There are people in Blogstream who thrive on drama. It's unfortunate but that's the way it is. They may be jealous of bloggers who are more successful at attracting readers and comments. They may just be the type that has to fight with someone all the time. I am not them, I won't assume I know what motivates them. I only know myself and what I am doing here, and what I have experienced here. This will be the last time I will address this issue, mostly because my real life has more problems than Blogstream could ever cause me.

In the last 14 months my Mom died, my Dad died. My grandchildren have both been diagnosed with asthma. My youngest stepdaughter-in-law has had her gall bladder removed. Yesterday my oldest stepdaughter-in-law had a lumpectomy and we are waiting biopsy results. My stepmother has had surgery for repair of her right arm rotor cuff and the results have NOT been as expected, she has minimal use of that arm. My youngest brother is facing the loss of his livelihood due to numbness in his hand from carpal tunnel syndrome. He operates precision machinery and MUST have full use and feeling in his fingers which may not be restored by surgery. As you know, my job has been a source of some trouble as well. There isn't a bully in Blogstream that can cause me this much grief.

All you people who have to blame the troubles in Blogstream on "clickety cliques" or "comment police" need to pay attention to what I have to say or not as you see fit. This is my experience in Blogstream, and since I have never experienced what you have, quite possibly you need to look elsewhere for the reason behind your troubles.

1. At no time have I EVER received a nasty PM, nor have I EVER sent one to anyone else. Since I keep telling people to post them and NOBODY seems to be able to do that, I question whether these NASTY PM'S actually exist. This type of problem thrives in the dark. EXPOSE IT or SHUT UP.

2. At no time have I EVER been told that in order to be "popular" I have to decide NOT to comment or be friends with ANYONE. Nor have I EVER told that to ANYONE else.

3. If I leave a comment on anyones blog agreeing with their position on anything it is because I AGREE with them or because they are writing something I ENJOY.

4. If I don't leave a comment on someones blog it is because I DON'T AGREE with what they are saying, or I DON'T ENJOY what they are writing about at that moment. I respect others enough to NOT ARGUE with their opinions.

5. I DON'T blog to get attention I blog to deal with things in my REAL life. This blog is all about ME, and it's going to stay that way whether you read me or not.

6. Given the anonymity of Blogstream it is quite possible for one person with their own agenda to have multiple blogs under different names. IF you really do receive these nasty PM's it COULD be coming from ONE person with a NUMBER of identities and an AXE to grind.

There will be no PM's from me regarding this post. I am an ADULT, and I don't think that Blogstream is a SCHOOLYARD where I have to be childish to get attention. Now excuse me, I have a life to live which is apparently more than some of you around here do. GROW UP AND GET OVER YOURSELF.

I found a weblog called Pallimed. It's written by 2 doctors who specialize in palliative care. Pallimed is a Hospice and Palliative care blog, for medical professionals who provide Comfort Care for the dying. I was reading along and found a reference with a link to my May 2 post on Dad's death. The doctor who wrote this prefaced the entry with the comment that it was good to hear an uncensored insight into the views of the family caregivers. I actually sat here stunned. If it's good to hear our views, why don't some doctors listen?

It's all well and good to say that women are survivors, and men are not. It's fine to say that men lack the will to live when the quality of their lives are strained by illness. It's probably the truth on some level, but would Dad still be here if his anemia had been treated with Procrit? How did he get to the point that his kidneys shut down and dialysis was not ever mentioned? When I asked about the use of Procrit to take the stress off his kidneys, why was I told it's just a bandaid? What was giving him blood transfusions to elevate his red count if not a bandaid? Plus, it was a bandaid that peeled off as soon as he went home and the transfusions weren't available. Procrit would have been one shot a week, it helps the body make it's own red blood cells. If he had this available to him would his kidneys have quit 9 months after diagnosis?

Another thing I don't understand was why he would have been referred to a lymphedema clinic to control the edema in his legs. This works by wrapping tight bandages on the legs and forcing the fluid up to the body so that the kidneys can remove it. How did they plan on this happening when he had congestive heart failure and chronic renal failure? He went for the initial consultation, and he decided that he didn't feel he could handle it. They could see his condition, what planet were they living on?

