Hi, Colleen! I'm doing a lot better; had to get out and socialize even though I didn't want to. I'm also setting up a regimen for titrating off some of the med's that have likely been poisoning my body (against what my doctors have told me--about how important it was to be on them). Statins went first--just dumped them. I've already begun cutting back on the mood stabilizer, Depakote, which my nurse practitioner advised me against doing; and my neurologist as well. They both wanted me to up my dosage despite what most of the research I found said could likely have been a cause of my Parkinson's Disease. As a Vietnam vet, I'm still fighting to get compensated for Agent Orange exposure. My plan is to stick with my non-processed food, no sugar (of any form) diet, and daily exercise program--Tai Chi, walking, and bi-weekly water aerobics class--gets me the socialization which is most important for a good life. My wife took control of my desktop--it won't let me on after 11:30 pm. Sleep is crucial to good health. Thank you so much for asking about me. I was feeling kind of desperate/depressed the past month or so. I hope you're doing well.
@horowitz71 I see you've been on Mayo Clinic Connect for awhile and have been sharing your journey. I'd like to share that I'm very sad as I read about your activities in the past including surfing, working in the industry , tennis, and martial arts, that you can no longer do. Since you reside in Monterey and from what you've shared in other Discussions it is evident that you have explored many avenues and resources in Northern California including Stanford and the Palo Alto VA.
One of our mentors, @johnbishop followed up on your question about benzodiazepine medication and he located resources about benzo derivatives that could be useful for you. Have you discussed this with the VA physicians that you have seen?
-- VA Formularies - BENZODIAZEPINE DERIVATIVE SEDATIVES/HYPNOTICS (CN302) https://www.va.gov/formularyadvisor/class/CN302
There is also a Talk to the VA Crisis Line link (in red) at the top right of the VA Formulary page.
Helen, thank you for your response. I do have an excellent support group here in Monterey, even though they have one of the worst Medicare programs along the Calif coast. My wife and I are reluctantly making plans to move to the Research Triangle in NC, even though I've spent my whole life by the sea. But today she told me that maybe we shouldn't leave because I've set up roots here in Monterey. I'll check out the Benzo derivative (thank you for that information), but since I'm in the late stage of life, I'd like to get free of as many drugs (and I've been prescribed so much over the past decades that the world has gotten foggy), so I'm working to titrate off as many meds as I can. My wife has a medical background and knows some excellent pharmacology connections, so I won't have to keep popping down all the pills my (unfortunately) quack physicians advise me to take. I have an upcoming appointment at Stanford neurology coming up soon. The neurologist's I got through the VA are useless and I can't believe they even went through medical school. It seems as if none of the better doctors have stayed in this high-cost area or aren't accepting new patients. Again, thank you for the info, and I wish you well.
Helen, thank you for your response. I do have an excellent support group here in Monterey, even though they have one of the worst Medicare programs along the Calif coast. My wife and I are reluctantly making plans to move to the Research Triangle in NC, even though I've spent my whole life by the sea. But today she told me that maybe we shouldn't leave because I've set up roots here in Monterey. I'll check out the Benzo derivative (thank you for that information), but since I'm in the late stage of life, I'd like to get free of as many drugs (and I've been prescribed so much over the past decades that the world has gotten foggy), so I'm working to titrate off as many meds as I can. My wife has a medical background and knows some excellent pharmacology connections, so I won't have to keep popping down all the pills my (unfortunately) quack physicians advise me to take. I have an upcoming appointment at Stanford neurology coming up soon. The neurologist's I got through the VA are useless and I can't believe they even went through medical school. It seems as if none of the better doctors have stayed in this high-cost area or aren't accepting new patients. Again, thank you for the info, and I wish you well.
@horowitz71 Thank you for your response and sharing your plans. I can understand your desire to be medication-free. I think of the decision in the benefit-to-risk ratio--comparing the potential benefits of the action of the medication to its risks. Whenever a new medication has been suggested to me by a provider I ask questions and weigh out the benefits to the risks.
How wise of you to marry a partner with a medical background who knows pharmacology. 😌 (I write this with a hint of humor).
You have made a life for yourself on the California coast so I imagine moving for medical reasons to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina is not what you had a mind for this time in your life. What will the Research Triangle offer you that isn't available in California? Are there clinical trial opportunities?
