh parsley.
I love parsley…
But not as much as I love butter. To Butter! We love ya! 🙂
Thinking of you, Marsha Reid
http://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2016/11/16/daughter-blames-doctors-for-mothers-suicide
Marsha Reid died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound on November 2, leaving behind a grief stricken daughter who will always wonder if things would have turned out differently if her mother had gotten the pain treatment she needed…
Dear Surgeon General Vivek Murthy
“Addiction is a chronic disease of the brain and it’s one that we have to treat the way we would any other chronic illness: with skill, with compassion and with urgency,” he added.
If addiction is a chronic disease of the brain, how does the surgeon general describe chronic and intractable pain? Is intractable pain also a chronic disease of the brain? I’m curious, does the surgeon general believe that addiction and chronic pain are the same medical condition?
“Many people didn’t want to talk to the surgeon general if the press was around, because they were afraid of losing their jobs and friends if anyone found out about their substance use disorder, Murthy explained. They also worried that doctors might treat them differently. The numbers bear out that fear of stigma.”
Those who suffer from chronic pain are now learning what it feels like to be treated like a drug addict — afraid of losing jobs and friends, facing abandonment and stigma by the medical industry, being told their pain doesn’t matter, and being denied insurance coverage for many prescription medications. Since the surgeon general is partially responsible for the stigma faced by pain patients every day, what is he going to do about it?
Why does the surgeon general think that treating addiction is more important than treating chronic pain, especially since millions more people suffer from chronic pain than from addiction?
“The overarching theme of the new report is that substance use disorders are medical problems, and the logical next step is integrating substance use disorder care into mainstream health care.”
Isn’t it just as important to integrate the adequate treatment of pain into mainstream health care? You know, pain — the main reason people go to the doctor? Why are expensive specialists needed to treat addiction and chronic pain, especially since the government has pretty much mandated specific standards for the treatment of both medical conditions?
“What’s really at stake here are our family and friends,” he said. “Addiction is not a disease that discriminates and it has now risen to a level that it is impacting nearly everyone.”
Everything the surgeon general has said about addiction holds true for chronic pain, too. But there’s more than one difference between the two conditions.
For the treatment of addiction, it is necessary to find and treat any underlying trauma or mental conditions that may have triggered the addiction. The mental conditions may be chronic, but the addiction doesn’t have to be. But without treating the main condition — like depression, PTSD, or bipolar — trying to treat the addiction is just a waste of time. Why doesn’t the surgeon general mention this very important part of treatment?
Intractable pain is always a chronic condition. The underlying condition has already been treated (again and again) and is sometimes caused by the very medical treatment that was supposed to help. Does the surgeon general believe there is some benefit to untreated pain and constant suffering?
“A few specific recommendations include adding addiction screenings in primary health care settings and hospitals…”
If you’re a doctor, go ahead, ask me if I’m addicted to drugs. I dare you. Just another reason to avoid the doctor, so all your personal medical information doesn’t end up in some government database. And do I have the right to ask the doctor the same question? Isn’t the addiction rate higher in the medical profession than in the general public?
The surgeon general is trying to help those who suffer from addiction, but how is he going to help pain patients? Just with the letter asking doctors to disregard and belittle their patients’ reports of pain?
Supermoon Over New Mexico
I went chasing the supermoon yesterday morning.
I guess it wasn’t a supermoon any longer, but play along.
It was a cloudy morning and the supermoon was playing hide-and-seek.
This is where I stopped to sneeze. Because supermoon. (The internet says the supermoon can make you sneeze.)
The clouds finally lifted, so the supermoon could no longer hide from me.
Here’s where I sneezed again.
When the aliens arrive, they’ll be flying in planes made of clouds.
Thanks for viewing. Now, go have some hot chocolate with marshmallows, and pretend the marshmallows are little pieces of the supermoon. 🙂
There’s more than one supermoon
Supermoon over Trump
Supermoon over America
Supermoon over Colorado
Supermoon over Democracy
Supermoon over Me
Cloudy skies and foggy conditions ruined the supermoon phenomenon for most Mancunians last night. While stargazers across the world shared images of a dazzling white moon lighting up the sky, Mancunians were left disappointed as the weather blocked any views of the sensation…
http://www.mashable.com/2016/11/15/supermoon-tortillas/#RCpbEUPYg5qh
All Things Chronic 