On July 9, 2006 a relatively healthy 80 year old fell and broke his hip. He was working at a job that was physically taxing for a younger man let alone one of his age. Plus he was working 6 days a week from 7 in the morning until 5 at night. He had surgery, he became infected, he got MRSA in the leg. Every month for the remainder of his life he was back in the hospital. He had 14 hospital stays in 10 months. He had peritonitis, pancreatitis from the gall stone stuck in the bile duct. They removed his gall bladder and left him with edema so bad it poured through his incision. There were no gall stones in his gall bladder and we were never told that it had to be removed because it was abcessed. We were told that it had to come out because of the risk of recreating gall stones and getting another one stuck in the duct. Was this surgery necessary?

None of his doctors ever addressed his edema in any real way until he had gained 50 pounds because of it. His surgeon released him from the hospital following the removal of the gall bladder with testicles the size of grapefruits. When asked what was happening there, the response was "Oh, it's a man thing.". It was another month before anything was done. They gave him Lasix to reduce the fluid build up until his potassium levels became dangerously high. Not entirely their fault, unfortunately he had health problems that created the need to balance his treatments so that treating one thing didn't cause another problem and they never found the balance. There wasn't time.

There is nothing on God's green earth that will ever convince me that the rehab unit doctor didn't know his kidneys were shutting down. He was released on Friday and his kidneys shut down Saturday night. He went to the emergency room on Sunday because there was nothing in his catheter bag but blood. He was dehydrated, he was suffering from hypothermia, and they pumped fluids into him and brought up his body temp to 95 and were going to send him home. For 9 hours my stepmother kept asking about the blood, and they kept ignoring her. Why did they work so hard to "save" him if they couldn't or wouldn't address the kidney issue?

He wouldn't or couldn't chew, or swallow. Put food in his mouth and he just let it set there until it ran out. This was after 48 hours with no urine production at all. They kept pumping antibiotics and fluids into him, but nothing for pain and nothing for his agitation until he started screaming and thrashing around in the bed.The rails on the bed were padded so he wouldn't hurt himself, but palliative care was not started until his kidneys had been completely nonproductive for over 60 hours. His doctor would not give up treating him until Dad was so toxic he was no longer there, he was no longer Dad. He no longer knew who we were, he no longer knew where he was. He was, a person, a human being who was entitled to be kept comfortable and free of pain so that nature could take it's course.

If doctors are all that interested in what the family caregivers have to say, why weren't we listened to? Why were we unable to get answers to our questions? Dad had given written permission for the doctors to discuss his condition and proceedures with my Stepmom and myself, why were we ignored? This was the 14th admission to the hospital in 10 months. His kidneys had stopped functioning entirely. His temperature was 90 degrees farenheit, he was carrying 50 pounds of fluid in his body, and he was dying. Why didn't they start palliative care then? For 2 days they did nothing more than prolong his suffering. They tried to save him instead of admitting that nothing could be done beyond making him comfortable and waiting for the end. He was robbed of every shred of human dignity and allowed to suffer longer than was absoluely necessary. My last memory of Dad is NOT the peaceful passing that occured while in morphine induced sleep. My last memory is of the raving lunatic he became because he was being poisoned by his own body. My last memory is of Dad asking me to help him and I couldn't because his doctor wouldn't listen.

I was sitting here deciding this morning what to blog about when I received an e-mail from a fellow blogger. It contained an "optical illusion" picture and the statement that he could see the ocean but his wife couldn't. After reading and looking I started to wonder why I couldn't see the ocean either. Is it a right brain/left brain thing? Is it a male/female thing? Is it age related?

Is what you see when you look at the picture indicative of your lifes priorities? Are you missing anything if you can't see the ocean? Can YOU see the ocean?

Hubby and I decided to do a little sprucing up of the old homestead.

 

We decided that new kitchen cabinets would be in order and since neither of us were all that good in the design department, I consulted with the most popular Domestic Diva. We figured she would know what we would need and where the best place to get it would be.

 

Boy, that sure was a smart move on our part. Saved us a lot of money because we learned that everything we needed could be bought at garage sales. Well, we learned that but we did the next best thing. We took ourselves off to the scratch and dent sale at Lowe's Home Improvements Store and we bought everything we need.

We bought base cabinets, new counter tops, a stainless steel double sink, a new single handled faucet with sprayer. We even got a pantry cabinet for food storage. All of it was all ready assembled because we bought preassembled floor samples on close out. Saved so much money that way we even managed to get flooring. Enough for the kitchen and the dining room.

