Category Archives: Allergies

Port-Free and In Remission

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Monday, June 14, 2010 I got my port out. The gynecological oncologist and the hematologist / oncologist said ok! I made the appointment to remove it fast.

Removing a port is an in-office procedure. They give you a numbing agent, make a cut, and pull it out (with care). Then they stitch you up. I had a rather common reaction while they were pulling the port out – I almost fainted. I got to sit still for 10 minutes or so afterwords to make sure I didn’t pass out walking out.

I guess the screams of pain when they gave me the local had already scared too many waiting patients. I have really sensitive skin.

I bet some of you are wondering what my CA-125 was? It was a completely normal and remission fulfilling 10!

Of course, my pekinese is irritated at me for not picking him up while that wound heals.

Now the irritating news.

It seems I have a rather common tongue fungal infection that the periodontist found. He sees it in cancer survivors all the time. I have one problem. Even though Majic Mouthrinse is compounded the suspension solution used uses benzyl alcohol (allergic) and two corn derivatives: sorbitol and glycerin. I tried to tell the periodontist this while I was there, but he said it was compounded. Now I have to figure out what to do to treat this problem.

Kosher for Passover a God Send for the Corn Allergic

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Every year I go on a shopping spree during the weeks preceding Passover. Corn has infiltrated almost everything eaten in the USA – except for this small pocket of time things like Coca-Cola and marshmallows are available without corn.

Normally, I would have been shopping more than one day – and would get a real supply of Kosher for Passover treats. This year? The head cold that took a good part of Southeastern Michigan out for at least a week. First it hit me, then my DH.

On the day I decided to do the Kosher for Passover shopping, his majesty, SMR fell off the bed and we had to spend most of the day at the veterinarian! It seems the little guy has developed really bad arthritis on one of his front elbows, and a milder case in his other front elbow. He is now on puppy pain medication for it.

So, I got all of 2 hours to hit the main Kosher Kroger in our area. The Kosher for Passover section they normally have was much smaller than I remembered from past years. This might be because I usually shop before Passover actually starts.

So, to all of the Ashkenazi Jews who keep strict Passover dietary rules – meaning no corn or beans – I say THANK-YOU!

Celebrating or Panicking, Maybe We Should Wait and See

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This past week Health Insurance / Health Care was finally passed in some tortuous form. There is good and bad with it as there is with all legislation. Personally, I’m not celebrating and I’m not panicking. I’m waiting.

Now, the law is structured in a way that whatever regulatory agency that may be given the responsibility to oversee it can do so. The biggest problem with that? So was the banking and finance industry. Will it be regulated? I really don’t know yet.

I like some of the changes – almost everyone has to buy or pay a fine. Sorry, but I think that is a public good and have no patience with libertarians who scream and holler about this governmental mandate.

I also like the no pre-existing exclusion that went into place. I just wish that there wasn’t a 4 year gap for adults. And, I wish it were retroactive due to how crooked insurers really are. But, well, I have a bit of a vengeful nature when it comes to true evil.

One of the big things I don’t like? The way the subsidies are working. There are going to be a lot of folks who border that upper working and lower middle class line that will not be able to afford either insurance or the fine.

Another thing I am not too happy about? Antihistamines and other over-the-counter medicines will no longer be allowed on FSA and HSA expenses. There are a lot of people for whom those are major expenses.

The Christian Science Monitor has two great articles on the Health Care Reform:

Oh, and just as an aside, here is an article that goes into why I – and many others – can no longer take Republicans seriously:

It pretty much summarizes why the panic coming from the Right is rightfully ignored by almost anyone with a brain today.

Also, when Attorney General Cox in Michigan filed his suit against the federal government’s health care reform, Governor Granholm ordered him to file a suit against himself for wasting state money.

Yes, I’m Weird (Medically Speaking)

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It has been independently confirmed that it is not my imagination. I’m just weird.

Most ovarian cancer patients aren’t diagnosed until Stage 3 or 4.

