PBMom's Blog

Since mid-November, life has presented me with a difficult trial in Patrick's development.  I have heard about autism and adolescence.  I have heard the stories of other families, secretly thanking God that my road was not so difficult.  Comparatively speaking, our life with autism was a piece of cake. 

Since April/May, Patrick has showed signs of puberty.  We would have occasional single episodes where he just had a surge of anger for no apparent reason.  Again, still able to handle these isolated incidents. 

In October, he started having more frequent seizures.  Seizures also get worse during puberty.

November 15 we put Patrick into his room to go to sleep.  He proceeded to have an unprecedented 3-hour tantrum trying to get out of the room.  The first time, we went in there and gave him some Tylenol just in case he was having a headache or something.  The second time, we went in there to be sure he hadn't wet through or gone #2 in his diaper (he still is not night-time potty trained).  The third time we went in to give him some infant gas drops in case he had gas.  Eventually he stopped and went to sleep.

Patrick cannot speak.  He has a minimal repetoire of signs he uses for basic things like eat, but when he wants to eat, he cannot tell me what he wants, so I make him something and if it happens to be something he doesn't want, he will sign eat again and then I have to go about making him something else and we do this trial-and-error basically.  Most of the time, he is fine about what I give him on the first time.  The seizure medication he takes sometimes gives him esophagitis and usually I can figure this out after a bit -- he asks to eat a lot but never eats, he drinks milk by the gallons, and if I give him some Maalox, it seems to help him.  If any of you have had esophagitis, it is an intense burning pain that feels like your airway is on fire, so if you had no way to communicate this, you would probably scream and shout, etc. 

The next morning, Sunday the 16th, I woke up to something startling.  Apparently while Patrick was tantruming, he was taking his arms with clenched firsts and smacking the side of his legs alternating with putting his hands on his waist, where his thumb is touching his back and the rest of the hand is on the hip.  If you do this movement when you are extremely ticked off, and you do it enough, you will create a bruise.  I was totally unprepared to what I was bearing witness -- Patrick had bruises down the sides of his legs from his upper thigh almost to his knee and two big bruises on his back at the waist level.  I cried the rest of the day and the next and the next... My poor baby.

I took him to the doctor the next day to make sure nothing physical was going on with him, because he had been having some congestion, and she felt that it was something behavioral and she said, "If it makes you feel any better, you did the right thing by not letting him out of the room."  I told her if I had known what he was doing to himself, I couldn't say I would have left him tantrum himself to sleep.  We also discovered that he had grown 2 inches and gained 15 pounds since March. 

She gave me a note for school that his injuries were consistent with self-inflicted wounds.  We had the nurse, the counselor and his teacher give several other ideas as to why this may occurring -- growing pains? something related to the increased seizures?  Tuesday night he had a seizure.  Wednesday I had to keep him home and I could tell he was having some serious post seizure headaches as he wanted me to hold his head all day.  Tylenol every 4 hours did seem to help some.  The rest of the week, he was very needy and sometimes he wanted only mom.  The trouble with working at home in these cases is I have to help him.  At the beginning of September I had 20 vacation days.  I had to take about 9-10 days in September because of my sprained ankle and then Ike.  Let's just say my vacation days are dwindling.

I understand now why so many people cannot keep their jobs when they have children with autism.  Their needs are so great and there are very few people willing to care for them if they have to go to work.  The path we walk is sometimes a very lonely place.

I made appointments with his neurologist for his increased seizure activity and his psychiatrist to get input about his behavioral issues.

Around Thanksgiving, Patrick started going through the phase where he wants to eat, he looks at it, won't eat it but wants me to make something else.  The next week, this behavior increased and I started thinking maybe he was having another round of esophagitis.  As far as his behavioral issues, those seemed to have worked themselves out at this point and I thought we were past the tantrums.

Outside of his seizures and the side effects of esophagitis from the medication, he is a pretty healthy kid.  One time we didn't see his pediatrician for a whole year because he just had minor colds that didn't need to be attended to.  Maalox did seem to help.

