Song in my head: I know it's only rock and roll but I l ike it...............................Rolling Stones


Alter-Abled news

The new Medicare drug benefit is affecting the mentally ill especially hard. Having to deal with new medical program choices, new pharmacies with new people, new costs and bureaucratic glitches will cause ill people, already on the edge, to walk the fine line between sane and insane. It just blows me away that vulnerable Medicare recipients had such horrenous problems accessing their medications during this transition period. Case in point:

Her housemate, Geraldine Champa, came close, too. More than a week into 2006, she was down to only two of the orange tablets that minimize the extreme mood swings and panic attacks that otherwise derail her life. With medication, she can manage much like the next person, with a part-time job and her own independence. Without it, she starts to lose control. The upset returns, and the anger. She has more and more difficulty dealing with others.

"You can't skip a day," she explained recently, as Ponder and several others at St. Luke's nodded their understanding.

The new Medicare bill prevents many from getting free or low cost meds from pharmacy programs. Case in Point:

Rogers, 55, relies on megadoses of the highly-addictive narcotic OxyContin to combat pain from an inoperable cyst that starts on his brain stem, wraps around his spinal cord and descends into his chest. doctor says he'd die from withdrawal without the drug. Unable to work and on a meager income, Rogers for the last eight years has received the drug, which would have cost him $120,000 a year, free from its maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., as part of its patient assistance program for low-income people with no drug insurance.

Rogers, 55, relies on megadoses of the highly-addictive narcotic OxyContin to combat pain from an inoperable cyst that starts on his brain stem, wraps around his spinal cord and descends into his chest. doctor says he'd die from withdrawal without the drug. Unable to work and on a meager income, Rogers for the last eight years has received the drug, which would have cost him $120,000 a year, free from its maker, Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Conn., as part of its patient assistance program for low-income people with no drug insurance.But g free of charge because he was eligible for the government's new Medicare prescription drug program