I just happened to be opened up in time for it to be Stage 1C – but the tumor was so fast a week later may have been stage 4. (Highly unusual.)

Normal chemotherapy patients do not crave tacos and hot sauce.

I do. Independent cancer practitioners have advised other patients that my diet would not be conducive to the health of other patients. Isn’t hot sauce a part of the basic food groups?

Normal cancer patients are freaked out by cancer.

I’m more freaked out about walking into an office where popcorn is being popped. I can’t help it. Cancer is sooo predictable compared to allergy. And, people get cancer. They don’t get allergy or infertility.

Normal cancer patients get rejection and denied letters from their insurance.

I get “finalized” letters for 0.00 USD from my insurance companies that lay unattended for at least a month. No one has ever even seen such a thing before.

So, “I iz a speshul snowflake!” (Blech, yuck.)

A Week of Doctors and Veterinarians

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This week I had an appointment with my gynecological oncologist, Dr. Sunshine, as well as my normal monitoring appointments. (When doing chemotherapy, you get a lot of blood drawn – not as much as during IVF, but close.) I also had to take my poor, itching (from allergies) pekingese to the veterinarian.

Dr. Sunshine had to inform me that I have to stay on pain killers until after chemo because with the nature of the chemo I have, it is just too hard to try and wean off of them until after I am done with my last two chemos. I am on the lowest possible dose, but I still don’t like it. He answered a bunch of questions we had had that only he could really answer – if there were answers. Overall, it was a good appointment even if we did wait two hours to see him. (Practicing out of 11 hospitals means you are a very busy man.) I did chide him about not having anything for Ovarian Cancer Awareness month. (My post is coming for this after Labor Day.)

My poor pekingese! Not only is he itching up a storm, he has developed a bad urinary tract infection with bladder stones. I nearly broke down in tears at the vet’s office when she told us he needed surgery. DH and I don’t want him to go into surgery until his itching and scratching are under control. He has been waking us up in the wee hours of the morning scratching his back and barking in frustration as a very itchy dog will do.

Here is the problem, benadryl does nothing for my pekingese. In the past we have always had to put him on steroids for about two weeks every year. Since it was such a limited time, we didn’t feel he needed shots or such. My mother’s peke is going to start allergy shots, so it isn’t like we wouldn’t do it if we thought it was necessary. While I was in the hospital, SMR developed his urinary tract infection and we had to take him off the steroids and on antibiotics. This meant his itching came back with a vengeance.

Oh, did I mention that to prevent itching means minimizing his time outside while keeping his stones under control until surgery means having him out to pee as often as possible?

Now, the vet finally told us it is ok to give him loratadine for allergies. This seems to be working better for his itching than anything less than steroids has ever.

This was supposed to have been DH’s vacation week and we spent 7 hours in various doc’s offices. Some vacation, huh?

Do I Win The Pain Olympics?

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Lately, there have been a rash of postings in the infertility blogosphere about The Pain Olympics. What are The Pain Olympics? It is a game that women play to tell others that my pain is more real than your pain. Now, to some degree this is true. Anything that someone has experienced for themselves is more real for that person than anything experienced by another. We can try to empathize, but we can never truly know what another feels or thinks.

There are two posts in particular that have had me thinking about this. The first one was from ME at We Are What We Repeatedly Do called, Pain Olympics. She was talking about how pain is unique to the individual and all pain is not equal. She is right. All pain is unique. The second one was from DD over at Punch Drunk with a post called Dead Bird — Now for the Dead Horse talking about how secondary infertility hurts just as bad as primary infertility. She’s right, too. Nobody knows what pain is in someone else’s heart.

I’ve seen this in the food allergy community as well. A certain feeling that those who fit the Top 8 get all the respect and treatment. If your an allergy sufferer from a food that isn’t on FAAN’s magic list, well, you are out-of-luck. Even within the group of Top 8 sufferers, I have seen the soybean allergic tell the peanut, egg, and shellfish allergic how lucky they are because soy is in everything. Then the non-Top 8 corn allergics point out that soy is so much easier because it is at least labeled.