@horowitz71 Thank you for your response and sharing your plans. I can understand your desire to be medication-free. I think of the decision in the benefit-to-risk ratio--comparing the potential benefits of the action of the medication to its risks. Whenever a new medication has been suggested to me by a provider I ask questions and weigh out the benefits to the risks.
How wise of you to marry a partner with a medical background who knows pharmacology. 😌 (I write this with a hint of humor).
You have made a life for yourself on the California coast so I imagine moving for medical reasons to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina is not what you had a mind for this time in your life. What will the Research Triangle offer you that isn't available in California? Are there clinical trial opportunities?
We're paying $4,200/mo in rent, for starters. Since I'm no longer able to work, and to top it off, having lived outside the U.S., when I came back to claim my Veteran's disability benefits, it came with a heavy price. We never intended to return to the states, so I never paid in to Medicare Part B, which is useless outside the states, the Social Security Admin docked me more than one year of any Social Security, and on top of that, the docked me 10% of my Social Security money for each year I wasn't paying for Part B. Right off the bat, I lost more than $700/mo for the rest of my life. Then, my wife was unable to find a full-time job in her profession--all her previous jobs had been contracted out, so she's now working as an independent contractor, paying for private insurance--very expensive. Monterey has the worst Medicare coverage along the CA coastal region and since I'm unable to drive, I have to take a shuttle to Palo Alto, stay overnight in a VA motel, get to my appointment and then spend another night in a motel for every visit to either the VA Hospital or Stanford, where I get the only decent healthcare around. We live more than two hours from Palo Alto. The good doctors in our area are not taking new patients, and that's if you can even find one. Doctors have fled the area due to the cost of living in CA. The Research Triangle area would cost us half of what we pay here in rent alone, and that doesn't take into consideration taxes and other out of pocket expenses. I've been researching the country for the past six months and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area looks like a hot spot for cultural stimulation, beauty--mountains, and Durham has an excellent VA Hospital with shuttle service if you live withing 40 miles of the Hospital, and if you live further away, they offer community care--local providers paid for by the VA and several healthcare alliances that work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care for veterans in North Carolina. In CA, I'm stuck with TriWest, which is hit and miss when it comes to connecting veterans with medical care. After a lifetime of surfing around the world, this will be my first and last vacation, and my wife and I have already been to Europe, S. America, the Pacific islands, and other places that most working folk only dream about. So, I'm ready to settle down. We're probably not going to buy a home and NC doesn't have rent control, so if we don't like it there, we can always move back to either Brazil--a bit violent and likely turning into a totalitarian dictatorship, but that's where the U.S. is headed, or we can go back to Portugal and live inland where we have friends and the people are quite friendly, and of course there's universal healthcare. It's a bit provincial, but we're both slowing down to the speed of life. We'll have an amiable life somewhere. I've always believed "the universe provides," and as a fourteen year old runaway child, it all works out. I just went through a major depression, but I'm doing well for now.
As far as meds go, they're poison. I enjoyed a small glass of Chardonnay with the spaghetti squash and ricotta cheese I made yesterday. It worked as well as the tremor medication I've been taking. The doctors in the U.S. seem to feel that Big Pharma is the answer for everything. I had a rough night sleeping last night--racing thoughts and tension, but am feeling great after attending my bi-weekly water aerobics class which is free for those of us with multiple sclerosis or PD. Socialization, rest, exercise, and diet are far better than drugs.
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Hi, Colleen! I'm doing a lot better; had to get out and socialize even though I didn't want to. I'm also setting up a regimen for titrating off some of the med's that have likely been poisoning my body (against what my doctors have told me--about how important it was to be on them). Statins went first--just dumped them. I've already begun cutting back on the mood stabilizer, Depakote, which my nurse practitioner advised me against doing; and my neurologist as well. They both wanted me to up my dosage despite what most of the research I found said could likely have been a cause of my Parkinson's Disease. As a Vietnam vet, I'm still fighting to get compensated for Agent Orange exposure. My plan is to stick with my non-processed food, no sugar (of any form) diet, and daily exercise program--Tai Chi, walking, and bi-weekly water aerobics class--gets me the socialization which is most important for a good life. My wife took control of my desktop--it won't let me on after 11:30 pm. Sleep is crucial to good health. Thank you so much for asking about me. I was feeling kind of desperate/depressed the past month or so. I hope you're doing well.
