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| from Spike Lee's great movie Do the Right Thing |
My initial thoughts on the CNN/Sonjay Gupta special on medical marijuana because I can type faster than I can talk:
1. No one spoke about the dart board game that neurologists currently play with epilepsy drugs. I've had doctors tell me that prescribing epilepsy medication is "just as much an art as a science."
2. I think any shred of hope Governor Chris Christie had to be President of these United States is officially dashed. I've always loathed the guy, but I have to say I felt almost sorry for him given how CNN chose to edit his parts in this story. Yikes.
3. Many emotions going through my head -- the obvious whys and what ifs for our Sophie, anger that political bullshit has stymied this perhaps revolutionary treatment for our children, cynicism that Big Pharma is chomping at the bit, dismay that people weren't really educated on this special about the often devastating side effects of current epilepsy treatment, including surgeries like hemispherectomies. Seriously, people -- how many people do you think are walking around with one half of their brains that knew what the long-term effects of this might be?
4. Grateful that after working our asses off educating ourselves about medical marijuana and finally getting it (thank you Realm of Caring, Ray Mirzabegian, Jason David and the Stanley brothers, Sophie is doing PHENOMENALLY WELL. She was having up to five tonic-clonic seizures a day and hundreds of myoclonics and partial complex episodes as well as atonic drops. She is now going literally WEEKS WITHOUT A SINGLE SEIZURE, and when she does have one, they are much less severe and she recovers quickly. We have been able to begin weaning her from one of the most addictive anti-epilepsy medications in the arsenal, and it hasn't been nearly as difficult as it has been in the past. (Sophie has had trials of nineteen drugs in her nineteen years).
5. Our family is in a sort of state of shock about all of this, I think. We kind of don't know what to do with ourselves. When I watched the special, I teared up a bit for Vivian and her family, but my heart was broken for my family, for my boys and for Sophie, who have endured this shit for so many years, as well as so many other families.
6. What the hey, Obama: DO THE RIGHT THING.