Interestingly, even though my journey with ovarian cancer has just began, I haven’t seen the same degree of The Pain Olympics with cancer patients. Cancer just sucks. The thing is, it is still there. There is a feeling among gynecological cancer victims that everything is about breast cancer. All the literature, all the ribbons, all the events seem to be about breast cancer. In private, I have even heard non-gynecological cancer patients express irritation at the the emphasis and focus breast cancer gets.

Now this isn’t to say that any of the emotions felt by any of these people is not valid. Emotions are valid. Emotions are felt without logic.

In primary infertility, there is a death of one’s genetic line. Sure, you can, in some cases, choose alternative routes to parenthood – but not all routes to parenthood are open to all people. For some, childlessness is a permanent state that was never chosen due to outside influences. That, of course, is a post for another day. Even if one is to move on to donor, surrogacy, or adoption, the genetic line that you were trying to propagate is no more. And, at a very base level, that is something to be mourned. Those who have a living child do not experience that loss. Does this make secondary infertility any less painful? Not for those in its throes. It does, however, make it completely different.

Then there is the allergy world where a lot of pretenders like to live. I’m sorry, celiac is not allergy! Allergy is defined by the fact that it can unexpectedly kill you suddenly. Even a mild allergy can suddenly become life-threatening and the doctors don’t know why or how that happens. They have a multitude of theories, but no concrete knowledge of that part of the process. The infighting among the allergic – fueled by corporate sponsored non-advocacy groups (FAAN) – does not help matters either. Interestingly, FAAN actually encourages the divide between the Top 8 and the rest of the allergy community. They have even told those who are not allergic to the Top 8 that their allergies are rare – though there are no well-done, peer-reviewed, non-corporate sponsored studies that have concluded this. Does this make those with the Top 8 allergies less important than those with non-Top 8 allergies less important? Or vice versa? No. Both are important and the infighting doesn’t help anyone.

As to other food related diseases such as celiac? Yes, they are painful and deserve to be researched and recognized more often than they are. Food intolerance should not be ignored. It is important, however, to not conflagrate the different food-related immune diseases as this gives doctors and the general public an excuse to ignore the real problems. Celiac can cause a long lingering death with infertility thrown in. This does not minimize the pain it causes as the food industry and public health officials don’t seem to care one wit about any of us. We need to stop comparing and one-upping our pain in order to get the food industry and public health officials to take us seriously.

Finally, the perception around breast cancer getting all the attention. Right now? They do. It is because they have survivors in numbers and breasts are easy for the public to think about. How many people really understand what an ovary or a colon or a cervix or pancreas does? We have horrible health education in American schools. The vast majority of people have no idea what anything besides a vague idea of what any of their organs do. Most people don’t even fully realize that their skin is an organ! How can we expect them to understand about cancers in the organs they don’t see and think about when most of us don’t speak out and talk about it? Many people don’t realize that cancer research is in need for the less common cancers. They really believe that by giving to one cancer charity they are helping out all cancers. They don’t really understand that cancer is not one disease. Heck, even ovarian cancer is at least 3 different diseases – and there is growing evidence that the epithelial cancers may actually be 4 discrete diseases in and of themselves. How is The Pain Olympics of “they get all the attention and we get none” helping?

Interestingly, my DH brought up The Pain Olympics unwittingly with mention of a post on The Daily KOS about artificial insemination. People were sharing their own painful stories about family-building and he was sorely tempted to share our story. When he told me this I laughed and told him he just entered the world of women and The Pain Olympics. His perception is that everyone who has it worse than us has stopped blogging. (I know this isn’t the case, but understand his feelings.)

