I just love an odd juxtaposition . . .

Clink would like this, I think, for a shrink, though, as I think, it's got not a think to do, with being a shrink, but somehow, I think, this is just the kind of think that'd catch her eye, anyway (I thunk).

I dunno, Dinah, am I right? Or Roy? If you are reading here, that is.

What do you other pro's think, Deb, Dr. A? Heh . . . .

Embroidered MRI knee image "slice"

I've found a pattern for an embroidered brain (nothing this detailed), and I've seen a knit brain supposedly done anatomically correct by some neoro-something or others or some medical types who also like to knit and then put the . . . things up in an online gallery but I still haven't seen a knit brain pattern for a more regular knitter. There's anatomically correct hearts, and other things, and organs I'd rather not, er, ahem, I'll not discuss those, but, there's plenty of discussable ones.

No, I'm not obsessed with knit brains, although a t-shirt I've seen that says "I've got knit for brains" in a well the sheep's wool looks very shaped like a brain, or something, or maybe it's in someone's head, I don't know - it just strikes me as funny. I suppose I'm a knit-wit . . .

heee . . . . . .

You can needle me all you want, I embroider and cross-stitch too . . . pointedly . . . .

Crochet is also welcome - there's a broken bones "scarf" (well, the bones are three dimensional so it's hard to call it a scarf) that I've oft thought would be fun for a doc to wear on Halloween . . . . . . speaking of body parts. I've also seen the crocheted green Frankensteinian finger to hold a lip balm stick to attach to one's keyring . . . . heh.

Parts is parts . . . I surely did not intend to wind up here . . . . how did I get here, again? *waves one lonely disembodied crocheted green finger around . . . . . .*

Hee heee heeeee . . . .

Hey Doc, Over Here, You Know, the Patient, Remember Me?

Recently I posted this in a comment on a post at the Shrink Rap blog:

a way to drive ME crazy: keep rambling on about Pristiq (a "newer" form of Effexor XR kind of, for those who don't know, that cuts one of the two substances (venflafaxine / desvenlafaxine, one being part of breaking down Effexor XR in your body, but they both do the same thing, really) out of the picture, when I've been telling you for a year that I think the anti-depressant isn't working . . . . . Effexor XR, btw . .

I swear, he's driving me crazy. I point blank asked him this last time, um, if the XR isn't working for me, then what good would Pristiq do . . .. and he answered, "none, then . . ." or something like that, and moved on. Lol.

Well . . . . Today, as we walk into the psychiatrist's office, the Wyeth drug rep was there (I believe they're the maker of Effexor and, thus also, the newer Pristiq, correct me if I'm wrong); he'd just walked in the door 20 seconds ahead of us.

My husband and I took a seat and I listened to an enlightening, interesting, and somewhat dismaying conversation, that also helped later inform me as I tried to understand why my psychiatrist was behaving the way he was.

The two of them discussed an event that apparently had been held the previous week I believe, that sounded like a dinner, dinner party, fete, something-or-other, with some Pristiq education question-and-answer at least available for the docs attending (and who knows, perhaps there was more education there on the med, but, what my doc said was, "and I like to ask questions about the medication too" when the rep had thanked him for attending and discussed the dinner event a little . . . . I don't know if he said that because he had me, as a patient, sitting there, to make it "look better", but . . . that's how it came off, to me . . . that's why I assume there was at least some question-and-answer education available, though).

There was some wierd discussion on the rep's part about not just any old person being chosen but somebody real, and my doc replied with thanks, and s'more stuff about that . . . . then it was sample time, as it usually gets down to with drug reps and it was all Pristiq samples, which disgusted me because Wyeth's patent on Effexor XR isn't up for another THREE years, and as expensive as the medicine is, they need to keep supporting it with samples . . . . but they aren't. OH, there was a bit of talk about a card program to help make the prescriptions more affordable on the Pristiq, etc., and then the rep left.

Now, I know drug reps and all the sorts of . . . well, what might seem like . . . or in some cases . . . BE . . . ethically problematic . . . . marketing techniques they use on docs, is part of the territory of being a physician. Of any kind, I suppose . . . . but I was a bit disturbed just hearing he'd been to a, well, "Pristiq Party" . . . lol. Since I suspect it was more for his . . . entertainment, than education, but also to keep putting the pressure on to prescribe it. Also, to switch Effexor people over to it.

Still, I didn't think a WHOLE ton of it as I go into my appointment, because as I said in my comment up above, we'd discussed it AGAIN at my last appointment and I was like, um, helloooo? Anyone in there, doc? NOT gonna fly, lol, if the Effexor isn't, or does your medical degree give you some magical power that I don't know about . . . . (ok, so this was more my attitude than spoken, what was said is in the comment, but hey, the internal stuff is kinda funny, heh).

After the initial stuff, we finally get down to the discussion about seriously changing my anti-depressant. He suggests . . . wait for it . . . . .



PRISTIQ.



ARRRRRRRGGGGHHHH.


I sat there for a minute, speechless, taken aback, dumbfounded, flabbergasted . . . you name it. I had said, RIGHT before this suggestion of his, that I felt it would be of no use at all. After less than a minute, but then, surprisingly (guess therapy is working, woohoo!) I speak the words I need to speak, they somehow come to me, and I am surprised that they do, but they are the right ones!

I do not feel I am being heard.

I spoke up for me, and the therapeutic relationship. I didn't think about these words, they just came, and I spoke them as they came. He looked a bit startled himself upon hearing them, and he reconnected with me visually, and, I suspect, replayed what I had recently said to him, and we reconnected and proceeded to discuss options, costs, etcetera. We had had occasion to discuss cost earlier in the appointment, given that I had recently discovered that my mood stabilizer is an astronomical $600 a month!!!!!!

He cautioned me that Cymbalta, another anti-depressant that also acts on the same two things (serotonin and, what is it, norepinephrin? correct me if I'm wrong, I always forget the 2nd one . . .) that Effexor XR and such do (whereas Prozac and the like only act on serotonin, as an example) is not an inexpensive medicine either (hopefully not in the range of my mood stabilizer, but understandable if it's roughly in the range of the Effexor XR which was $226, hoping for even less of course but *sigh* these things are pricey . . . . . . .

That last paragraph sucks for parentheticals and construction but, oh well, no matter how I reconstruct it, it gets the point across, I hope. I'd already slowly reduced my Effexor dose down, to a lower dose, because I was between a rock and a hard place; now I've got his written instructions on starting Cymbalta and slowly lowering the Effexor, slowly raising the Cymbalta . . . . . at various intervals.

Today was the first day. Here goes nothing. Sorry for all the pharma mumbo-jumbo, for those not into that.

I'm suspecting that once my psychiatrist gets a certain number of patients to switch to Pristiq, or on it new, he'll get to go on a trip or something, or some other perk or whatever is allowed; not sure how these things are regulated. Kinda sours my mouth but at least I know what's up with THAT, anyway.

Brings to mind scenes from the Harrison Ford version of the movie, The Fugitive . . . . . eeee.