Today I found out that Merck is going to pay $4.85 BILLION in settlements because of it’s “blockbuster” painkiller, VIOXX. I was more than a little appalled, but not at all surprised, that so many people had taken the drug and it took so long to get it off the market. In my own experience with doctors and prescriptions, I’ve learned that you can’t trust a doctor’s prescription pad. He or she may have ulterior motives for wanting you to take what they’re offering. I’m especially wary after the last couple of doctor’s that I’ve seen really pushed medicines on me that I didn’t want and wouldn’t benefit me (especially because of my bad reactions to them).

So, I was finally bitten by the article bug and wrote one up for AC. I initially thought I would publish it here and see what kind of hits I got with it, but changed my mind. My audience here is so small compared to who reads over there (the CPs who read AC articles voraciously but rarely venture into blogland, for instance. It doesn’t hurt that I get money over there either. Since it’s largely an op-ed piece I had to submit for no upfront payment, but that’s ok. It’s also non-exclusive. So, if it does well I’ll know where to concentrate my talents and maybe submit to a higher paying establishment (like Constant Content).

Here’s an excerpt of “When Good Drugs Go Bad: Why Your Doctor’s Prescription Pad Might Endanger Your Life”.

My primary care physician likes to promote relatively new medications and has been known, at least with me, to either not know of or intentionally mislead about serious side effects of particular medications. When he prescribed Tramadol (Ultram) for me he assured me that it was non-habit forming and that there were no serious side effects. He failed to mention that:

Commonly reported side effects include nausea, constipation, dizziness, headache, drowsiness, and vomiting. Less commonly reported side effects include itching, sweating, dry mouth, diarrhea, rash, visual disturbances, and vertigo. Some patients who received tramadol have reported seizures. Abrupt withdrawal of tramadol may result in anxiety, sweating, insomnia, rigors, pain, nausea, diarrhea, tremors, and hallucinations. [Emphasis mine. Source]

As a matter of fact, because of I’m so leery of taking medications with which I’m unfamiliar, I asked him about possible adverse side effects. He assured me that Tramadol (Ultram) is no worse that prescription strength acetaminophen or ibuprofen. At that time I trusted his judgement. Later at a checkup I told his NP that I sometimes took two pills at a time because they did little to alleviate my pain. She told me it was fine as long as I didn’t go over 500 mgs a day. She then consulted with the same doctor that prescribed the medication, and returned to tell me I was taking too much, that it wasn’t good for me and I should take the vicodin primarily for pain. She told me that I could take the Tramadol to boost the vicodin “occasionally”. I was again reassured that the Tramadol was basically safe and not to worry about anything. I already knew about the withdrawal symptoms, now I worried about other things. It’s better for me to take a controlled narcotic than this? Bye, bye Tramadol.

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I did an article about Drupal recently. My goal was to get some writer’s together to share what we know with each other. I failed miserably at that, but I thought I’d share my article anyway. This is one of my worst performing babies on the list. It needs some love.

Funny, though, my article on Chronic Pain has been my blockbuster hit as far as AC is concerned and that was PvB only. How funny! I would write a decent one along the same lines and submit for upfront, but it’s starting to look like AC doesn’t want to pay upfront anymore. That sucks.

Recently I decided to develop a community driven website. This just means that members/users of my website will be able to produce content, vote on content/polls and make site decisions. I decided to use a Content Management System (CMS) to keep things easy and, since I’m on a budget, it had to be affordable. After test driving several, I decided to go with Drupal.

What is Drupal?

Drupal is an open source web content management system, which means that it’s a completely free way to set up and manage your web site. That fit perfectly into my budget. The only expense then is the price of hosting. Drupal runs with PHP programming, so it’s important to make sure the web host you choose is reliable and offers plenty of Mysql database space as well as storage space. Drupal uses quite a bit of space for its core functionality and you’re probably going to use more for adding on modules and themes. Modules are extrasthat are added onto the core to increase functionality. Themes are just “skins” that change the look of the site.

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I wrote an article a while back about Ohio’s Amish Country. Recently I was having a discussion with an online friend who lives in California. She mentioned the Amish and then we somehow started discussing Weird Al’s "Amish Paradise" and the conversation evolved into something completely different. This, of course, has nothing to do with my article except that I thought I would share part of it here. It’s just an excerpt, but you can visit AC to read the rest if you’re interested. *nudge, wink*

Ohio’s Amish Country encompasses Ashland, Coshocton, Holmes, Knox, Tuscarawas, Richland, Stark and Wayne Counties. It is a huge tourist destination in this part of Ohio. People from all over the country come to see Ohio’s Amish community, because it is unique among American sub-cultures and offers a glimpse of what life was like a century ago. The Amish in Ohio don’t use cars; instead they travel by horse drawn buggy. They don’t use electricity or telephone service, either. The women wear long dresses, which are pastel for unmarried and dark for married women, and cover their coiled hair with a starched white bonnet. The men where dark shirts under blue jean overalls and straw hats to shade them from the shade. Only married men wear beards. The Amish wear neither jewelry- of any kind- or zippers. They live on homesteads, where grown children will often build houses right on the same land as their parents, and work together in groups. They have tried to maintain the same lifestyle they had when they came to Ohio in the early 1800′s. The men have a reputation of being wonderful craftsmen and the women of sewing glorious quilts and making fine food. Many thousands of people come every year to see the Amish and to purchase goods made by them.

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