Now, does anything I say above invalidate the need to sometimes vent about how badly you hurt and how someone else has it so much easier? No, not at all. We all have pain. Each bit of pain is unique to us and is just as valid as anyone else’s pain. What we feel is what we feel. Heaven knows I have had my days of thinking that I must have won The Pain Olympics. Let’s see, get the food allergy that nobody believes in (corn with multiple other allergies (food, drug, and environmental) – recognition of this allergy has gotten much better in recent years); find out we are unable to have kids without IVF to get pregnant and have a miscarriage at 19 weeks; gear up to do another IVF cycle only to find Stage 1c Ovarian Cancer with a Grade 3 tumor that means hysterectomy and chemotherapy. Does this mean I win?

Synchronicity, Anaphylaxis, CarboTax, and Chemo Thursday : This Is In My RSS Feed

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I was feeling comfortable after my Monday meeting with Ms. Clarity and The Chemo Nurses. I got my calendar, and Tuesday got my go ahead to move forward. The port worked well – and they used a numbing agent so I didn’t feel it when she put the needle in to take the blood for my CBC, CA-125, BRCA 1/2, and HNPCC (Lynch Syndrome) tests.

While I was there, Ms. Clarity spoke with my allergist who advised the addition of an H1 blocker as well as an H2 blocker and steroids to my overall protocol. This is a double whammy against histamine production – to way oversimplify things. I haven’t found a good explanation online from a trusted source. Anyway, histamine is what causes allergic symptoms to occur. By blocking those from occurring, the hope is that no reaction will occur – or, if a reaction does occur it will be quickly counteracted.

At this point, I’m feeling a little nervous due to my reading up on carbotax and my own medical history. I have been living a bit too much of the outlier life for my comfort when it comes to medicine. So, just as I am about to embark on the chemotherapy protocol with minimal worry, what comes across my allergy medical news feed, not once, but twice:

Fatal Allergic Reactions Triggered By Common Chemotherapy Drug

A new study from the Research on Adverse Drug Events and Reports (RADAR) pharmacovigilance program at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine identified 287 unique cases of hypersensitivity reactions submitted to the FDA’s Adverse Event Report System between 1997 and 2007 with 109 (38 percent) deaths in patients who received Cremophor-based paclitaxel, a solvent-administered taxane chemotherapy. — Medical News Today

The article went on to state that certain of these reactions happened despite pre-medication. If you are atopic enough, it doesn’t really matter, and I know this. Doing a quickie search with the terms “anaphylaxis taxol” search at PubMed (the Internet face of the older face of Medline), you get 41 hits with the oldest from 1993. Some of them are more encouraging than others, but the overall outlook is less than bright.

Even the rapid desensitization information I came across advised one-on-one nursing care with a resuscitation team on site. Desensitization doesn’t normally include one-on-one nursing. Of course, rapid desensitization is more dangerous.

Now, I dislike it when synchronicity is being too active. That just makes me nervous. I don’t trust synchronicity. Like any irrational human being – and all of us are irrational to some degree, no matter our education or claims otherwise – I find this a little bit unnerving. The information wasn’t particularly new, but the timing couldn’t have been weirder.

Do I believe this is a sign from the universe? Not really. But, it does make one ponder why this was in my allergy feed at just this moment in time. That is just weird.

Dr. Professor and Ms. Clarity Update

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We had the post port / pre-chemo visit Thursday afternoon. It was interesting. Thank goodness I had brought a book that I had just started.

We arrived at 1:15 and immediately heard the doctor being paged to call the ER – never a good sign for a quick visit. Of course, immediately after that we heard at least two calls from other physicians calling him. And, then the waiting room starting piling up.

I’m glad I had book to keep my nose in. Of course, there was a heavily pregnant couple in the small waiting room. They were, thankfully, being very unobtrusive. Then the mother, father and small child came in. This is not a waiting room most small children would be comfortable in. Thankfully, the father did take the child out as s/he was getting very agitated at being stuck in such an unstimulating environment.

