Surfing Around With Admins, Internecine Wars, Opioids and Arthritis

Given that it's nearly 11:00 Pacific Time, and most of you are already in bed and might be reading this tomorrow morning, let's just surf around tonight.

First of all, did you know that the FDA recently approved the use of Oxycontin for patients aged 11 to 16? Unless you've been living under a rock, and that's perfectly acceptable given what's going on in this crazy old world, oxycontin is a long-release painkiller that acts upon the brain like heroin. Here's the statement, reported by NBC news:

Dr. Sharon Hertz, director of new anesthesia, analgesia and addiction products for the FDA, said studies by Purdue Pharma of Stamford, Connecticut, which manufactures the drug, "supported a new pediatric indication for OxyContin in patients 11 to 16 years old and provided prescribers with helpful information about the use of OxyContin in pediatric patients.

Cue Mrs. Braddock's laugh.


Well, you know where this is going, right? I'm not going to put down anyone who wants to alleviate the suffering of a child in pain, but reeeeeeeeely? Raaaaaaaaaaahly?

As you know, my tiny little mother mind™ has been working overtime with countless other minds, far greater than my own, trying to lobby and persuade The Powers That Be that the efficacy of Charlotte's Web, of cannabis, of medical marijuana, etc. is far stronger than anecdote and certainly not attributable to the placebo effect, that it's a plant that's been used for thousands of years, that there are studies -- oh you know what I'm saying.  But hey, what do we know? What do they know?

Yesterday, I visited a prominent orthopedist in Beverly Hills, a young and handsome doctor who probably replaces the knees, shoulders and various body parts of a plethora of celebrities given the location of his office. Last week I developed a bum knee overnight, was driven, quite literally, nearly to my knees one afternoon with a stabbing, horrific pain, a sort of grim reminder that yes, Elizabeth, you are turning 52 years old on August 27th and have taken for granted your solid southern Italian peasant ancestry and were over-confident that these strong genes were somehow going to protect you from the vagaries of age. To make a long story short, my right knee has a touch of The Arthritis, but not enough to warrant any sort of treatment, which given that it'd be one of those gigantic steroid shots that I understand work but that actually spark up the primitive part of my brain that recalls injecting high dosage ones into my daughter's baby legs two decades ago -- I declined. I did ask the good doctor, though, about cannabis and its anti-inflammatory effects and if he'd heard about any of that. He gave a short, impatient laugh, waxed on a bit about how the claims that it cures everything! couldn't be taken seriously and that there wasn't any research, yadda, yadda, yadda.

OK.

The weird thing is that this headline:

FDA Approves OxyContin for Children as Young as 11

(read the whole article here) just doesn't surprise many of us and turns our already cynical and tiny little mother minds™ into tiny, little obdurate bricks. Show me the studies -- double-blind, placebo controlled, long-term studies of children.

Let's catch another wave, shall we?

Back on the ranch -- the marijuana ranch, that is -- I got into a little sparring with the self-described admins of a group on Facebook called Pediatric Cannabis Therapy. These admins (and really, why do we have to shorten the word adminstrators to admins?) decided that discussions about Charlotte's Web Hemp Oil (CWHO) and the Realm of Caring (ROC) are no longer allowed. I wish I could quote the rest of the message that they posted, but that wouldn't be ethical for a closed Facebook group. Suffice it to say that it was riddled with not just grammatical errors (which, admittedly, drive this tiny, little mother mind™ batty) but vindictive statements and lies pitting advocates of CBD legislation against those who hope for whole plant legislation. First of all, these two groups need not be mutually exclusive, but according to Pediatric Cannabis Therapy's new rules, they are. The amount of work that Paige Figi, the Stanley Brothers, Heather Barnes Jackson and a virtual army of volunteers in nearly every single state in this country has done in a a very short amount of time -- to help sick children get access to medicine -- is nothing short of astounding and admirable. CBD-only laws are not perfect ones, and most of us believe that they are but tiny steps toward a larger awareness of this plant's many benefits. It's been more than 80 years since marijuana was basically forced underground for political and economic reasons, and during the last sixteen months, enormous progress has been made by pretty desperate women and men whose children's lives are at stake.That being said,  members of the Pediatric Cannabis Therapy group were warned not to discuss Charlotte's Web by name or they'd be asked to leave the group. Insults flew for a bit and while I dropped in here and there (you know, surfing the waves, trying to stay cool, look cool), I finally unjoined the group. The crazy talk has happened before, and I just can't be bothered with it anymore. While perhaps boring to those of you who have no interest in The Marijuana Wars, today I wanted to suggest that those of you who do have an interest should probably avoid the Pediatric Cannabis Therapy Group for anything but the lowest form of entertainment -- a sort of Monty Pythonesque Office of Arguments:



I will say that many hundreds of decent people exchange valuable information there in spite of those pesky admins destroying the synergy (another ridiculous 21st century word that they didn't use but that bugs me so much I thought I'd throw it in there with the dirty bathwater), so if you decide to stay in the group or choose to join the group, I advise you to steer clear of The Admin Who Is Not a Beach Boy or certainly don't talk directly about The Product That Cannot Be Named.





After that shredding, I'm prone out.

Cowabunga!

I'm going to watch this all day in lieu of connecting to the world

Laird Hamilton SUP surfing in Epic Malibu conditions!! He shoots the pier twice!!! from Dual Hemisphere Media on Vimeo.


That video was taken yesterday! I knew the waves were huge on Sunday when we were at the beach, and evidently Hurricane Marie is causing giant swells. Unfortunately, I've got what Sophie had and there's no use listening or watching any current events, but it's the first day of my new year, I'm happy to be alive and hope that in my next life I am a surfer.

It's coming on September, and it's hot. I wish that it would rain. I feel guilty even watering my potted lime and lemon trees.

What are ya'll doing today?

Riding the Wave of CBD

I just taped an interview this morning with Madeline Brand of KCRW, a local public radio station. You can hear me at 12:00 noon, Pacific Time on Brand's show Press Play.

Here's the link.

I only shook like a leaf afterward but wonder if I sounded like I was surfing the biggest wave in the universe. At least they didn't see me in a bikini, though.

This thrills me

Pipeline Winter 2013 from Eric Sterman on Vimeo.

Idle Thought of the Evening to Cheer You Up

If that old photo of me on the board with that cute man riding the waves doesn't cheer you up, then maybe this idle thought that I just had as I lay on Sophie's bed in her room will. I know everyone is feeling incredibly glum. Nervous, Anxious. Nauseous. Filled with anger. Overflowing with lassitude. A deep sense of futility.

I'll remind you, though, of that time Bush won the presidential election the second time.

Remember that? Remember that morning, especially those of you in Los Angeles who walked into the preschool parking lot with me and had to look at the folks who'd been sporting big Ws on their Range Rovers?

Remember how you felt?

Do you feel worse now or better?

I'm feeling so much better that I hauled my old doddering ass off of Sophie's bed, scanned that old photo of myself on the surfboard with the cute man riding the waves and typed out this post.

Come on! Don't you feel a bit better?

Guess Where I'm Going Tomorrow

Hint here.

Disability and Surfing

There's been a lot written lately in the disability world about "disability porn," -- the kind of stuff that those who are not so acquainted with disability are inspired by but those in the disability world often find denigrating at worst and condescending at best -- sentimental and perpetuating the separation between those who have and those who have not.  I was clicking through my blog-roll this afternoon, though, and loved this video posted on The Improvised Life. I didn't find it "inspirational" in the least, but, rather, yearned to be velcro'ed myself onto someone's back so that I could finally, finally go surfing. And don't you be going why don't you just go out to the Pacific at your back door with a board and do it? I'm busy right now, reading War and Peace, you know?

Tree Pose on a Surfboard

photo: Leroy Grannis via Sixand5

I've written plenty of posts here about my obsession with surfing. No, I have never actually surfed but characteristically, I talk about surfing, my desire to surf and my wish that in my next life I come back as a surfer, a real surfer who does nothing but surf, perhaps earns her living working in a beach shack surf shop and doesn't think too much about anything other than waves and drag (is that a surfing term?), and maybe I'll smoke pot a lot and grow my own, just another plant in my little garden in the front yard of my little house down a side-street, painted pale yellow with a front porch where I'll sit when I'm not surfing and read books but not get carried away with the thinking about books and my friends will visit me and we'll just go surfing together.  I'll meditate, too, right on the beach, blanketed by morning haze and when the haze burns off and the sky blazes through, I'll surf.

