Hoppy

Our backyard hops, waiting to be picked and turned into delicious beer.

I've been on a toxic medicine for arthritis for 3 months. It's been miserable.  I've been nauseous. I've been in pain. I've had no energy. I've been depressed.  All.summer.long.  (I can't even fathom getting this poison at cancer patient dosages!) It turns out, this isn't all that uncommon from this stuff. So imagine my surprise to learn that the reason I went through this is because you have to be on this medication for 3 months before the insurance company will approve another treatment option. No lie. My body was miserable and in pain.  My doctor is by far, the most intelligent person I've ever met in my life - in fact, I suspect he has an honest-to-goodness photographic memory, and knew it wasn't the right course of treatment.  But none of that mattered, because an actuary in an insurance company is who dictates treatment plans.  Something that made me wonder if it's better to be uninsured.  That is, until I learned this new treatment that I start tomorrow, 2.5 hour IV infusions every 2 weeks, is $5000 per session.  It makes all those stories about people bankrupt over their medical costs a bit closer to home.

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