Doin' Drugs - 2

Anyone who has dealt with MS knows it is basically a game of gradually increasing piles of drugs.
Disease-modifying Drugs (DMDs) - which we think do something.
Anti-spasm drugs- which may not help spasms until you are passed out
Drugs to keep your sphincters closed
Anti-depressant drugs: which make you dizzy and confused
Anti-pain drugs: which knock you out
Drugs to counter the effects from the above drugs, which include vertigo, incontinence, weakness, sadness, poverty, etc, etc.

Well, maybe not those last two...

It is always tempting to just toss the drugs away and try to manage the illness without them. A few muscle spasms will teach you to rethink that; the inability to walk will make you grab your DMD needle like a heroin addict and gratefully shoot up in the hope that you can still stagger a little while longer.

And then there's the illegal drug, that always makes me feel like I'm making a pumpkin spice latte or something. The one requiring grinding and special machinery and inhaling. The one that, surprisingly, works, eliminating muscle spasms quickly, without the cheery side effect of me peeing my pants, a freebie with the other antispasmodics.

But I need special permission to have that drug. So I'm starting the effort, with the support of my doc, to get some legal stuff. It's a bit frightening, given that our current government finds it more evil than outright murder. I have to send them passport-type photos, and become officially registered, which I wouldn't have to do if I had a long gun. Odd, no?

Just sayin'

Say WHAT?

Last November, the company asked the FDA not to approve any ANDA for Copaxone until the product is fully characterized. It further maintained it isn't possible for a generic applicant to show that its product has the "same active ingredient" as the drug "because neither Copaxone nor any significant subset of its polypeptides has been fully characterized, and because it is unknown which of Copaxone's potentially millions of protein-like polypeptides are clinically active and responsible for its therapeutic effects in reducing the frequency of relapses in patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis," according to the FDA's response, available at regulations.gov.

Read more: http://www.fiercepharma.com/story/teva-talks-healthcare-reform-copaxone/2010-05-13#ixzz0nwH6NvO5


Ya gotta love being a guinea pig. I've just found out that my dear copaxone may be behind some of my high blood pressure and liver abnormalities. Not that anyone knew about this, apparently. It's endearing to be on medications which even the developer has no idea about how they work. It's reassuring to think they don't actually know WHAT IT IS MADE OF. It's such a pleasant thought to inject this stuff into my body every day while taking a whiff of optimism juice, hoping it will work, having no idea what "working" really means.


I've had experience with this before. I "did" Vioxx for pain before. I was on Effexor, queen of the iatrogenic disease causing drugs, which also remains unexplained as to how it does its magic. I was on Lipitor, until I got leg muscle spasms (might have been MS, now that I think of it), and put on ASA until they realized it would more likely kill me than save me.


And now as I step into my second half-century of life, as medically managed as anyone can possibly imagine, I'm offered these medications, told they are good, given my prescriptions and told to smile and be a good girl and take them. 


Yeah, I suppose on balance they are probably keeping me alive. But really now, folks. Couldn't I just chew on some nice alfalfa?