Tuesday, August 16, 2016

The next level

Oh, what an adventure yesterday provided. I actually left the house! And went to a new (ish, at least in this context) doctor, an internist affiliated with the big hospital here in Pasadena.

I miss the guy who had been my regular MD. He's off "treating patients" because he's dealing with his own diseases, plus the usual MS gunk.

I really like this doctor, but she and I have some gulfs to bridge; she's not as into acupuncture as I am, but that's now a problem, fortunately. She's not as "with" cannabis as I am, or as my old MD was. But the conversation went as one might expect...

"What about marinol?" She asks.

"Tried it. Doesn't work," I say.

"What about baclofen?" she asks. For anti-spasticity, she says.

"Tried it. Doesn't work," I say."Plus, I didn't like the overall effect. Cannabis works way better. Especially if you the right variety."

For those of you who use cannabis as I do, try Candy Kush. It absolutely zaps the pain and the spasticity. Beats the pants off marinol.

She was very aware of my distrust of the Western medicines. She told me very clearly that everything has side effects, if that's what your (my) problem is, that's a big one.

I told her, by me it's simple. It needs to make me better. Cost of side effects is fine if the drug makes me better. Unlike for example, tysabri that makes your brain turn to mush and then you die. Or use the injectable DMDs that make you feel like shit for a week, and then a day and you feel not bad at all, now you repeat for the rest of your life. As I explained, I already feel like crap for the entire week, the "feeling bad" doesn't need any help. And a far as I can tell,  they don't actually work. Expensive, and painful, but effective? Not so much, as far as I can tell.

But the basic "internist stuff" was great. Talk about digestive and elimination stuff. Talk about hunger and the lack thereof. It was a fantastic visit, and I'm definitely going again in a week or so.

So, on balance good news, doctor-wise, but the Western world doesn't do so good with Chinese medicine and herbal stuff like cannabis. By me, most of the Western-world drugs seem to be a means of moving money around but they basically don't work, as far as I can tell.

So that's my gift for today. Find people who listen. They may start by disagreeing with you, but at least they listen.

And if you can, take it to the next level.

... Find someone who cares.

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