Drugs And Your Family...
Ever wonder what happens to people when they age? Well, wonder no more. Experience from my grandparents, parents and patients has taught me a lot. So has the modern world and the companies that make pharmaceuticals.
When my grandparents were alive, I watched them get older. There were the obvious signs... weight gain, moving slower, less hair, more grey. Then there were the subtle things that I did not see. Higher blood pressure, caution with driving and stairs, things that a kid really wouldn't notice. They did take vitamins but there were no maintenance medications about, no pain killers, no sleeping aids, and they did not seem to need any of these things.
My Pop-pop had a heart attack in 1980, when he was roughly 72 or 73. He was in the hospital for some time and he had told me that he awoke in the middle of the night with massive pain and had been screaming. It sounded terrible. As an EMT it sounded a lot like a myocardial infarction, and it was.
After the hospital stay he was released with instructions: lose weight, eat better (although he really did not have a poor diet) and quit smoking. He and my grandmother both quit smoking, which saved me the trouble of throwing away and hiding and flushing their cigarettes down the toilet. Pop-pop took an aspirin once a day to keep his blood thin. Their diet was lower in sodium, lower in fat, higher in fruits and veggies and smaller portions. He lived to 80 and died from kidney failure and never had so much as a flutter from his heart. My grandmother... well, that is a mystery. She may be alive now, although I highly doubt it. While it is true that the good die young and the wretched don't, she'd be pushing 100 and I find it hard to imagine that she'd have that much bitterness to still be alive. I don't know what she died of... I suppose just old age, as she was quite healthy, really. Physically, that is. I don't know many people who were so unhealthy emotionally.
However, that is neither here nor there and nothing on the pharmaceutical market could fix what ailed her.
Wondering about my maternal grandparents? There is not much to tell. My mother suspects that she, her sisters, and my grandmother had/have muscular dystrophy. This is mostly speculation as none of us have been definitively diagnosed. They all have/had muscle weakness and I have it, too. It is hereditary, whatever it is. But that had nothing to do with her death in 1985. She died from pancreatic cancer. She had a mini-heart attack before that. As far as I know, she was not on any maintenance medication, either. Until the cancer, at least.
The thing of it was that my paternal grandparents both lived to fairly ripe old ages, took hardly any drugs, and did fine. This brings me to my parents.
Ray has hypertension. My mother has hypertension. No dieting and proper physical maintenance for them, they went right onto medication for it. I suspect the doctor was happy to prescribe and not actually attempt the fitness/diet conversation. That wasn't that long ago, maybe 5 or 6 years.
Ray also tried phen-phen (and we all know how well that worked) and Vioxx (yikes). Now he takes... let me think... toprol, lunesta, tricor, and a handful of other pharmaceuticals that, thanks to the Union's now-lousy health plan, costs more than I care to think.
And this brings us to my mother. I love my mother a lot and I'm close to her. But we disagree strongly on the drug thing... her feeling is that if there is a pill/parenteral/whatever that can fix whatever, she'll take it. So she is taking a ton of medications. She has two "tackle boxes" filled with pills. I don't even know all the stuff she is taking but I do know some are anti-depressants that work with other drugs (she doesn't take those as primary medication, but to balance out the side effects of other medications - if I understand correctly). Just what she needs. I know the list includes concerta, ambien, tricor, and a multitude of other things. Sometimes these things clash. Sometimes she has some bizarre side effects. Sometimes I think that this not my mother but some other person... she has exhibited some terrible personality changes as a result (I strongly suspect) of the drugs. It's disturbing and distressing and I hate it.
But she is a victim, like so many others, of the pharmaceutical industry. Have a problem? We have the cure! Can't lose weight? We have the surgery! Can't concetrate? Have a pill or three! Hypertensive? Don't give up on those totally unhealthy foods and huge portions, just take this or that or those pills! It's quick, it's painless, it's great! Oh, and don't read that pesky fine print with the side effects that may include headache, nausea, vomiting, fever and oh, did we mention death? Nah, that only happened to one person and those evil lawyers make us mention it but ignore it... Welcome to the wonderful world of the quick fix.
It's not all bad. Ray used to be plagued with the worst psoriasis and it has magically cleared up with this new injection he is taking. He also has his strength and ability to work and be comfortable and not feel arthritis and is feeling physically able as well. This is a wonderful thing. This is one drug that is truly neccesary - it is not a fast fix to something that could be rectified another way. I'm on board with that all the way.
I use Depo Provera. It is a contraceptive parenteral that is injected into the fleshy part of my hip once every three months. It is wonderful. It not only takes away the worry of pregnancy but it eradicted my menstrual cycle entirely - a VERY good thing! My menstrual cycle was a major illness once a month that totally incapacitated me for two to four days out of every month. Employers do not like employees who chronically miss two to four days of work every month. Again, a neccesity that I need. These things are good.
But the rest is not. And how do you fight it? I do, I stay away from most medications - even when I should suck it up and use them. But for my mother, if it is a pill and can provide the quick fix, she wants it. If it is surgery and can provide a quick fix, she wants it. Where does it end?