Yesterday I emptied out all the old cabinets so they could be demolished and the new cabinets can be installed today. I'm not sure how long it will take for us to get around to doing the floor because that's going to require a major furniture move. It will also mean no computer until the floor is done, but that's not planned for a couple of weeks yet. Today the new cabinets will be put in and I need to get a move on because the work crew just arrived.

They said they'd work cheap, but I'm not sure there's going to be room for them in my little kitchen. I guess we'll find out.

According to last nights news, Avandia, a drug used in the treatment of type 2 diabetes has been found to cause an increase risk of heart problems. I don't know about anyone else but I'm questioning whether the medical profession, and the average patient should be relying on drugs to control our many health problems. There is ostensibly a stringent procedure that must be followed by drug companies to gain approval for the marketing of new drugs. It takes years of testing that is supposed to provide the FDA with sufficient information to judge the safety of any medication that is being submitted for approval.

FDA officials acknowledged that Glaxo Smith Kline submitted information last August indicating some increased risk from the drug but that other studies were contradictory. Excuse me, but this company settled a large lawsuit with NY State regarding the data it releases on the safety and effectiveness of it's drugs. The suit specifically claimed that Glaxo fraudulently withholds study results that question the safety of it's drugs. The suit was settled for 2.5 million dollars. Does a drug company not guilty of the charges settle lawsuits for that large a sum of money?

I found 14 different drugs have been recalled in the last 10 years. Even factoring in long term usage and improper usage by patients I find this list to be disconcerting. My Mom took 2 of the drugs on this list and developed a heart problem. Of course she might have developed it anyways because of the general state of her health. Is that part of the problem as well? Are these problems things that would have happened anyway in these patients if they weren't taking these drugs? Are we doing the right thing by relying on a drug to fix what a lifestyle change would take care of?

It looks to me as if the FDA needs to overhaul it's approval system. I'm not hearing that they have done so. At no time in the last 10 years, with 14 drugs removed from the market are they saying "Hold on a minute, we need to look at this". If the FDA won't hold the drug companies accountable then we're going to have to. Maybe instead of taking a pill to fix our problems we need to really knuckle down and make lifestyle changes? That's NOT an easy solution, but with so many problems with drug recalls and conflicting reports about drug safety, it might be our safest choice.

Drug companies are in the business of creating profits for their shareholders. I'm going to write a letter to my Congressman and tell him that I'd like to keep breathing, maybe he should look in to the FDA situation and see if the problem isn't one that's fixable. In the meantime, I don't think I'll take any drugs. Not until I'm comfortable with the safety of the drug I'm taking.

Drug Recalls

Baycol®: Originally approved by the FDA in 1997 for use as an anti-cholesterol drug, Baycol® was removed from the market in 2001 due to the serious dangers it presented to patients. Baycol® has been found to cause rhabdomyolysis, a condition that leads to a breakdown of muscle cells and allows its contents to be released into the blood. Rhabdomyolysis can result in pain and muscle weakness. As the kidneys fail, it can also cause paralysis and wrongful death.

Bextra®: Also known as valdecoxib, Bextra® is used to abate the pain, tenderness, swelling, and stiffness resulting from arthritis, and for the treatment of menstrual cramps. Bextra® is part of a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory class of drugs that includes Vioxx and Celebrex, called COX-2 inhibitors. These drugs were intended to prevent the gastrointestinal problems caused by other arthritis medications. However, there is evidence that other COX-2 inhibitors are dangerous for the heart, leading to serious concerns about the safety of Bextra®. In 2002, reports of serious or life-threatening hypersensitivity and skin reactions in Bextra® users prompted the FDA to issue a safety alert and changes to the product labeling, warning patients of such side effects.

Duract™: Previously used as a short-term pain relief medication, Duract™ was recalled in 1998 after serious liver damage was found to be associated with the drug. Because of the dangers that Duract™ could pose to the liver, the drug was approved for use, but not to exceed 10 days. However, some patients and doctors did not follow proper instructions for Duract™ use, leading to cases of severe liver damage, including liver failure and wrongful death .

Fen-Phen: Before the drug was recalled by the FDA due to dangers, Fen-Phen was used by millions of Americans as a weight loss drug. In 1997, the drug was with drawn from the market following evidence that Fen-Phen use was linked to incidences of heart valve defects and primary pulmonary hypertension.

