Servo wrote: 
I am totally aware of the drug company-physician collusion and what it can turn into. I have thus far avoided taking any kind of meds, except for my crazy pill and this, which I have also avoided taking.

The Lipitor did that toe-curling thing, but the replacement one doesnt. I was really pissed b/c I took exactly one lipitor, had that side affect, got a new Rx for something different, and couldn't get a refund. $65 out the window (and that was the copay)

We need to be wise consumers, in all areas of our lives, in order to keep getting screwed down to a minimum.

 hippiechick wrote: 
I don't take any medications like that, but according to the television, you must be one of the 0.001% of people who have Restless Leg Syndrome.  Go to your doctor and demand another prescription.  And when you have side-effects from that, get more pills for your pills, and so on and so on...

  My grandmother died 5-10 years before she needed to, and spent the last years of her life in horrible condition, due to massive over-prescription of pharmaceutical drugs.  At the time she went into a nursing home, she had over 100 active prescriptions.  That was before deregulation, and the gigabuck direct marketing campaigns from drug companies.  You know, the companies that "can't afford" to develop drugs that treat real medical conditions, but spend 90% of their profits on advertising, not research...

Here is some information on medical stuff that is rare, but devastating...

Wobblers Anonymous  — "WOBBLERS are people who have been damaged by gentamicin.  Gentamicin is a very powerful aminoglycoside (antibiotic) than can have devastating side effects.  It can cause deafness, severe kidney damage, and can completely wipe out the vestibular system... the system that you use for balance..."

the biggest risk for gentamicin is overdosing...  it can destroy a person's vestibular apparatus, which are sensory organs for the balance system that are three semicircular canals in the inner ear... one canal detects movement in the horizontal plane, another in the vertical plane, and another when we are moving forward or backward... the signals for the vestibular apparatus go along a nerve to a specialized clump of neurons in one's brain called "vestibular nuclei" which send commands to muscles to adjust balance...

 romeotuma wrote: 
I sure miss smoking...

 romeotuma wrote: 
Hmm...no kidding!

I would love to be eaten 

I've had to give up all my favorite foods: steak, ice cream, diet coke. it's ok; i've gotten skinnier than i have been in at least 30 years, i'm healthy as hell, i have lots of energy, i'm looking forward to cutting the rug with you. And I promise I won't step on your heart or your kidneys!

 romeotuma wrote: 
I keep myself on a very strict diet: oatmeal (the real healthy kind) with fruit and skim milk for breakfast, a very healthy salad, soup, or leftovers for lunch, a lean beef or turkey burger, chicken, whole grain pasta, black been burritos, etc (or cereal, if I'm lazy) for dinner. Fruit, cereal, or yogurt for a snack, if I think I need one, but not as a general rule. On the weekends I may loosen up a little, like have ice cream or something with sugar.

I also work out 2-3 times/wk, and do yoga 3-4 times. I try to live a healthy lifestyle.

High cholesterol runs in the family, and my dad had a heart attack at 52 and died of colon cancer at 62, so I try to keep things under control.

 romeotuma wrote: 
Yes. that one. a little high, 261. However, that was before lost weight. But she wanted me to take the drug for 3 months before she tests my cholesterol again. I hate giving $$ to the drug companies, esp because they don't know if it even does any good.

 romeotuma wrote: 
That was from last year. I just went to the dr. and promised her i would start taking prevastatin again. i'm not that good at taking my meds.

Do any of you other old fogies take Lipitor? I started it just last night and I got these really weird cramps in my toes that actually made my toes overlap. Anyone else have a side effect like this?