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4 ReactionsHelen, thank you for your response. I do have an excellent support group here in Monterey, even though they have one of the worst Medicare programs along the Calif coast. My wife and I are reluctantly making plans to move to the Research Triangle in NC, even though I've spent my whole life by the sea. But today she told me that maybe we shouldn't leave because I've set up roots here in Monterey. I'll check out the Benzo derivative (thank you for that information), but since I'm in the late stage of life, I'd like to get free of as many drugs (and I've been prescribed so much over the past decades that the world has gotten foggy), so I'm working to titrate off as many meds as I can. My wife has a medical background and knows some excellent pharmacology connections, so I won't have to keep popping down all the pills my (unfortunately) quack physicians advise me to take. I have an upcoming appointment at Stanford neurology coming up soon. The neurologist's I got through the VA are useless and I can't believe they even went through medical school. It seems as if none of the better doctors have stayed in this high-cost area or aren't accepting new patients. Again, thank you for the info, and I wish you well.
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1 Reaction@horowitz71 Thank you for your response and sharing your plans. I can understand your desire to be medication-free. I think of the decision in the benefit-to-risk ratio--comparing the potential benefits of the action of the medication to its risks. Whenever a new medication has been suggested to me by a provider I ask questions and weigh out the benefits to the risks.
How wise of you to marry a partner with a medical background who knows pharmacology. 😌 (I write this with a hint of humor).
You have made a life for yourself on the California coast so I imagine moving for medical reasons to the Raleigh-Durham area of North Carolina is not what you had a mind for this time in your life. What will the Research Triangle offer you that isn't available in California? Are there clinical trial opportunities?
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2 ReactionsWe're paying $4,200/mo in rent, for starters. Since I'm no longer able to work, and to top it off, having lived outside the U.S., when I came back to claim my Veteran's disability benefits, it came with a heavy price. We never intended to return to the states, so I never paid in to Medicare Part B, which is useless outside the states, the Social Security Admin docked me more than one year of any Social Security, and on top of that, the docked me 10% of my Social Security money for each year I wasn't paying for Part B. Right off the bat, I lost more than $700/mo for the rest of my life. Then, my wife was unable to find a full-time job in her profession--all her previous jobs had been contracted out, so she's now working as an independent contractor, paying for private insurance--very expensive. Monterey has the worst Medicare coverage along the CA coastal region and since I'm unable to drive, I have to take a shuttle to Palo Alto, stay overnight in a VA motel, get to my appointment and then spend another night in a motel for every visit to either the VA Hospital or Stanford, where I get the only decent healthcare around. We live more than two hours from Palo Alto. The good doctors in our area are not taking new patients, and that's if you can even find one. Doctors have fled the area due to the cost of living in CA. The Research Triangle area would cost us half of what we pay here in rent alone, and that doesn't take into consideration taxes and other out of pocket expenses. I've been researching the country for the past six months and the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill area looks like a hot spot for cultural stimulation, beauty--mountains, and Durham has an excellent VA Hospital with shuttle service if you live withing 40 miles of the Hospital, and if you live further away, they offer community care--local providers paid for by the VA and several healthcare alliances that work with the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide health care for veterans in North Carolina. In CA, I'm stuck with TriWest, which is hit and miss when it comes to connecting veterans with medical care. After a lifetime of surfing around the world, this will be my first and last vacation, and my wife and I have already been to Europe, S. America, the Pacific islands, and other places that most working folk only dream about. So, I'm ready to settle down. We're probably not going to buy a home and NC doesn't have rent control, so if we don't like it there, we can always move back to either Brazil--a bit violent and likely turning into a totalitarian dictatorship, but that's where the U.S. is headed, or we can go back to Portugal and live inland where we have friends and the people are quite friendly, and of course there's universal healthcare. It's a bit provincial, but we're both slowing down to the speed of life. We'll have an amiable life somewhere. I've always believed "the universe provides," and as a fourteen year old runaway child, it all works out. I just went through a major depression, but I'm doing well for now.
As far as meds go, they're poison. I enjoyed a small glass of Chardonnay with the spaghetti squash and ricotta cheese I made yesterday. It worked as well as the tremor medication I've been taking. The doctors in the U.S. seem to feel that Big Pharma is the answer for everything. I had a rough night sleeping last night--racing thoughts and tension, but am feeling great after attending my bi-weekly water aerobics class which is free for those of us with multiple sclerosis or PD. Socialization, rest, exercise, and diet are far better than drugs.
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