Rant in A Flat Minor

I was in the midst of composing a post yesterday when I closed a Java Applet and my browser closed as well. Another example of the pettiness of Windows XP over the fact that I use Firefox rather than Internet Exploder 7.

Regarding the latest headlines concerning the pet food recall... wheat from China??!!? WTF!!??! We pay crop subsidies to U. S. farmers. We pay U. S. farmers money NOT to farm, and we IMPORT wheat from China. Call me nationalistic, but there is something inherently wrong with that particular scenario.

Oh, I'm sure it's buried somewhere in the legislation that gave China MFN trading status that we had to import so much of their wheat. The truth be told, I'm still pissed that China was given MFN status in the first place. Given their history of human rights violations and an economy that is shouldered by a work force that amounts to little better than slave labor, there is absolutely no way that China should have even been considered for most favored nation status. Period! It does prove, however, in spite of what may be said during the up-coming presidential campaigning, the Democrats are just as swayed by big-money and special-interests as the Republicans. I'm planning on voting for the first candidate who has balls enough to say that we can reduce the national deficit by slapping a $20 per pair import tax on Nikes (or substitute another company whose shoes are being made for pennies on the pair overseas).

Ended up chatting online with a lady who lives across town from me. Seems very nice, very interesting. She expressed concern that I would be judgmental of her because she is in a wheelchair and is over-weight. Seems she has encountered people online in the past who acted this way. How shallow and vicious. When we all have our own issues and short-comings and problems, how petty and small-minded to and self-deceived to judge someone else on such a vain and false criteria as physical appearance.

How about those Bears.... (attempt at clever segue for a friend who is referenced from time to time in these dronings)....

I was talking to the referenced friend the other day. He was asking how my doctor's appointment went. I've been off work for two weeks and to the doctor's office twice in that time due to a flare in my rheumatoid arthritis. After we had talked for a bit about RA, he apologized to me for not knowing more about this disease and how serious some of the implications of it can be.

Being that is my corner of cyberspace and I am free to do with it as I choose, I will now take the time to deliver a public service briefing on rheumatoid arthritis.

What is generally referred to as arthritis is often osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is a "wear and tear" type of arthritis that degenerates the joints. It can result from injury, usage, age, obesity. If you live long enough, you will develop osteoarthritis. Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disorder. Your own immune system sends antibodies to attack and destroy your joints as if they were some type of infection. Children can have rheumatoid arthritis. Approximately 2.5 million people in the U. S. have RA, as it is abbreviated. RA is a deforming and crippling disease. RA damages not only your joints but internal organs as well, primarily the kidneys and the lungs.

Fatigue is a major component of the disease. Morning stiffness that can last up to 2 hours is not uncommon. Chronic pain from inflammation and damage to your joints is a fact of life for most people who have RA. Clinical depression can result from the chronic pain as well as from the life-style changes that this disease can necessitate.

The disease is managed by taking medications which suppress the immune response - steroids, methotrexate - a chemotherapy drug, Enbrel and Humira - which block a substance referred to as TNF (tumor necrosing factor- I don't want to get too technical, look it up for yourself if you're inclined.) which is a protein that is produced during an immune response, hydroxychloroquine - an anti-malarial drug which is used in RA and lupus to decrease pain and swelling of the joints and possibly prevent damage by disrupting the cellular response in the immune system, but they aren't sure exactly how or why hydroxychloroquine does work.

Now, if these drugs were only a little bit smarter and targeted only the antibodies which attack your joints, life would be peachy. However, an immune response is an immune response... whether it's from the bacteria which is going to give you pneumonia or the little immune globulins eating away at your knees. Ergo, you end up with a decreased immune response to infections as a result of these therapies, some medications being worse than others for this.

~steps down off soapbox~

Eleven years into treatment of this disease, I think I've pretty well managed to do major damage to my immune system, as evidenced by the 3 1/2 months of successive respiratory infections that I had from mid-November until the end of February.

Life does go on. I've been released to return to work, but only 24 hours a week. I don't want to go back on the arthritis meds. I'd like to give my immune system a fighting chance at being able to strengthen itself and have some immunity to some of the krud that my grandchildren bring home from school (or my coworkers or patients spread around).

It has gotten late, and I'm tired. Rest assured, more ranting to follow.