When I have to take Patrick to doctors during the day, this is cutting into my sleeping time since I work at nights.  Think about all you people who work regular daytime shifts how you would feel having to get up at 2:00 in the morning to take your child to the doctor and then go to work the next day.  I was wearing down physically.  I have had to keep him home on several days, too, which means only 2-3 hours of sleep for meOn Dec 2, we saw his neurologist who increased the dose of his seizure medication since he had grown so much.  On Dec 4, we went to see his psychiatrist and Patrick took his tantrums to a whole other level.

He was fine in the waiting room.  When we were called back, he wanted to go left and they made us go right.  While the clinician was taking my information, Patrick had a tantrum.  I assumed it was because we were in a different room and his obsessive-compulsive symptoms had really gotten worse since testosterone was added to his body chemistry.  I was ignoring him as I am supposed to.  If I give him attention, even to tell him to stop, that reinforces the behavior because he is getting my attention (positive or negative, it doesn't matter to him).  He started smacking me in the face, digging his fingernails into my arms, squeezing my arms, pinching me, kicking me.  He was seeing what it would take for me to give him attention.  He stood directly in front of me so that I would have to look around him to talk to the therapist.  He was smacking his face, hitting his head, jumping up and down, stomping his feet, and smacking the sides of his legs.  I said, "This is the tantrum, except assaulting me is new."  She left the room to talk to the doctor and it had occurred to me that 2:00-2:30 is when he usually has his snack at school and he tends to have low blood sugar issues.  I mention that when they come back and the issue about the esophagitis and perhaps he needed to be on Prevacid for 6 weeks again. 

Dec 4 is also when Jeff left to go to Connecticut.  I have a babysitter from 4:00-6:30 watching Patrick, but I had to figure out how to work Thurs and Fri nights and watch him.  Thursday we did well.  Friday, not so great.  By now he had gone a week without eating much at all.  Saturday he had a vomit-fest.  By Sunday night, I was ready for Jeff to come home.  Still no eating and his congestion/cough was getting worse, so on Dec 11, it was back to the pediatrician's office.  He had lost 4-1/2 pounds since the 17th of November.  She decided it might be time for an antibiotic and I agreed.  It had been at least a year since he had actually had an antibiotic, and I was thinking sinus infection by this time.  He responded very quickly and when I picked him up at school today, they let me know that he ate lunch for the first time in two weeks.  What a relief! 

That was short-lived.  He's been vomiting since 7 p.m. tonight.  I'm writing this now as he lays in the next room and I'm waiting for the next round.  I don't think there is anything left in that stomach to vomit.  Fortunately I have some Phenergan suppositories leftover from a dental procedure that he had done and I gave him one of those. 

I am exhausted physically, mentally and spiritually.  He will be 13 next week.  My soul is tired and he has many years of life ahead of him that I need to remain strong in every sense in order to take care of him.  I broke down sobbing that I just didn't know if I could do this.  Is this what I had to look forward to for all the years of my life?  While other people will look forward to the years they can retire (hopefully when the economy gets better), I will have to be able to summon the strength to do this.  I yell a lot to God that He must be out of his mind to think that I can walk this path.  Other times I cry that I need His help to get through this, to please, please help me find the inner peace and strength to cope. 

I think if Patrick could tell me what was wrong with him, it wouldn't be so difficult, but it is like having an infant in a 13-year-old body. 

Amid all this going on, we had our identity theft, found out that our police department can't investigate it because it happened in Houston and they tell me I have to file a report in Houston and I can just about forget the thieves ever being caught (yes, this was actually said to me by the detective up here.  At this rate, the security tapes will be gone in just two weeks.  I need to finish my Christmas cards, get some Christmas gifts.  I only had half my yard decorated but I think I'll have to give that up.  Then my middle sister is back in the hospital again in New Jersey and all the issues that are going on with their family. 

When we got the snow on December 10th, it made my spirit feel lighter.  It would be nice to think that it was a sign from God that my prayer was heard, or perhaps it is my other baby who gave me a gift of Christmas snow one other time in the past when my heart was very heavy, sending me a sign that he was watching out over us.  The white flakes took my spirit aflight and brought me several hours of happiness in an otherwise dark month.  I  could use a few more moments like that.

Please keep us in your prayers.

