Musings of the Chronologically Challenged™ Fourth Generation

 
PURPLE HEART

Back from MIA with a Purple Heart, here's a feeble attempt at a long overdue post. I'm trying to learn to function PWI (Posting While Impaired). This narcotic thing is a new experience for me. A couple of doctors suggested Percocet to me over the last few years, but I declined their scripts, wanting to postpone addiction as long as possible. After one of them prescribed Bextra, I went into a manageable pain phase that lasted until Bextra was voluntarily pulled from the market by Merck last year. Can't really blame them, since they were already in class action suits with Vioxx and Celebrex to the tune of millions of dollars. I think they yanked Bextra preemptorily since it was one of the dreaded Cox II drugs, as were Vioxx and Celebrex. In all the ensuing hoopla following some patients on the drugs experiencing heart attacks and even deaths, specifics were not widely publicized. What I'd like to know is some numbers. How many of the millions of patients who were prescribed Cox II scripts actually had heart attacks? And more interesting would be the data on how many patients had no ill effects at all. That would be the group I fell into: those who benefitted. I received a fiesty email from a friend who's been following my case. He stated the following:

"Every time I get up all stiff and sore I think of you and the misery of your back pain. I try not to be vindictive, but I fail. I wish each and every ambulance chasing lawyer a very long life of intense back pain, and I'll throw in a permanent gout session too, the inability to obtain painkillers, the financial ruin of not being able to work nor the means to end their misery. These were the tenets of their life when they took up the cudgel of litigation that has put our pharmaceutical business offshore, taken medications off the shelf, discouraged further research and has driven good doctors and medical service away. They've been robbing the rest of us with their self serving money grabbing lawsuits while serving very few legitimate cases and enriching themselves beyond our wildest imaginations. May they roast in a special hell after they've suffered a long and painful life. It's one thing to ban a substance like Bextra from OTC, but unconscionable to take it away from prescription availability by yielding to the least common denominator, the litigator."

That pretty much sums up exactly how I feel, but I could never had said it as well.

And to quote one of my favorite bloggers over at Sleepless Mind - - - -

"more later...Maybe"
posted by HCL at 9:05 PM