There's a reason I have not performed up to par in the blog department. Crap!! If its not one thing its something else I tell ya. A few weeks ago I developed a neuralgia, or a nerve pain above my left eye. Nerve pain is sharper than muscle pain. This pain triggered numerous migraines. I go to see my neurologist and she prescribed Lyrica for the nerve pain, the Lyrica is also used for fibromyalgia, another ailment I have... so hey!!.., lets kill two birds with one stone. As the pain in my eye increased I tried patching it and tried to keep it rested. This helped a bit. But wearing a patch felt debilitating and awkward, especially when i was driving, (by the way it is legal to drive with only one eye in Oregon) but man, the pirate jokes sucked.

I started Lyrica at 75 mgs in the beginning of December and gave it a few weeks to see how I felt. I noticed immediately the edgy euphoria and dizziness the first two weeks. I don't care for these chemically induced buzzes, which are short lived and lead to extreme drugged out sleepiness and drooling. I had some problems with coordination and had an embarrassing almost tumble- jig in front of those who will not be named who saw it all.

So, I decided to stop that yucky stuff. But the cold weather is really hard on me. It flared up my fibromyalgia and i had a few bouts of exhaustion sporadically throughout January. It's not that I didn't want to get out of bed, it was like.. I couldn't. A deep pervasive muscle fatigue and flu like feeling is common symptoms for me. Fibromyalgia is so strange. Sometimes, you need lots of rest for one or two days but on the third day I am able to get up and get some errands done and try to catch up on chores I couldn't do while I was deeply exhausted.

I'm feeling a bit better now except it has been darn cold in the Willamette Valley. The 20's are too cold for my tiny body and it aggravates my Reynaud's Phenomenon. Cold feet can be so freaking uncomfortable when dealing with it continuously. One item I can't live without is my electric mattress pad heater. Ahhh.. pre-warm the bed and your cold feet feel delightfully pampered.

So, I haven't been in the frame of mind for writing. And I came to the conclusion that Lyrica is not for me, I much prefer my non toxic medical marijuana. To pass the time I still read blogs as much as I can, mostly blogs and news and op-eds. One luscious juicy writer who I read twice weekly is Mark Morford. He had a compelling article about Lyrica recently. SFgate.com Link

Over here we have a new drug. It has one particularly unfortunate side effect: It makes you fat. Or rather, fatter, given how most patients who take it are already quite overweight to begin with.

But that's not all. Other nasty side effects include dizziness, confusion, sleepiness, severe edema (swelling and oozing), among others. What fun. But hey, at least it works, right?

Well, no, not really. It apparently works only about half the time, if that, and even then it doesn't work very well and it certainly doesn't actually cure anything or treat any of the potential causes of your illness or address any of the deeper biological/psychological issues at hand and, in fact, only "works" (they guess, but don't actually know) by essentially numbing the central nervous system and therefore merely blocking out what your body is trying to tell you. Sort of like saying the light hurts your eyes and then taking a pill to make you go blind. There now, all better.

This new drug is called Lyrica. It's from Pfizer, and it was just approved by the FDA to treat an awful, inscrutable condition known as fibromyalgia, an is-it-or-isn't-it illness distinguished by all-over bodily pain the causes of which no one can figure and which few are really sure is even a real disease, per se, given that there's no biological test to diagnose it and no way to accurately validate its existence and given that it has all sorts of seemingly unrelated, scattershot symptoms, like irritable bowel (another suspect ailment) and ringing in the ears and, well, just about everything else.

No matter. After years of doubt as to its effectiveness (and fibromyalgia's existence), Lyrica has been approved, and fibromyalgia has been more or less legitimized. Pfizer stands to make billions, as do the other pharmco titans who are begging the FDA to let them make expensive new drugs to treat this strange condition that no one seems to understand — drugs which may actually exacerbate the condition — but which clearly has enough patients who seem to be suffering from it even though they might very well be suffering from something else entirely.

Ah, the pharmaceutical industry. Tremendous amounts of good, underscored by giant bolts of shameless, exploitive, predatory evil. Isn't it fascinating?

Over here, another drug. This one's been around awhile. World famous, beloved by millions, controversial for all the wrong reasons. It is currently very, very illegal. Producing and selling it in any quantity can result in severe punishment, years in prison.

It has been deemed highly dangerous, potentially toxic, even lethal, and for years the government and the Centers for Disease Control and your own mother have issued all sorts of lies and alarmist B.S. about it, like how it drains spinal fluid, induces brain aneurisms, makes you vote Libertarian. Which is not to say taking it doesn't have its random dangers, but, you know, please.

This drug is famous for producing incredible feelings of euphoria, openness, warmth and love and happiness in almost everyone who takes it. It is staggeringly effective, non-addictive, and when taken somewhat responsibly and with a slight hint of intelligence, has very few, if any, notable or permanent side effects.

Unfortunately, Mark buys into the typical myths about fibromyalgia. His correlation between fibromyalgia and being over weight is ridiculous. I'm 5'2" 128 lbs.

He also questions whether this painful condition even exists. The question of whether this condition exists has been already been answered by studying brain scans of fibromyagia patients. The brain scans show increased pain (or pain perception) . What causes it is unknown but a virus or bacteria is not out of the question.

I'm not sure why I would want to be faking this total dysfunctional exhaustion for the rest of my life. I really do have some things I wanted to accomplish that are now on hold. Sheeesh, I can barely keep my blog updated.