I am waiting for January to come to see the return of many of my favorite shows.

Lost

24

Battlestar Galactica (the final 10 episodes of the series)

American Idol

The continuation of the Heroes episodes

Jericho

Oh wait, no, Jericho is still on my hallucination list.  Wishful thinking, I suppose, that Jericho will get a season 3 or a straight to DVD movie to continue the story.  The third fan commercial is airing this weekend on UHD.  The air times are these:UHD media flight schedule for Dec. 11-14.  On Thursday, December 11, look for our TV ad at 8:38 a.m., 11:54 a.m., 1:08 p.m., 2:05 p.m., 2:50 p.m., 3:34 p.m., 4:59 p.m., and 5:35 p.m.  On Friday, December 12, you can see it at 9:21a.m., 10:28 a.m., 11:17 a.m., 12:20 p.m., 1:43 p.m., 6:05 p.m., and 6:53 p.m.  The weekend evening schedule looks like this: On Saturday, December 13, you can catch the ad at 7:37 p.m., 8:31p.m., and 9:31 p.m., and on Sunday, December 14, you can find it at 7:16 p.m., 8:19 p.m., and 8:59 p.m.

For those of you who have never watched Jericho, CBS has put all the season 1 episodes on YouTube. 

To get started, click here

It also is the month (January) that Stargate Atlantis will no longer air, having completed 5 years in the series.  They are now shooting a spin-off call Stargate Universe but we won't see that until July. 

Do you all have favorites?  Which ones are you looking most forward to and why?  I'm looking forward to doing commentary of American Idol along with Sassy11 and Ruben.  I've missed Jack Bauer and looking forward to having him back, and looking forward to the show "Lost" where every week, I get angry and say, "I'm not watching this anymore" only to find myself watching the next week." 

Ever since Patrick entered intermediate school last year, he's received a report card.  In all his years since he entered school in January 1999, I've received progress codes on his individualized educational plan (which has all the goals the school and I have come up with that we would like for him to attain by the end of the next school year).  That report makes more sense to me.  Let me give you an example of one of his Math skill goals:

"After given a model of an ABAB pattern, Patrick will independently match the pattern in order with no more than 4 manipulatives given to him all at once for 85% of the cold probe trials (which means they take data at the beginning of the day to see if he retained the information from the day before), 1st trial of the day/after lunch for 2 consecutive weeks during structured table activities." 

(Yes, and he has goals like this that number about 25-30 I think in all different areas).  Some we achieve and master, some we don't.  He has mastered this goal by the grading period in October.  Yeah for Patrick and good job for the school district. 

However, I get stuff like this and it drives me crazy.  See picture below:

So what is the problem?  This makes him look like he is a honor student at this institution.  He should be receiving 0.  He does not read or write or do math at a 6th grade level.  In fact, because of his regression that occurred in Aug 2004 to Dec 2006 because he wasn't properly taught with applied behavior analysis as was agreed upon by the school district, he lost 81% of his school which included pre-reading skills, which means preschool levels.  My first logical question at the meeting was, "Why?"  How could my child get these awesome grades when he can't read, write, or do math?" 

I was told they were "participation-only" grades. 

"Oh really," was my reply.  Being suspicious of all things administration-related by Conroe ISD which continues to not inspire me by falling back on previous promises made, I am told TEA requires them to do this. 

Next question, "What changed then in August 2007-May 2008 than all the years previously because they've never required they issue these before?  Was there a law that changed that required them to fill these out"  I get no real reply.  Instead, the subject matter is changed.  When they do stuff like that, my next question is, "What are you getting out of this?  More funding?"

Patrick's feelings aren't involved here at all.  He doesn't understand the concept of receiving a 0 grade.  That issue is ruled out.  My thoughts center around the fact that having a report card like this must get the school district more funding. 

So what do you all think?  I think it should accurately reflect the work he is doing on a 6th grade level, which is 0% as compared to typical peers his age.  It makes me wonder how many other children are getting high grades just because they've participated instead of truly reflecting the accuracy of their learning comprehension. 

I would be interested to hear all your thoughts about it and if someone actually has a better response than what I've received from my school district. 

