Sunday, July 12, 2015

The Pain Killer Dilemma

I was startled to see news that NSAIDS are now said to be unsafe, that they can cause strokes and heart attacks and there is no safe period of time to take them.  I take Aleve to stave off the pain from my neck injury, my back, my shoulder and my arthritis of the hands.  My finger joints are still swollen and stiff from over use last week.

Tylenol has already been soundly criticized as unsafe.  Aspirin can eat away your stomach.  So what exactly does a person take now for pain, that is safe?

Mary Jane?  It's legal now in Oregon.  You can grow it, up to four plants for personal use, but you can't buy it.  Buying is still illegal.  I've smoked pot a couple times in my life. I hate it.  I like reality a lot more than the extended daze, sometimes with hallucinations, that pot provides.

I could not tolerate its use for chronic pain.  Aleve and ice have been what I've always used.

I did the flea market again.  This time, made about $48 for the Happy Cat Club.  That's not bad for a few hours of time I'd otherwise waste at home.  There were over 100 garage sales advertised in the area going on yesterday.  Considering the grange is way out in the country, to make $48 with so much competition going on, pretty darn good.
I had my sign up again

Otherwise life is very quiet.  Temperatures have plummeted into the 70's. There's been rain with thunderstorms in eastern Oregon and could be rain in the valley on Friday.  People are excited over it.  Some are, at least, since we're so behind on rainfall and the rivers are so low that fish are endangered.  Others are already complaining about the loss of what was considered the new norm, of 90 plus degree days.

Oh how we need our reasons to whine.

Sweet Slinko
Miss D with the Sunflowers

I continue to pay for auto insurance, liability only, because that's all I can afford, even though I am aware that probably a quarter of county residents on the road have no insurance (just a guess, based on people I know of, who drive, and the number of those who drive without insurance).  I play by the rules, but so many don't and get away with it.   And if one of the uninsured people plow into me?  Then I really lose.   They will get away with it and suffer nothing.   Since I have no comprehensive, I'll be stuck with figuring out how to pay to fix my car.  Or replace it.

So I get stewed each time I have to renew the policy and pay out hundreds.  Just the way it is, when you think you are paying out for nothing and know the companies do anything, once you have had an accident, to pay out the least possible to help you back on your feet.

My insurance company dared to send me a survey asking how I would rate their service?  What service, I told them.  I pay you hundreds a year and as far as I know, it goes into some deep dark black hole never to be seen again.  If I have a wreck, even if its not my fault, you'll raise my rates or drop me.   What service?

Insurance benefits bad drivers and penalizes good drivers.  That's how insurance is.  I wonder what our world would be like if there was no insurance, no health insurance, no car insurance, no trip insurance, no homeowners insurance, no life insurance......people would have a lot more money.   If you had a wreck, would the at fault party pay up to right the wrong and could injured parties get medical care cheaper if dropping insurance, as the high paid "middle man", helped drop the price?

I wonder.









6 comments:

  1. The information on the NSAIDs is not new, but the labeling is. So far, it is all clear as mud and the best advice I can find says for NSAIDs, as well as any other drug, don't larger does than you need or for a longer time than you need. But if you need them for acute pain, it's okay to take them. Good luck trying to figure out what is best for you.

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    1. Yeah, clear as mud. I usually only take one Aleve at a time, and for two days. I have no quality of life when my fingers go swollen and crooked, If I over use them, without it. So I guess a person weighs the world without to decide to take or not to take or how much.

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  2. Despite insurance (car, home, health) being a rip-off I think it is better than the alternative. I suspect only the lawyers would benefit if there was none. And the same people who don't pay now, wouldn't pay them. For themselves or anyone else.

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  3. I feel for you, both in regards to the insurance and pain medications. Blessedly free of chronic pain, I see my mother struggle with it. One pill can cause irritable bowel syndrome, from which she already suffers, while others can inflate her blood pressure. That's a health issue she's faced my entire life. My advice was to alternate between the two types of pain meds but I guess it was too confusing. ~sigh~ Life can be so unfair.

    By the way, I am thrilled by your success at the sale but have to disagree over one thing. And that's the fact you say you would have otherwise wasted the time at home. ~grin~ My dear, I truly believe that you are the most hard working and dedicated person I know.

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    1. Thanks Darla, you are right. Ha, you have me pegged. I probably would not have wasted the time. I don't sit still well.

      I'm sorry about your mom and her chronic pain issues. Chronic pain is a pain in the butt, to be crude. Since pain is unseen by others, there will be no empathy or even sympathy exhibited, so it is a lonely affair, but one many many people must find a way, very privately, to deal with. I am one of those lonely dealers, more so sometimes than others.

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