Why don’t parents bring a favorite toy or something if they are coming to a non-peds doctor? I mean, doesn’t that just make sense? I seem to recall always having either a book or some game with me when I was a kid. Even small children have games that can entertain them. I’ve seen it when I worked in the children’s section of the library.

Anyway, we finally got in to see the doctor about 2 hours after we arrived. Yes, I said 2 hours. Now, he is usually not running that late, but when the ER calls and other doctors are calling, you know the office has become a zoo.

Once in the room, I explained, once again my concerns about the drugs. Thankfully, one of the chemo nurses wrote everything down and is calling the drug company to check formulations against my allergies! In an attempt to reassure me, Dr. Professor explained the minuscule odds, even among atopic patients, of a reaction. My answer was, “I seem to be living in outlier land right now.” He had to concede that was true.

Ms. Clarity was then reassuring me that they would be watching me very closely the entire time. And, she explained that they have epinephrine, and, if absolutely necessary, I would be sent via 911 to the hospital. Subsequent chemo would then need to be done in the ICU under an allergist’s supervision.

I don’t have the greatest history with immunotherapy. Remember what I said about living in outlier land? Well, I’m one of those patients who did not tolerate immunotherapy very well. As in repeated systemic reactions, not well.

Ms. Clarity also said I would be getting benadryl intraveneously, as well as low dose steroids for the day before, of, and after chemo. I may have been being a pain, but I felt I needed to point out that I have had reactions that took 3 epinephrine shots to counteract and have had enough steroid suppression to get a rare pneumonia. Yes, I am being paranoid. Perhaps I’m focusing all of the fear on the allergic reaction? Maybe, but its familiar, and I found plenty of literature indicating its high allergenicity.

Weirdly, no one actually looked at the port. I did however ask why I was having so much back and neck pain from it. Enough that I have been taking both prescription M.otrin and V.icodin in order to sleep. The tension is so bad that it actually travels into the back of my head. Thursday night I couldn’t even pick anything up past a certain level without feeling pain. It was really weird.

I was told that this isn’t that unusual. Some people just don’t adjust to having the port as well or as fast as others. It still sucks. Thursday night DH yelled at me to start taking the painkillers in a more consistent manner. Did I mention I am not very good about taking painkillers? You would think I would learn.

So, I have to do a peeing plus blood test for Monday. Yes, I get to collect 24 hours worth of urine to make sure my urine output is ok for chemo. I don’t recall if I mentioned that while I was in the hospital, a few people mentioned I was peeing like a racehorse while emptying the catheter buckets. I understand that they have to check certain levels, but hey.

On Monday, they will also be doing the two gene tests that will let me know if I need to warn my female relatives to be checked. I think Lynch Syndrome is more likely than BRCA 1/2 considering my family’s medical history. Of course, the chance of either is rather low, but I feel it will be better to check and warn than to not check. I mean, due to having had several relatives who had had colon cancer and melanoma, I was already doing preventative care for both. (As were most of my relations on that side of the family.)

So, Monday, I also get all my nifty chemo prescriptions that I fill vs. the ones that they give me on Thursday. Thursday is when the first chemo treatment will be. They said it will probably take about 4 hours. I’m taking my nifty netbook to play games or write. They don’t have a working wireless and most cell phones don’t get any service in their location.

Of course, that we got out of there at 4 PM irritated DH to no end. He was grouchy and grumpy the rest of the evening – except for when I fed him pasta. He’s a good man, but this is getting to him. Of course, without his beard and mustache I feel like I have robbed the cradle!

Doctors’ Visits, Pharmacies, and Insurance Fun

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This past week was one of doctors’ visits. On Monday, there was none, but I was just tired. This may have been because I tried to wean off the pain pills too fast. Yes, I tried to do that again. Did I mention that doctors have yelled at me for this?

