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Hello Again
Oct. 11th, 2006 12:44 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
minding-maura.livejournal.comI am so glad I found this community. People here actually participate, a lot. I've gotten some heat on some posts and it is great.
One thing that was told to me is very true. When I talk about things I have learned I should post the sources too. I apologize for not thinking of this and will do so for now on.
Also, I'm far from a doctor. I am a journalist (many moons ago) and a business owner - that's it. But I'm also kind of talkative, some say too talkative. I'm also a big believer in "natural, osteopathic and homeopathic " solutions if at all viable. A good, and somewhat humorous example is what really convinced me that the pharmaceutical industry really does not have our best interest at heart is when my father was fighting cancer of the spine.
He had gone through his chemo and was on a pain management program where a PA came to the house everyday, 7 days a week, to monitor and administer drugs to my father to manage his pain. This was approx. 7 years ago. I set up my office in his house so I could be there for him throughout the day while my mother went to work. When she came home I would prepare the meals, get my dad set for the night and then head out to my house. I did this for about 2 years. My brothers and sisters took turns on nights and weekends to allow my parents to just spend time together without my mom being engrossed in the not so pleasant parts of the care.
So we're about 6 months into the pain management when a home care PA that was in training with our regular PA mentioned some interesting alternative care websites. At this point I wasn't really into the whole alternate and natural care thing but figured why not - so I checked it out. This one act started a month long research project for me and ended up in many meetings and conference calls with various doctors at Jefferson, UofP, Mayo and others. None, with the exception of one not mentioned here would entertain a discussion of natural pain management over the standard morphine and others based care. Well I discussed it with my dad and one night when he was having a really bad bout with pain and nausea I called my friends son who brought over a couple of joints. My father smoked two in about a half hour period and felt great right through the next morning at about 9am. So from around 10pm through to 9am he felt great. So we continued to use pot as the base and added other natural, over the counter and supermarket products. It didn't completely take him off the med's of course, but it did eliminate the morphine all together and he was able to get up and walk around and dress himself unlike before where he pretty much stayed in a wheelchair becasue his muscles were weak and his balance was way off.
We continue this for the remaining 18 or so months until finally he was hospitalized for his last few days with us. But these things worked and we had to lie to the PA's and nurses because they would have completely discontinued all pain management if they knew about it.
So what do I believe today - I believe that you have to take the pharmaceutical industry and FDA opinions as slanted, commercial interest opinions and not necessarily those that are the "complete truth".
This belief is the foundation for where and how I collect my information.
One thing that was told to me is very true. When I talk about things I have learned I should post the sources too. I apologize for not thinking of this and will do so for now on.
Also, I'm far from a doctor. I am a journalist (many moons ago) and a business owner - that's it. But I'm also kind of talkative, some say too talkative. I'm also a big believer in "natural, osteopathic and homeopathic " solutions if at all viable. A good, and somewhat humorous example is what really convinced me that the pharmaceutical industry really does not have our best interest at heart is when my father was fighting cancer of the spine.
He had gone through his chemo and was on a pain management program where a PA came to the house everyday, 7 days a week, to monitor and administer drugs to my father to manage his pain. This was approx. 7 years ago. I set up my office in his house so I could be there for him throughout the day while my mother went to work. When she came home I would prepare the meals, get my dad set for the night and then head out to my house. I did this for about 2 years. My brothers and sisters took turns on nights and weekends to allow my parents to just spend time together without my mom being engrossed in the not so pleasant parts of the care.
So we're about 6 months into the pain management when a home care PA that was in training with our regular PA mentioned some interesting alternative care websites. At this point I wasn't really into the whole alternate and natural care thing but figured why not - so I checked it out. This one act started a month long research project for me and ended up in many meetings and conference calls with various doctors at Jefferson, UofP, Mayo and others. None, with the exception of one not mentioned here would entertain a discussion of natural pain management over the standard morphine and others based care. Well I discussed it with my dad and one night when he was having a really bad bout with pain and nausea I called my friends son who brought over a couple of joints. My father smoked two in about a half hour period and felt great right through the next morning at about 9am. So from around 10pm through to 9am he felt great. So we continued to use pot as the base and added other natural, over the counter and supermarket products. It didn't completely take him off the med's of course, but it did eliminate the morphine all together and he was able to get up and walk around and dress himself unlike before where he pretty much stayed in a wheelchair becasue his muscles were weak and his balance was way off.
We continue this for the remaining 18 or so months until finally he was hospitalized for his last few days with us. But these things worked and we had to lie to the PA's and nurses because they would have completely discontinued all pain management if they knew about it.
So what do I believe today - I believe that you have to take the pharmaceutical industry and FDA opinions as slanted, commercial interest opinions and not necessarily those that are the "complete truth".
This belief is the foundation for where and how I collect my information.