I would never in a million years believe that I would be a victim of identity theft.  I am meticulous -- did I say METICULOUS -- about shredding everything even down to the name and address in the back of catalogs.  Nothing had been stolen as far as physical cards or personal information from my home.  My computer was not hacked.  Places I had used my card on-line had not been hacked. 

After a horrible week that began on November 15th with Patrick having a 3-hour tantrum and discovering on Sunday when we all woke up that he had injured himself in the process, to the seizure he had on Tuesday (which may be why he had a 3-hour tantrum on Saturday), to Friday.  When I got home from grocery shopping, Jeff came in from getting Patrick and very sternly directed that he had to talk to me RIGHT NOW.  I was a bit freaked.  He's never spoken to me like that in all the 18 years I've known him.  I thought he was going to tell me something that was told to him at the car by school when he picked him up.  He asked me if I had been buying Christmas gifts at Best Buy.  I told him no.  And oddly enough, a sense of relief rushed over me that I didn't have yet another war about to erupt with the school district.  Just credit card fraud?  I've walked through the fires of hell with the school district.  Credit card fraud?  A walk in the park next to that.  LOL.

He said our credit card company had called us to inform us of possible fraud.  They gave us the zip code of one of the denied charges and that led me to the Galleria Best Buy.  And between one phone call Friday night and another call to the fraud division of my credit card and Best Buy again, I discovered the following:

Our card had been swiped by a reader that took the information from the magnetic strip and from there, they produced a dummy card.  There is only one place where our credit card had left our sight in November and that was at a restaurant (I will not list name here).  Waiter at the restaurant got into trouble because he served Jeff and his friends dirty drinking water.  He apparently had been having a very bad day and was in a very bad mood.  He is my prime suspect.   A police report has been filled out and I am filing charges if the person is caught regardless of the fact that the credit card company is removing the charges that did go through off. 

On 11/20, at 5:51 p.m., thief entered the Best Buy store at West Oaks and bought a home theater unit and a Playstation 3.  Charge $778.00.  This charge went through on my card

On 11/20 at 10:23 p.m., thief entered the Best Buy at Bunker Hill store and bought a TV and a game for Playstation 3.  Charge $778.00. 

On 11/21 at an unknown time (I've gotta call the credit card company back to get the time stamp on this one), thief used the card at an Aquafill vending machine.  Vending machine location unknown, but manufacturer is out of Malverne, PA.  Charge was $2.00.  I guess thief was testing the water to see if charges would still go through on the card.

On 11/21 at 2:56 p.m., thief went into Best Buy at the Galleria and tried to charge $974.23.  Charge was denied.   A call was placed to our house at this time.

On 11/21 at 3:25 p.m., said thief went into Best Buy at Sharpstown and tried to charge $519.57.  Charge was denied. 

I found out from the police officer who took the report that the one and only detective in The Woodlands wouldn't get the case for a week.  Best Buy said they can't let me see the tape without a subpoena and they only keep the recordings for 30 days, so the detective is going to be a little sick of me as I bug him on a daily basis to get the subpoenas before the evidence is gone.  I've done a lot of the leg work for him here. 

Needless to say, I'm keeping close tabs on my other cards, especially our checking account/debit card, and changing all my passwords, got copies of our credit reports, etc. 

I also humbled from both my ignorance and arrogance that we were untouchable.

Once they get the tape, if it is the same person, Jeff and two other people feel they could identify this person if it is the person we think is prime suspect.  If not, then I hope it leads to an arrest eventually.  People cannot get away with this.  They picked the wrong family to mess with.  Jeff was seething with anger on Saturday night just thinking that this idiot was sitting back playing a Playstation 3 game on their new TV, Playstation 3 and home theater unit, thinking they had just scammed someone.   I send kudos out to my credit card company for being so swift to catch the fradulent activity before it got really out of control.

I know it is the middle of the month, but my caregiving duties have caused me to get behind. 

Hats off to all the caregivers out there, whether they are taking care of their children with disabilities and chronic illnesses, or their own spouses, parents, grandparents, etc.   If you speak to those people, they never feel like their road has been paved with a burden.  They care for their loved ones with great love and compassion.  It is a life of service.  It is a life of finding the blessings in the face of challenge. 

