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25573. wabbit - 8/23/2009 3:09:50 PM Good morning rdbrewer!
Hey Dubai, are you stateside? 25574. Dubai Vol - 8/23/2009 3:45:24 PM Yep, getting the finest care from the great American health care system, for as long as I can pay for it. The antidpressants the doc prescribed, that I don't think I need, nor want to take, cost $400 a month. I haven't started on them yet, and will pay good money for another visit next week to try to argue him out of them, instead of waiting a month to tell him I'm not taking them. At least he's willing to try a low dose of lithium to start. I'm taking less than he recommended for now, and may increase as I se how it goes. This approach, going to a private doc when I feel fairly normal, beats heck out of the way I have been medicated before: in a locked ward while having a full-blown manic episode. Still feeling more than a bit trepidatious.
Oh well, baby steps.
Aren't you glad you asked? :D 25575. Dubai Vol - 8/23/2009 3:47:04 PM Oh, wait, you didn't.
25576. wabbit - 8/23/2009 4:10:22 PM I'm thinking that most folks who are getting their panties in a twist over healthcare have never needed anything more than the most basic care. I hope you get the drug and dose sorted soon, keep us posted. 25577. Dubai Vol - 8/23/2009 4:30:07 PM Thanks. I know I'm an infrequent visitor, but I lurk a bit now and then and feel a friendly atmosphere here. You all seem good sorts. 25578. Ms. No - 8/23/2009 7:07:53 PM howdy, rd! 25579. Ms. No - 8/23/2009 7:29:09 PM Dubai,
Lay it on us. I can empathize with the meds debate. I got "lucky" in that I only suffer depression as opposed to also having the swings of mania like others in my family, but all of these mood afflictions seem to share an aversion to taking the meds that quite often are life and sanity saving.
I struggled with my meds for a few years for various reasons, not least of those being simple inertia, but once I got on them for good my quality of life really improved. I was able to make progress in my life that didn't get wiped out by the cyclical destruction that plagued me when I was unmedicated and trying to be brave and maintain and stiff upper lip and all of that.
A lot of it was giving up on the idea that I was some kind of pussy because I felt better with meds. Nobody thinks you're a pussy for taking insulin if you're diabetic.
Three years ago when I got laid off and made the move to Sacto to pursue my new career I had to adjust to being off meds for the first time in five years because I didn't have health insurance anymore to cover the cost, but I had too much savings to be eligible for government assistance.
Anyway, it's been a rougher three years for the lack of meds and I'm looking forward to finally being able to get them again. Hell, I haven't even had a regular physical or been to a dentist in the last three years. 25580. Ms. No - 8/23/2009 7:30:15 PM And, yes, we ARE friendly sorts and always happy to see a familiar face no matter how infrequent! 25581. arkymalarky - 8/23/2009 9:39:29 PM The lack of access to medical care without a job to provide it is criminal. It doesn't need to be free or even cheap. But if Bob or I lost our jobs it would cost over $700 to carry the two of us on the AR public ed system. And Mose couldn't get it at all. She was denied for absolutely nothing. After seeing what happened with her it was obvious if you ever get medical help, once you need to buy insurance on your own you're screwed. It's scary. 25582. arkymalarky - 8/23/2009 9:41:14 PM To be clear, she has it with her job. She couldn't get it independently. 25583. alistairConnor - 8/23/2009 10:09:58 PM Hey Dubai, good to hear from you! And yes, we are the go-to people for empathy during rough patches. Being in a (all things considered, on balance) positive phase myself, I feel robust enough to dish out what I have received here in abundance over the years... friendship and support. 25584. Ms. No - 8/23/2009 10:51:51 PM Insurance is extortion. You pay because you're afraid that if you don't, you'll end up needing that protection and have no way to obtain it.
You pay in case you have a catastrophe. The problem is that if you don't have a catastrophe you've paid tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of your life for care you didn't need.
25585. wabbit - 8/23/2009 11:48:45 PM Insurance is legalized gambling and the only people who win are the heads of the insurance companies and lobbyists.
R&D is tax deductible for drug companies. Then they go whining about how they need to charge an arm and a leg for their drug to make up for the R&D costs that have already been picked up by the taxpayers. Then they open manufacturing plants in Puerto Rico where they get favorable tax status and pay nothing on their profits. Then they sell the drug at cost everywhere but the US, which helps drive up our insurance rates. Then they come up with a new use for their expensive drug, which gets them a patent extension. And one of those drugs is Enbrel, which was originally developed for RA, then used for psoriasis, then Juvenile RA, then ankylosing spondylitis...and eventually it will be granted a patent extension for every auto-immune condition known to man.
But god forbid we have "SOCIALIZED" medicine, like they have in Congress.
Maybe this can be continued in the Health thread. 25586. Dubai Vol - 8/24/2009 2:11:51 AM My uncle, a recently retired doctor (anesthesiology,) told me tonight that his office billed ~40% of its work to the government already, between Medicare and other programs.
So we are already almost halfway to socialised medicine now. 25587. arkymalarky - 8/24/2009 2:53:43 AM I don't see any good argument for keeping insurance companies. Means test everything and force all parts of the med profession to compete directly rather than thru insurance companies.
Reposting this in Health 25588. judithathome - 8/24/2009 4:45:01 PM Just went to the doc friday and got some pills for just that; after 30 years of doing without, it's a big step for me.
Depending on the meds you get, you will see a vast improvement after starting it.
I resisted sleeping pills for months after my son passed away and finally, the effects of sleep deprivation got so glaring, I decided to take the doc's advice and started taking Ambien. It's been like a miracle for me.
25589. Dubai Vol - 8/24/2009 5:21:21 PM A lot of it was giving up on the idea that I was some kind of pussy because I felt better with meds. Nobody thinks you're a pussy for taking insulin if you're diabetic.
Thanks for that. I've seen the diabetes analogy before, and that's a good point. My real resistance has always been a fear of losing my "self" to the meds-having them change my personality. A chemical lobotomy if you will. I've gone now to the dose the doc recommended, and still feel normal, so that's a huge relief.
My objection to the anti-depressants is two-fold: if I start on two meds and feel better, how do I know which is responsible? It's like my experience engineering race cars. You change one variable at a time. If you change two things and go faster, which change did it?
My other objection is that I don't know that I really need anti-depressants. I may get there, but I want to try just the lithium alone first. I am lucky to have an uncle who has been a dear friend for 40 years (ever since he married my aunt) let me stay with them while I get sorted out.
Thanks all for the kind words. I appreciate the support more than you know.
25596. wabbit - 8/25/2009 12:19:17 AM Dubai and iiibbb, I've moved the car conversation to Sports so it will be archived. 25597. Ms. No - 8/25/2009 12:37:41 AM Dubai,
I agree with you on the two meds thing. I'm not a doctor, though, so what makes perfect common sense to me may not be medically sound. I think things have gotten a lot more refined than they used to be where it was just "keep throwing meds at the patient until it seems like something works."
Please feel free to ask me anything. If you come across something you'd rather not post in open forum, you're welcome to email me if you'd prefer. Seriously, I've had some rough experiences and some really good help and if I can help somebody else out with this crap, I'm happy to do it. 25598. wabbit - 8/25/2009 1:14:34 AM I'm not going to MOVE posts from here to the Health thread, but in the interest of having these later, I've copied most of the med discussion over. If nobody minds too much, it will save me time later for everyone to carry on there. Thanks!
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