Hismanal®: Originally used as an antihistamine in a number of allergy and hay fever drugs, the dangers that Hismanal® presented to patients prompted a change to the warning label of the drug soon after its approval by the FDA. Hismanal® was recalled after the manufacturer of the drug, Janssen Pharmaceutica, decided the serious and sometimes life threatening side effects resulting from the medication were too risky for patients. The use of Hismanal® in conjunction with certain foods, drugs, or medical conditions increased the instances of cardiac problems. Because Hismanal® was an over-the-counter drug, many patients were unaware of the serious dangers the medication could pose to their health. If you or a loved one has suffered harm or wrongful death because of a dangerous drug that was on the market, choosing a skilled medical malpractice attorney from our directory can help you move forward with your case.

Posicor®: Posicor® was originally manufactured for the treatment of high blood pressure and chest pain. Following reports of adverse reactions to Posicor®, the FDA revised the labeling of the drug and added two drugs to the list of medications that should not be used while taking Posicor®. However, dangerous side effects related to Posicor® use continued, and it was soon removed from the market because of the heart problems associated with the drug, including arrhythmias and low blood pressure.

PPA: PPA, or phenylpropanolamine hydrochloride, is an ingredient that can be found in several over-the-counter cough and cold medications, as well as in weight loss products. Studies conducted in the past few years have found an increased risk of hemorrhagic stroke and bleeding of the brain in patients taking PPA. The FDA has issued warnings regarding the dangers of PPA, however, the chemical is available over-the-counter and can still cause adverse reactions in patients. Those that have sustained an injury or are victims of wrongful death because of a defective drug, contact a medical malpractice lawyer for legal assistance.

Propulsid®: Propulsid® is a prescription medication used for the relief of nighttime heartburn for patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease that hasn't responded to other treatments. The manufacturer of the drug removed it from the market in 2000 following heart rhythm abnormalities and cases of wrongful death in patients taking Propulsid®. The label of Propulsid® had been changed several times prior to the recall to warn patients of dangerous side effects, however, the dangerous side effects associated with the drug continued.

Raxar™: Raxar™, an oral flouroquinolone antibiotic, was voluntarily withdrawn from the market in 1999 because of adverse side effects and the availability of safer treatments. The benefits of the drug were found to be outweighed by the risk of cardiovascular problems connected to Raxar™ use.

Rezulin®: Originally intended for use as a drug to treat Type 2 diabetes, the FDA ordered the maker of Rezulin® to withdraw the medication amidst findings that it posed serious dangers to patients. Since 1997, Rezulin® has been linked to reports of liver toxicity, and although the warning label underwent revisions, the availability of safer drugs in conjunction with the dangers of Rezulin® prompted its removal from the market. Victims of injury and wrongful death resulting from dangerous drugs can choose a medical malpractice attorney who is well versed in pharmaceutical litigation for legal counsel.

RotaShield™: The manufacturer of the RotaShield™ vaccine, Wyeth Laborities, halted distribution of RotaShield™ in 1999 until further data on the alleged connection between the vaccine and intussusception became available.

Seldane®: Seldane®, a terfenadine-containing antihistamine, was used for the treatment of allergies until these products were linked to serious heart problems when used in conjunction with certain drugs, including some antibiotics and antifungal medications. In light of these problems, the manufacturer of Seldane® and the generic form of terfenadine ceased U.S. marketing and distribution of these products. Choose from our directory of medical malpractice lawyers to help you determine if you have a viable wrongful death or medical malpractice case.

Thimerosal: Used in some medications and vaccines as a preservative to kill bacteria, the high amount of mercury that is toxic in thimerosal has led many to believe that it can cause serious harm to patients. In large doses, mercury has been known to result in birth defects, renal failure, as well as damage to the immune system and brain. Some believe thimerosal can cause mercury poisoning and autism in babies and children.

Vioxx®: Originally intended for the relief of pain and inflammation resulting from arthritis and menstrual cramps, Vioxx® is in a class of drugs called COX-2 inhibitors. Recent studies have shown that long-term Vioxx® use can increase the risk of cardiovascular problems, including heart attack and stroke, which could result in wrongful death. This prompted the voluntary recall by it's manufacturer, Merck.