If you know of someone who is a caregiver, think about doing something thoughtful for them this month.  Here are some suggestions:

1.  Call the caregiver and let them know what time you'll be bringing dinner.  Bring food in disposable containers so they don't have to worry about returning items. 

2.  Offer to babysit for a few hours.  It doesn't matter if they stay at home and perhaps take a nap or go out, perhaps attend church for the first time in months.  It will refresh them and put gas in their tank for a long time to come. 

3.  Listen.  Sometimes we just need to vent and not have someone judge us or offer us solutions.  Avoid cliches. 

4.  Help them celebrate special occasions by just showing up.  Your presence is the gift. 

5.  Bring lunch in.  Caregiving long-term can be a lonely road.  Isolation is the biggest enemy. 

6.  Don't provide phony encouragement.  Allow a family to feel sad, to prepare for the worst if need be. 

7.  Go with the person if they have a doctor appointment where they expect bad news. 

8.  Invite the family over to be part of your family, even if it is a simple BBQ. 

http://tinyurl.com/68vs46

I've never really done a music review before so please be gentle with me.  As many of you already know, I love David Cook.  Tonight right after midnight, fan club members got to hear a release of his CD. 

The CD starts off with songs like Declaration (10), Heroes (8), Light On (which has been out for a few weeks, a 10), Come Back to Me (10), Life on the Moon (8).

Then we move into a different sound, a harder rock, blues-type song in Ba-ba-sol, which I decided was worthy of an 8 because it sounds different, but not too much different.

One more rock-like song, Mr. Sensitive, I also give an 8. 

Then come about four lighter rock songs -- Lie (8), I Did It For You (8), my personal favorite of this group, Avalanche (score 10), because of the lyrics, and back down to an 8 with Permanent.

A Daily Anthem started bringing things up again (8). 

Then you had a very out-of-place song, "The Time of My Life."   I think the CD ended better on A Daily Anthem, but I understand why they put it in there. 

Although it doesn't have wide extremes like Chris Daughtry's debut  of Daughtry, if you like David Cook and like the way he sings, you won't be disappointed in getting it.  It is out on Tuesday, November 18, 2008.

To give you a contrast, I had to turn off Taylor Hicks CD because it was so bad even though I liked him over Katherine as an entertainer.  If Chris couldn't get it then Taylor was the better choice.  But Chris grossly outsold Taylor so it matters not. 

Enjoy!  Leave comments here about how you liked it. 

The CD is going to be hot, but then, so is David Cook.

Payments by drugmakers to Vermont physicians between July 2002 and June 2004 totaled more than $4.9 million, much more than the $2.7 million that was previously reported by Public Citizen in an article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) in March 2007. The payment details were hidden by 21 drugmakers that designated the data as trade secrets, according to Public Citizen, which says it obtained the data through ligitation and released an updated analysis including the newly obtained data. The new material was published in a letter November 4, 2008 to JAMA and is a follow up to Public Citizen's testimony last year before the Senate Commitee on Aging. Public Citizen, the advocacy group, sued the Vermont attorney general and the drugmakers to unseal info about the payments. In their statement on November 4, Public Citizen says these comprised 43 percent of all payments (9,182 of 21,409) and 56 percent of all dollars ($2.72 million of $4.90 million) paid to doctors in the state. Among the drugmakers involved were Abbott Labs, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis, Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Roche, Lilly, Merck and Glaxo. One of the key findings is that Vermont physicians received $3.2 million in payments over $100 from drugmakers, 86% of all such payments to health care providers. Public Citizen maintains these strongly suggest frequent violations of professional guidelines issued by the American Medical Association and PhRMA, both of which prohibit many gifts from exceeding $100. "Patients should be able to find out which drug and medical device companies are paying their doctors and how much," Peter Lurie, deputy director of Public Citizen's Health Ressearch Group, in the statement. "If doctors and drug companies don't feel comfortable about making the relationships public, they ought to reconsider the relationship itself." Consider this -- This is just one state. Take into account the demographics of other states and the diseases that are most prevalent at various locations. It's more money paid to doctors et. al than one could possibly imagine.