Tuesday

Tuesday was a visit with my ob/gyn, Dr. Compassionate. He is the same doctor who did my D&C. Seriously, this man has an amazing bedside manner. You may cry with him, but it is truly with him, not because of him. Dr. Compassionate said my stitches were healing beautifully. As a matter of fact, I am healing a week ahead of schedule. I still have about 3 weeks for the internal stitches to heal. He did take me off of all restrictions that don’t involve internals, though!

Dr. Compassionate asked us about when chemo was starting and getting my port (more later) put in. DH thought he was the gating factor, but, Dr. Compassionate pulled back from that question to make it clear that that was for Dr. Professor and my gyn/oncologist, Dr. Sunshine, to decide. We told him the plan was to start chemo in either the first or second week of June. Before we left, Dr. Compassionate gave me a hug. From what MIL, the nurse, has said, our situation has shaken a lot of the medical personnel who know about it.

Wednesday

Wednesday was the day we met with Dr. Perfectionist, the general surgeon. He is an Iraqi doctor who refuses to speak anything but English – even to his Arabic patients! He also has earned the respect of all of the other physicians and nurses around him. He is the person they all say to go to get your port put in. And, yes, my MIL knows him well and warned him that her daughter (in-law) was coming to see him for a port.

What is a port, you ask? Well, since I have the world’s lousiest veins, the doctors all feel that it would be best to make it easy to access a vein for both getting blood and getting the chemo into me. The port is a device put into the upper chest that accesses a vein for just that purpose. I don’t like to think about it much. I’m scheduled to have it put in on Friday, May 29th.

I have to say, however, his office staff leaves much to be desired. Both were rude and gruff and could not handle the little insurance blip we are dealing with. You see, earlier in the day, my DH had gone to the pharmacy to get my l.ovenex prescription filled. Now, the pharmacy guys were great, but, the insurer sent them a letter on the medical but not the pharmaceutical benefits. As a matter of fact, they gave them the wrong number for the pharmaceutical benefits. The letter they got faxed to them had all of the things a medical practitioner needs for billing. We gave this to the woman and she was like – this is not good enough. Thank goodness my MIL was there!

This woman was also being a pain about interruption of coverage. The date of end of coverage for continuation of care without pre-existing conditions is 63 days in my state. We were well within the time and had no actual interruption in coverage. (Due to my allergies, I am really familiar with this and have gone without things to make sure I have never had my coverage interrupted.)

Thursday

Thursday we met with the gynecological oncologist (gyn/onc), Dr. Sunshine, for our post operative check-up prior to starting. His office, unlike Dr. Perfectionist’s office, were not phased by the insurance insanity that has ensued. The receptionist called and despite having to inform the person on the other end that she had just asked them that question and repeatedly having to explain that she was in another state, was able to get things in order for our visit.

We went over the chemotherapy stuff again, and Dr. Sunshine mentioned something that didn’t register until today – one of the drugs is from the yew plant. I didn’t think anything of it until I went Friday to get paint thinner and saw a yew plant. It’s an evergreen. I am extremely allergic to most trees – including evergreens. I hope the substance does not contain the protein I react to. (I will be calling my allergist to make sure he has been consulted. For that matter, before this started, I was supposed to see him again.)

Funnily, when we asked if Dr. Sunshine had consulted with Dr. Professor yet, he mentioned that when he called Dr. Professor, Dr. Professor told him he needed to know he was at a card game in Las Vegas. There is a legend that Dr. Professor has been banned from various casinos around the country for card counting. No one knows the exact veracity of these rumors. Dr. Professor is smart enough to know how to count cards without being caught, I think.

Now, while Dr. Sunshine is awesome, I’m not so sure about his Nurse Practitioner. She was sent in because I asked about counseling and support groups. Specifically, I do not want to hear about people who are surviving for their kids. DH and I went through why we needed someone who had dealt with infertility. Not 10 minutes later she was talking about young women who had infants and small children. Hello? You are a gynecological oncology nurse. You should be familiar with psychological issues surrounding infertility. I nearly lost it completely when my voice broke and told her, “I would give every minute I have left to have had a child.”