Today, I watched this video of the great Jack Kornfield, one of the gurus of mindfulness meditation, and it made me happy so I'll share it with you.

Rogue Wave Parenting

All this talk of the mommy wars (I shudder even typing it!) makes me raise my eyebrows and smirk, so when I saw this video on Facebook of a guy surfing what was dubbed THE BIGGEST WAVE EVER SURFED, I couldn't help but compare it to extreme parenting -- the parenting that those of us with chronically ill and disabled children do every moment, every day, every year. 

Here's to all of you -- mothers and fathers, guardians and caregivers, surfers of the big waves and amazing riders.

It felt kinda big...it felt like a ton of bricks..but it was teeny little whitewater... The waves were not supposed to be that big that day... but because they're rogue waves.. As I rode this wave, it seemed pretty massive, but I couldn't really tell how big it was...when I got to the bottom and turned, and got around the wave and went to kick out, it landed on me, it felt like a ton of bricks...probably the most powerful one to land on me at the shoulder.

...and it was pretty amazing.

Friday Surf Report - Things I Like

• This is very, very cool: The Car Photo

• I adore this photo (look at the prayer beads wound in there!)

via the inimitable recuerda mi corazon

• Number 19 from Gary Snyder's book Riprap and Cold Mountain Poems

Once at Cold Mountain, troubles cease --

No more tangled, hung-up mind.

I idly scribble poems on the rock cliff,

Taking whatever comes, like a drifting boat.

Cold Mountain, or Han-Shan, lived during the T'ang dynasty, approximately A.D. 627-650. Snyder describes him as "a mountain madman in an old Chinese line of ragged hermits." Han-Shan lived alone for most of his life in a mountain hut. See, here I am working in my escape desires -- I vant to be alone.

• Another reason to eat chocolate cake -- and move on.

• My beautiful blogger friend Karen Gerstenberger of Gberger has just published a book titled Because of Katie about her family's heartbreaking yet entirely profound journey with their daughter Katie who was diagnosed with cancer as a twelve year old. I have had the enormous privilege of getting to know Karen over the years, and her strength and deep spirituality are a constant source of inspiration to me. I am certain that her book will be treasured. You can order your very own copy on Amazon in a couple of weeks or on Karen's site right now!

• I loved this conversation between Krista Tippett and Kevin Kling. Here's what Tippett's blog OnBeing says:  In a face-to-face conversation from the studios of American Public Media and Minnesota Public Radio, Krista Tippett will talk to this American humorist and writer about confronting and embracing these physical challenges and his own mortality, and the will to create rather than despair. Through his work and his personal story, we’ll focus on his work as an artist, the importance of humor and craft in his spiritual life, and how he finds meaning in the world around him.

Video streaming by Ustream

Surfing Friday - Things I Like

Moms are Solutionary Revolutionaries

Piano Music

What I Mean by Fake Work
What I Mean by Cheerful Pretending

What do you like? I'd love a discussion about the last two, if you're so inclined. Oh, and I've started my old food blog up, again.  Here's the link: How To Eat

The Scarlet F

I'm a fellow here in Los Angeles, with the Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental Disabilities program at the University of Los Angeles and Children's Hospital. I learned after I'd applied, been accepted and attended for a couple of months that all "employees" of the hospital must get a flu vaccine or wear a mask during the trainings. The trainings are held in a building across town from the hospital, in a series of classrooms. In addition to myself and a couple of other parent fellows, the other trainees are primarily in the medical world -- psychologists, social workers, nurses, occupational therapists and dentists.

I was told today that I'm the ONLY person to have declined the flu shot and that I would have to wear a mask until the program is over. We don't do flu shots in our family. There have been numerous occasions of family members reacting badly to flu shots and, frankly, I'm a bit afraid of them. You can argue all you want about them, and I do understand that if people are working closely with vulnerable children they should get one, but I find it ridiculous and coercive to force me to get one.

As far as I'm concerned, if people want to be fully protected from the flu virus, we should all go around wearing a hazmat suit.

So, I'm feeling stressed about wearing the mask. It's bound to be embarrassing. Basically, everyone will know that I've declined the vaccine. This is a medical group and I know there'll be silent titters. I guess I'll sit tall, but to tell you the truth, I'm almost tempted to throw in the towel as it is and start training to be a surfing instructor or something.