Dan A said as a former drug rep with big pharma, "I never had a limit on who I bought in the ten years I was involved with this vocation. In fact, I received larger raises per year that directly and specifically correlated with the amount of money I gave to prescribers. The more I spent from my employer to physicians, the more I made.  This is common in all big pharma companies."

Considering how small Vermont is, I would love to know what the totals are for Texas. 

On Thursday, Senator Dan Patrick will be meeting with the community about issues related to autism spectrum disorders.  Education is on the forefront of people's minds in Texas, with school districts now engaging in the silent cleansing of our children from public schools.  (Nod to Dianna Pharr for the "silent cleasning" comment).  Senator Dan Patrick is a passionate supporter of school choice for our children, and in recent testimony as a member of the Texas Senate Education Committee, said he would fight until his dying breath for parents to have a choice.  We need general education parents to get on board to help us accomplish this.  Here are the details:

"Government was never meant to be a spectator sport."

So…    join us for a Legislative Advocacy Workshop & Town Hall Meeting with Senator Dan Patrick on Autism/Disability Issues.  This is your opportunity to be in the starting line-up of the 81st Legislative Session that will begin in Austin in January 2009.

     Date:  Thursday evening, November 6th, from 6:30pm until 9:00pm
     Location:  Graceview Baptist Church, 25510 Tomball Parkway, Tomball, TX  77375
     Contact:  NHC-ASA, Michelle M. Guppy,  NorthwestHoustonChapterASA@yahoo.com or 281-686-0103
     This is a free event brought to you by NHC-ASA;  but you must pre-register to attend.

About the presenters:

Colleen Horton will be discussing the many Legislative Agenda items for the upcoming Legislative Session. She will share how parents can be effective Partners in the Policymaking process.  Colleen Horton is the Public Policy Director for the Texas Center for Disability Studies at the University of Texas in Austin. 

Jeff Sell is the Vice-President of Public Policy, Advocacy and Legal Affairs, for the Autism Society of America.  He will give opening remarks on behalf of the ASA’s Legislative Agenda, and serve as moderator for the Town Hall meeting.

Senator Dan Patrick represents District 7 which includes the following school districts:  Aldine, Cy-Fair, Houston, Humble, Katy, Klein, Spring Branch, Spring, Tomball, Waller.  You can read about the Senator’s many accomplishments and committees served on by going to his webpage. http://www.senate.state.tx.us/75r/senate/members/dist7
/dist7.htm

Town Hall Meeting Guidelines:
* We will pre-choose testimonies/questions from parents, professionals, educators, administrators, and organizations….   
* All testimonies and questions must be sent to us by November 4th.  You will be notified by e-mail if you are chosen to read your testimony or ask your question.  Each person will have a maximum of three minutes to speak.  All other testimonies and questions not chosen to be shared that night, will be put in a binder to give to Senator Dan Patrick. 
We encourage everyone to submit their testimony or question even if you cannot attend the event!

* We want questions/testimonies representing many perspectives… but only as they relate to Autism or Disability Issues in the State of Texas or as they relate to Special Education Services.

 Registration procedure:  

Please register by e-mail prior to November 4th so that we may have adequate seating!
Send an e-mail to:  NorthwestHoustonChapterASA@yahoo.com

 In the subject line put "Town Hall Meeting".

 The body of your word document or e-mail should have at the top:

* Your full name - and whether you are a parent, professional, agency, organization, educator, administrator

* Your address and zip code

* Your e-mail address for confirmation if you are chosen to share your question or testimony.

*  In the body of the e-mail or word document - type out your question or testimony for Senator Dan Patrick as you would read it that night.  Please remember you have a maximum of three minutes to read it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~

Childcare provided by:  The JOY Ministry – a Disability Ministry of Graceview Baptist Church.
 If you need childcare to attend, please contact Tonya Magagh at Respite4All@yahoo.com or call Denise Briley at 281-351-4979.  Childcare is limited and you must RSVP as soon as possible.  Pizza and beverages will be provided for children, however if your child is on a special diet, please bring their food.  Childcare is limited and on a reservation-only basis.  Not at the door requests please….

