The Hex Files

I'm grateful to Dr. Sawyer for being the great doctor she is. I took Liana in to see her because she's been showing signs of Fibro. The doc tested her and checked her heart, looking for mitral valve prolapse, which has been linked to Fibro and other autonomic/autoimmune disorders. Liana does have MVP (which I also have), and possibly the beginnings of Fibro. She's been put on a light beta blocker for the moment, and we'll be watching the rest.

It's not good news, but I'm grateful for having a doctor that not only believes in and treats Fibro, but also researches and keeps up in all the being done. She's pretty fabulous, especially since she's at least 75 years old. I'm talking a SERIOUSLY little old lady.

In my own health news, it seems this latest flare is starting to let up. After yesterdays struggle with narcoleptic episodes, the allover pain is lessening, now down to my normal screaming spots.

Pfizer to pay $142M for drug fraud
Sales of drug total $300M annually in Canada
Last Updated: Friday, March 26, 2010 | 3:28 PM ET Comments95Recommend88
CBC News

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has been ordered to pay $142 million US in damages for fraudulently marketing gabapentin, an anti-seizure drug marketed under the name Neurontin.

A federal jury in Boston ruled Thursday that Pfizer fraudulently marketed the drug and promoted it for unapproved uses. The jury sided with California-based Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and Kaiser Foundation Hospitals, the first to try a gabapentin case against Pfizer.

Data revealed in a string of U.S. lawsuits indicates the drug was promoted by the drug company as a treatment for for pain, migraines and bipolar disorder — even though it wasn't effective in treating these conditions and was actually toxic in certain cases, according to the Therapautics Initiative, an independent drug research group at the University of British Columbia.

The trials forced the company to release all of its studies on the drug, including the ones it kept hidden.

A new analysis of those unpublished trials by the Therapeutics Initiative suggests that gabapentin works for one out of every six or eight people who use it, at best. The review also concluded that one in eight people had an adverse reaction to the drug.

"The much larger majority of people will not get any benefit and many of them will have chronic neurotoxicity or poisoning of the brain," said Dr. Tom Perry of the Therapeutics Initiative.

Dr. Harry Pollett, a pain specialist in North Sydney, N.S., calls gabapentin a so-so drug with potentially serious side-effects for patients. These include drowsiness, balance problems, fogginess and edema, or swelling.

"Weight gain is a very common problem and I see that a lot," Pollett said.

The drugs represent a waste of money for Canada's health-care system, said Perry, who questioned why some doctors continue to encourage people to take the drug even though the patients are not benefiting.

"We have been using probably somewhere in the order of around $300 million a year in Canada recently and this drug has been overused since the late 1990s," Perry said. "So, do the math. It's probably well in excess of a billion dollars."

Pfizer defends its actions and its drug. The company has already been hit with $430 million in penalties and fines for fraudulently promoting gabapentin in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2010/03/25/gabapentin-ubc.html#ixzz0jW5a7uKt

I had been taking gabapentin for oh...3 or more years. *sigh*

I swear, I don't get a break. My COBRA premium is now 150% because I'm using the disability extension until I qualify for Medicare in October. I pay $541.88 a month, and that's after dropping my dental. I looked into private insurance, but because I have an existing condition, I will be denied. I don't qualify for the COBRA subsidy because I started prior to Sept 1, 2008. I don't qualify for the high risk pool because I have COBRA.

Will and I could get married, but the insurance premium he'd pay is about the same as I'm paying now, plus I'd lose eligibility for Liana's ALLKids program (state health for kids).

So I'm stuck paying out nearly half my monthly disability payment for my health insurance. Amazing how they can get away with it, isn't it? Thank the Gods I have Will, not just because he supports me financially, but because he supports me in all the other important ways as well.

*sigh*

Today's gratitude moment is brought to you by Flexiril, which allows my muscles to relax enough so I can sit or lie down without too much pain...but not to do much of anything else. Six of one, half-dozen of another.

It's really hard to be a good pet when your body doesn't want to cooperate. Fibro! BEGONE!!

I added my pictures to BoobieThon. Most of you have already seen mah bewbies of doom, but hey...if you can donate to a good cause, please do. Times might be tight, but the boobies are loose.

Oven still isn't fixed. Rent is due, so I'm getting some sort of discount for my inconvenience. Don't know what it is yet, but I found a link that with information that fixes the same sort of problem and forwarded it to the maintenance manager. He doesn't think it's the right error...so I'm going to try it myself. If I end up fixing my oven when they can't, I think I'll apply for a job.

I adopted another egg, poor abandoned thing.

And it's brother/sister:
I wanna see what I have!!!