The Nurse Practitioner also kept pushing how the group therapy would be a good thing because I now have a life-threatening disease. See, there is a disconnect for most people here. My fellow anaphylaxis sufferers, which is more predictable and manageable? Anaphylaxis or treatable cancer? I have been living with a life-threatening disease where leaving my house puts me at risk of dying because I don’t control my environment since my late 20s. This cancer is, to my mind, a new, minor change.

Now, I realize that non-allergists and non-anaphylaxis sufferers don’t really get that life-threatening part. The thing that bothers me is that I can’t seem to communicate that walking into an unknown place could lead to my immediate death if they are popping popcorn and I don’t exit fast enough. Cancer looks simple in comparison. Annoying, but simple. Perhaps I am weird in my outlook here, but the first time you come close to dying from something innocuous, you start looking at life completely differently. (Yes, DH has pointed out the worry with reactions to the chemo drugs. Rapid immunotherapy or complete depression of the immune system, anyone?)

After seeing Dr. Sunshine, we went to Dr. Professor’s office because of insurance issues. Insurance did not want to cover my l.ovenox. I have two blood clotting disorders – double heterozygous MTHFR and PAI-1. I’m having a port put in and it is important a clot not occur once it is there. I’m also recovering from a major surgery that endangers me in regards to clotting. L.ovenox is sort of important in these situations.

DH and I knew we chose the right location for chemo when they didn’t even blink and described exactly what was going to need to happen. Of course, I found out that no one had written the giant red letters about popcorn on my chart yet. They were shocked. Yep, I know it is rare. I also loved how they looked at me like are you kidding when I described my various (bad) ER experiences where I have been told you can’t pass out from anaphylaxis. See, your circulatory system stopping tends to cause a loss of consciousness in most people.

I made my post port / pre-chemo appointment with either Dr. Professor or Ms. Clarity. When they asked if I had to see Dr. Professor I said I thought it didn’t matter since Ms. Clarity ran the office. My meaning that she kept care of the things he doesn’t have to be involved in. The checking of a port is pretty straightforward from my understanding unless there is a problem. Good PAs and NPs – especially those in specialties – know when they need to get the doctor involved. They implement with more autonomy than an RN, who in turn, has more autonomy than an LPN, etc. Offices are run by support staff, not doctors. Doctors need bandwidth to keep up to date on treatments, diagnostic changes, surgical procedures and their own professional stuff. I don’t want them doing stuff that can be done by a PA, NP, RN, LPN, NA, etc.!

Friday

Friday was a day I got to sleep in and do a little shopping. I went to get paint thinner as my mom – who is staying to take care of me – wants to paint my front door for us. It does need it and she is better at it than either DH or me! We also went to K.ohls where we both bought some clothes. She did better at the clearance rack than I did. I got tired faster than I expected. That part sucked.

On the medical front? DH got my drug refills and found one of the drugs went from a 30 day supply to a 28 day supply and went from a 40 USD co-pay to a 110 USD co-pay. He has been rather grumpy since. (Can’t say I blame him.) Really, something has to give in regards to this. Thank goodness we have insurance as the drug in question is 4,000 USD for a month’s supply sans insurance. Something has to change in the USA in regards to our medical system.

I meant to blog these each day, but, for some reason, tended to be tired by the end of each day. So, you get to suffer a rather blow-by-blow of the week and its jumble of emotions.

I am also way behind on email and apologize to those who have not yet heard from me. I am getting there!

Logic Failure? (Cornstarch is the Powder in Powdered Gloves)

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http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/141448.php

So, not using powdered gloves lessened “latex-related illness.” Hello? Cornstarch, anyone?

::: head desk ::::

The corn lobby will do just about anything to not admit that corn – in all its derivative forms – can cause allergic reactions.

Am I the only one who thinks maybe the powder might, just possibly, be the problem?

(Unpowdered latex gloves don’t have cornstarch!)