The presidents of our generation have enjoyed just having regular dogs and/or cats in the White House, but our presidents of previous generations have had some interesting "First Pets."

Pygmy hippo, antelope, wallaby, bear, tigers/lions:  Calvin Coolidge

Alligator:  John Quincy Adams

Elephant:  James Buchanan

Zebra, coyote, hyena, bear, tigers/lions:  Theodore Roosevelt

Bear:  Thomas Jefferson

Tigers/lions:  Martin Van Buren

I heard President-Elect Obama say in his acceptance speech say that his daughters have earned their new puppy.  Might I suggest:

The golden retriever!!!!

This was pretty cute.  Found this on one of the pet sites I get emails from.  Why Dogs and Cats are Better Than Kids.  There are about 33 on the list, but here are the ones I liked most. 

1.  Eat less.

2.  Don't ask for money all the time.

3.  Easier to train

4.  Normally come when called.

5.  They do not answer back.

6.  They don't become embarrassed to be seen with you when they reach adolescence. 

7.  Get the same meal every night and are grateful.

8.  At night, you can lock them in their kennel and no one will call Child Protective Services on you.

9.  If they get pregnant, you can sell their children.

10.  They don't need electronic gadgets.  A tennis ball will do just fine and a pair of socks is even better.

So now it's your turn.  Add to the list. 

I was listening to the news tonight and had to do a double take when I heard this -- there was a fire at a nuclear missile silo that went undetected for five days. 

I thought certainly I must have misheard, misunderstood. 

Yesterday, the Associated Press did a story about a fire that occurred on May 23 at a Minuteman III missile silo that burned itself out after an hour or two.  However, the Air Force didn't know a fire had occurred until May 28 when the repair crew went to the launch site because a trouble signal indicated a wiring problem. 

They would not confirm, of course, whether the missile was armed with a nuclear warhead at the time of the fire.  When they say things like that, I take it to be a yes, otherwise they would say, the warhead was not armed and there was no danger at any time. 

The battery chargers at all US missle launch sites have been replaced. 

The fire was extensive enough to have caused $1 million worth of damage.  The report that was finally released on Thursday said the Air Force "found flaws in the technical orders for assembling battery charger parts, inspection procedures, and modifications of the launch complex ventilation system. "  The AP said, "It was also critical of the presence of flammable materials." 

The AP report says that the launch site is about 40 miles east of Cheyenne, WO and 100 miles NE of Denver.  The mayor of Cheyenne first learned about the problem on Thursday. 

The AP report also reminded its readers of a string of missteps involving the nation's nuclear arsenal.  In 2006, four electrical fuses for ballastic missile warheads were mistakenly shipped to Taiwan, and in 2007, a B-52 bomber was mistakenly armed with six nuclear-tipped missles when it flew between Air Force bases in North Dakota and Louisiana.

Something about the words "fire" and "nuclear missile silo" just leave me feeling...terrified. 

It also reminds me of the words "radioactive nuclear waster" on a "train or truck" headed to "Yucca Mountain" for disposal that is a disaster waiting to happen once that begins. 

What a great blog to write before heading off to bed.  Sweet dreams, America.

From the article:  "Judging from the jersey, this mid-western Eva Peron is a fan of the St. Louis Blues, a team that has a legitimate beef with Sara Palin. You see, not long after she was roundly booed in Philadelphia by Flyer fans when she showed up to "drop the puck" in a game against the New York Rangers, Palin continued her ill-fated tour of hockey arenas in St. Louis. There, Blues goalie Manny Legace slipped on a carpet laid out for Palin's entry onto the ice, was injured, gave up two goals in the first period, then left the game."

I couldn't stop laughing.  Politics doesn't have to be all serious all the time.

There are some antipsychotic drugs that are leaving children and the elderly ill having received them as treatment of conditions they didn't even have.  State legislators are now fighting back.

Zyprexa use has grown as much as 12-fold since 2000 with a corresponding growth in side effects like weight gain, blood sugar changes, and cholesterol problems. 

In March of 2008, Alaska won $15 million as a settlement from Eli Lilly to recoup medical costs generated by Medicaid patients who developed diabetes while taking Zyprexa. 

