WOKE AF and What the Neurologist Says

Today was our quarterly visit with The Neurologist.  This is generally something I prepare for by downing three Bloody Marys and a chaser of frozen vodka (see the other 4,321,896 posts I've written on the subject. They generally begin with a photo of the waiting room wall with the CONQUER and TRIUMPH sign over the list of wealthy donors), but I'm not going to complain today because -- you know -- I'm grateful.

We've got health insurance (for now) and The Neurologist is very helpful as far as getting those pesky pre-authorizations that Anthem demands every month for the drug that Sophie has been on for EIGHT YEARS. When the Fresh-faced Pharmacist of the Month rings me up at the CVS, he inevitably asks me do you realize how expensive this medication is? And I say I do but tell me again how much it costs. And the young man says, Today it's $435. And I say that should be covered by insurance. And he says, Well, it needs a pre-authorization. And I say, Again?We've been getting this medication for eight years! And he says, It's a controlled substance, ma'am. And I say, Yes, I know that but I'm trying to grift the system here and keep the drug wars going by having benzo parties with all my friends. And he says, May I see your ID? Reader, I'll leave it up to you to discern which of those were alternative facts and which were the real thing, but I have digressed from my point that The Neurologist always helps me with The System and for that I am exceedingly grateful.

I'm also not going to complain about today's visit with The Neurologist because Sophie has been seizure free for more than three weeks. Yes. We have found the sweet spot, I guess, at least for now. I figure I can cover any jinxes by readily acknowledging that we might have a downturn at any moment. Downturns and rebounds are equal opportunity dictators.

I posted this picture of Sophie on Facebook this afternoon, and my feed literally exploded. Everyone is, of course, thrilled that Sophie is doing so well and many asked why? Here's why, I think, at least for now: Sophie was overmedicated on Onfi (the benzo that needs the pre-authorization) and the CBD. We know that CBD can jack up levels of Onfi, so when Dr. Bonni (Sophie's cannabis doctor who recently published a great book all about cannabis medicine that you can order on Amazon) suggested we decrease either the Onfi or the CBD to see if she responded, I naturally chose to decrease the Onfi. Faithful readers might remember that we jacked up the Onfi back in the fall when we spent six hideous days in the hospital ripping off the Vimpat, and I guess after a month or so her levels of Onfi were enough to put her in what I thought was an overall DECLINE. I was scared, ya'll and also resigned to -- well -- you know.

To make a long story short, I took away some Onfi and do you know that Sophie perked up? She more than perked up, actually. She is WOKE. She is rowdy. She is ready to fight with the rest of us against those who would stand in our way (we're talking about you Drumpf, and you Sessions and you Price and you DeVos and all of you who condone and support them and their retro policies that will hurt her and tens of thousands like her). She is not having seizures. She takes Onfi twice a day, CBD twice a day and THC once a day.

I'm here to blow your mind

Speaking of being WOKE, what did The Neurologist say? She was thrilled that Sophie is doing well and took care of my pre-authorization needs, but she also had a few choice words to say about the current clusterf**k that is our country. She was walking out the door, scribbling on a pad, but she said, I will NOT be here if the ACA is repealed and we go back to the Dark Ages before it when I had patients begging me not to write diagnoses in their charts. I think she kept muttering that all the way down the hall before she disappeared around the corner.



WOKE AF
#resist

Tiny, inexhaustible voices

When you're weary from "the news," when you're thirsty for something hopeful, something good:


Watch this, even if it does take 20 minutes:



via Messy Nessy Chic




Listen to this, William Faulkner's Nobel Prize acceptance speech:

Free Money Day

via FreeMoneyDay.org

I like to say that behind all the stress that comes with seizures and Sophie's disabilities is love and there's so much love that it more than makes up for the hideous stuff. I also say that behind financial distress is absolutely nothing, just a big, black hole that sucks up fear and spits it back out. I've been fearful of late, in micro ways and macro ways, stepping very close to the edge of that black hole.


Then I read this about Free Money Day, organized by Post Growth Institute, a group that is exploring alternative paths to global prosperity across six continents. It sounds completely wacky and utterly idealistic, perhaps even ridiculous, but I like it. Here's what I like:

"The idea is simple: participants take any amount out of their pockets—whether it’s two coins or five dollars—and give it away to a complete stranger. The gift can happen at work, on a plane, in the streets, on a bus, or even online. Instead of paying it forward, the project is all about paying half forward—each person who receives a gift is asked to pass half of the funds to somebody else."

The co-founder of the institute, Dr. MaClurcan says that "one of the biggest myths that we believe is that there isn't enough money to go around. It's inequality in how resources are divided, not a lack of abundance, that makes resources seem more scarce than they are." There's also this:

"Our obsession with making more money as individuals is mirrored by our societal addiction to unending economic growth, despite the fact that neither of these, at the end of the day, makes any of us any happier," the founders write on their site. "The money systems in which we are currently enmeshed are fundamentally unstable—they create bubbles, and a destructive boom-bust cycle, which result in loss of jobs, homes, health, and even lives."

A solution is to give participants the opportunity to step back from the growth-minded Western culture, even for one day, and flip the fear associated with losing money into an opportunity to share it.

I've got to deliver a cake to a park in Burbank tomorrow morning, so I think I'm going to do it. I'm going to take ten dollars and give it someone and ask them to give away five of it. Call me silly, but I'm glad there are people out there thinking up these nutty things. It gives me hope.

Go here for more information about Free Money Day from the wonderful publication Good News or go directly to the site FreeMoneyDay. And for all the cynics out there, the hard-core conservatives and haters of "liberal crap" (someone said this to me recently), I'm thumbing my nose at you. So there.