When my grandparents were alive, I watched them get older. There were the obvious signs... weight gain, moving slower, less hair, more grey. Then there were the subtle things that I did not see. Higher blood pressure, caution with driving and stairs, things that a kid really wouldn't notice. They did take vitamins but there were no maintenance medications about, no pain killers, no sleeping aids, and they did not seem to need any of these things.
My Pop-pop had a heart attack in 1980, when he was roughly 72 or 73. He was in the hospital for some time and he had told me that he awoke in the middle of the night with massive pain and had been screaming. It sounded terrible. As an EMT it sounded a lot like a myocardial infarction, and it was.
After the hospital stay he was released with instructions: lose weight, eat better (although he really did not have a poor diet) and quit smoking. He and my grandmother both quit smoking, which saved me the trouble of throwing away and hiding and flushing their cigarettes down the toilet. Pop-pop took an aspirin once a day to keep his blood thin. Their diet was lower in sodium, lower in fat, higher in fruits and veggies and smaller portions. He lived to 80 and died from kidney failure and never had so much as a flutter from his heart. My grandmother... well, that is a mystery. She may be alive now, although I highly doubt it. While it is true that the good die young and the wretched don't, she'd be pushing 100 and I find it hard to imagine that she'd have that much bitterness to still be alive. I don't know what she died of... I suppose just old age, as she was quite healthy, really. Physically, that is. I don't know many people who were so unhealthy emotionally.
However, that is neither here nor there and nothing on the pharmaceutical market could fix what ailed her.
Wondering about my maternal grandparents? There is not much to tell. My mother suspects that she, her sisters, and my grandmother had/have muscular dystrophy. This is mostly speculation as none of us have been definitively diagnosed. They all have/had muscle weakness and I have it, too. It is hereditary, whatever it is. But that had nothing to do with her death in 1985. She died from pancreatic cancer. She had a mini-heart attack before that. As far as I know, she was not on any maintenance medication, either. Until the cancer, at least.
The thing of it was that my paternal grandparents both lived to fairly ripe old ages, took hardly any drugs, and did fine. This brings me to my parents.
Ray has hypertension. My mother has hypertension. No dieting and proper physical maintenance for them, they went right onto medication for it. I suspect the doctor was happy to prescribe and not actually attempt the fitness/diet conversation. That wasn't that long ago, maybe 5 or 6 years.
Ray also tried phen-phen (and we all know how well that worked) and Vioxx (yikes). Now he takes... let me think... toprol, lunesta, tricor, and a handful of other pharmaceuticals that, thanks to the Union's now-lousy health plan, costs more than I care to think.
And this brings us to my mother. I love my mother a lot and I'm close to her. But we disagree strongly on the drug thing... her feeling is that if there is a pill/parenteral/whatever that can fix whatever, she'll take it. So she is taking a ton of medications. She has two "tackle boxes" filled with pills. I don't even know all the stuff she is taking but I do know some are anti-depressants that work with other drugs (she doesn't take those as primary medication, but to balance out the side effects of other medications - if I understand correctly). Just what she needs. I know the list includes concerta, ambien, tricor, and a multitude of other things. Sometimes these things clash. Sometimes she has some bizarre side effects. Sometimes I think that this not my mother but some other person... she has exhibited some terrible personality changes as a result (I strongly suspect) of the drugs. It's disturbing and distressing and I hate it.
But she is a victim, like so many others, of the pharmaceutical industry. Have a problem? We have the cure! Can't lose weight? We have the surgery! Can't concetrate? Have a pill or three! Hypertensive? Don't give up on those totally unhealthy foods and huge portions, just take this or that or those pills! It's quick, it's painless, it's great! Oh, and don't read that pesky fine print with the side effects that may include headache, nausea, vomiting, fever and oh, did we mention death? Nah, that only happened to one person and those evil lawyers make us mention it but ignore it... Welcome to the wonderful world of the quick fix.
It's not all bad. Ray used to be plagued with the worst psoriasis and it has magically cleared up with this new injection he is taking. He also has his strength and ability to work and be comfortable and not feel arthritis and is feeling physically able as well. This is a wonderful thing. This is one drug that is truly neccesary - it is not a fast fix to something that could be rectified another way. I'm on board with that all the way.
I use Depo Provera. It is a contraceptive parenteral that is injected into the fleshy part of my hip once every three months. It is wonderful. It not only takes away the worry of pregnancy but it eradicted my menstrual cycle entirely - a VERY good thing! My menstrual cycle was a major illness once a month that totally incapacitated me for two to four days out of every month. Employers do not like employees who chronically miss two to four days of work every month. Again, a neccesity that I need. These things are good.
But the rest is not. And how do you fight it? I do, I stay away from most medications - even when I should suck it up and use them. But for my mother, if it is a pill and can provide the quick fix, she wants it. If it is surgery and can provide a quick fix, she wants it. Where does it end?
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