Last year, Bristol-Myers Squibb settled a federal suit for $515 million charging that it illegally hawked the drug Abilify to children and the eldery, bilking taxpayers. 

Now Idaho, Washington, Montana, Connecticut, California, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Utah, West Virginia, Arkansas, and Texas are taking the pharmaceutical companies to court over its antipsychotic prescription marathon that has left the poor and mentally ill in even worse health and children and elderly patients in "chemical straightjackets" for conditions they didn't have.

The drugs are:  Zyprexa, Risperdal, Seroquel, Abilify, and Geodon.

Although these drugs were developed to treat schizophrenia and later approved for bipolar disorder (Risperdal is also approved for autism-related irritability in children), pharmaceutical companies wasted no time in marketing them for non-FDA-approved uses like ADHD, conduct disorders, dementia, sleep disorders, depression, simple mood swings, "netting $8,000 a year per person, usually from state coffers."

When these antipsychotics debuted in the 1990's they seemed to lack the side effects thorazine and Haldol caused.  But soon further "clinical testing" also known as "selling it to the public while the patent is hot" revealed they caused the same side effects and more -- increased mortality in elderly patients, suicide risk, high blood sugar, diabetes, and blood disorders.  In fact, Seroquel and Abilify have not just one black box warning but two. 

A NIMH study of 119 children ages 8 to 19 with psychotic symptoms published in September found that Risperdal and Zyprexa were no more effective than Moban, but caused such obesity that a safety panel ordered the children off the drugs.  In just 8 weeks, children on Risperdal gained 9 pounds while those on Zyprexa gained 13; children on Moban gained less than a pound. 

But it gets worse.  A study of Seroquel in Feb 19, 2005 issue of the British Medical Journal found the drug ineffective in relieving agitation in Alzheimer's patients, a non-FDA-approved use that JP Morgan analysts say represent 29% of all Seroquel sales.  Ah, where are the regulators???? and was associated with "significantly greater cognitive decline than the placebo." 

Eli Lilly's Zyprexa led to a black box warning after they discovered on their own there was an elevated stroke risk and numbers of death in five of its Zyprexa clinical trials.  This in turn led to a letter to doctors in 2004 that the FDA imposed black box warnings of "increased mortality in elderly patients with dementia" on the above named antipsychotics in 2005 after reviewing 17 clinical studies with four different drugs.  

Dr. David Graham testified last year at a congressional hearing, "But the fact is, is that it increases mortality perhaps by 100 percent.  It double mortality.  So I did a back-of-the-envelope calculation on this, and you have probably got 15,000 elderly people in nursing homes dying each year from the off-label use of antipsychotic medications....with every pill that gets dispensed in a nursing home, the drug company is laughing all the way to the bank." 

A third of the nation's estimated 2.5 million nursing home patients have taken these antipsychotics and the overall atypical antipsychotic tab for Medicare and Medicaid including children in the US is $2 billion a year, according to the New York Times.

And yet....

In 12 states, the pharmaceutical industry has actually written the guidelines that specify atypicals for schizophrenia and discourage older drugs.  Two dozen states have hired the Lilly-backed Comprehensive Neuroscience to show them how to lower their drug costs (not even joking here).

If there was ever an industry that needed better regulation...let's add an overhaul of how pharmaceutical companies are profitting at the expense of our lives. 

Go get 'em Texas (for them to recoup their costs).  But how do you replace the life of the loved one that was devastated, or worse, the death of a loved one, because of this reckless behavior that the FDA continues to allow happen.  Time for an agency overhaul, too.  I think that is the ultimate goal of pharmaceutical companies -- treat one symptom, but create a whole new set of problems (like high blood sugar) so doctors will have to prescribe to you yet another one of their drugs to cure that, which will make something else go wrong....

Who is the real John McCain when it comes to the issue of abortion?  When he was running in 1999, he was the pro choice candidate who was not in favor of repealing Roe v Wade.   I believe he knew he would not win the Republican ticket with this record, so he flip flopped.  I offer two videos for your viewing.  One is from Fox News, and one is from a group who still doesn't believe him.