Looking for a new way to augment your high? Well this one just might send you on that final journey, the one where you don’t come back.

Welcome to the newest ‘craze’ that is literally killing people. Fentanyl.

Fentanyl mixed with cocaine. Fentanyl mixed with heroin.

In Michigan, the death toll is mounting. There have been 19 deaths in Wayne County (Detroit area) since May 18th related to the illicit use of this drug and 106 since March of 2006. Most of these deaths have been associated with heroin combined with Fentanyl.

Fentanyl was first known as a pre-anesthetic. It is popularly used to treat severe pain, including chronic spinal pain and pain associated with cancer, that is, when other medications do not work. Fentanyl is a very potent cousin to heroin and morphine and using in combination with heroin or morphine makes it dangerously potent.

The most common cause of death is overdose. Symptoms of overdose include: trouble breathing, extreme sleepiness or sedation, inability to walk or talk normally, feeling faint, dizzy and confused. People experiencing these symptoms should seek help immediately (ie. go to an ER stat!).

Please alert your kids. This is considered a serious public health issue.

Hopefully, this will not spread across the country like the blight meth did.

cj
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Ok, ok…I know it’s a play on words.

But my darn knee does need a little help!

So off to one of my local health food stores I go again.

I had been doing some research on the net for a product that would help my knee and my body clear scar tissue. The first product I tried, Flex Protect from the Rice Patty collection, actually made the problem worse! I can only surmise that it was because of the Cox2 inhibiting properties of this natural combination – and somehow that cross reacts with the NSAIDS (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) like naprosyn and ibuprofen (both of which I had reactions to)

So…

I was looking to try a new product called FYI Restore by Garden of Life. I wanted to use it in combination with the regular FYI but wanted to be sure I would know which one I was reacting to IF I had a reacton.

I did find FYI Restore helpful and it seemed to be helping my body break up some of the scar tissue, which helped to decrease swelling. After 10 days, I added the regular FYI which helped to decrease the tightness I felt in the joint and seems to be helping with mobility.

To this regimen I added 5000mg of Carlson’s Norwegian Cod Liver Oil to help with inflammation and get my Omega 3’s. This seems to augment the effects of the FYI product, especially if taken before bedtime.

I recently learned of a more potent Omega 3 product called NutraMarine DNA and will order some shortly for a trial.

So, if you’re looking for joint food, consider FYI by Garden of Life.

cj
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Using that walker has been a good way to build up my upper body and shed some unwanted pounds. However the handles are really HARD and have cause severe pain and numbness in my hands.

Now I know what carpal tunnel suffers feel.

The injury is to the median nerve. The pain distribution cuts down 1/2 of the palm and involves 1/2 of the 4th finger and all of the 5th. I had throbbing to in the heels of my hand.

I had all sorts of other salves, cremes and oils. Nothing really did much, including stuff with DMSO, MSM and emu oil. So, I was looking for something extra-ordinary, that didn’t have the usual stuff in it.

And I found it. It’s called Topricin and the good news is it works.

I had significant improvement in my pain within 20 minutes (2 applications).

Topricin is a natural product that was developed

It’s been a several months since that freakish illness smacked me down out of the blue. My focus is better but my endurance waining. It’s been quite an ordeal. How do you go from excellent health to requiring emergency surgery because you cannot walk and are in excruciating pain?

It still gripes me a bit that we have no clue where it came from. But check this out…even something weirder just happened. I’ll explain.

I had just seen my orthopod and was UPGRADED from Loretabs to Vicodin ES. I knew that I couldn’t fly anywhere for various reasons, including that I could not bend my leg and PAIN. Well, I had missed about 5 conferences in the past 2 months and had one coming up that was a 1/2 days drive away. So, I had been working on trying to get there.

I had my new pain meds, so I worked on hobbling around better and wrapping my leg for the journey. Although the vicodin didn’t cloud my mind, I was concerned it might without the adrenaline rush and preparation I was doing for the trip. So, I went back to my old pain meds.

And…

Had the biggest reaction to a drug I’ve had in my entire life!

Then EUREKA, it hit me…

THIS drug had been the cause of my slow progress! It was doing the OPPOSITE of what it was supposed to do…causing inflammation, pain, myalgias (muscle aches), weakness, lightheadedness and feverishness.

WOW! What a revelation. I have never been so happy to have something BAD go wrong in my life like I was with this.

I couldn’t wait to call my infectious disease specialist and my orthopod and tell them that I solved the mystery, why my progress in healing had been so slow, why the inflammatory markers were so slow to resolve, why the continued pain and inflammation, why pressure stockings were not helping…

The answer was: an idiosyncratic reaction to my anti-inflammatory drug. That drug was naprosyn.

In one week since STOPPING this medication, my need for pain meds has gone down from Vicodin ES to…
aspirin!

That alone is miraculous.

The amount of muscle spasms has diminished to only needing low dose musle relaxants once or twice a week. The muscle aches have vanished. And the swelling in my feet disappeared. I take this as a good omen that the swelling in my injured leg will slowly follow suit now that the offending agent has been taken out of the picture.

Indeed, this whole illness has been a trial…a sore, excruciating, life force-draining trial! I’ve can only surmise what the reasons were behind it. And YES, it’s helped me to re-focus my life and reorganize my priorities.

Although I am still using a walker, I am getting stronger and will probably be able to handle crutches in a month or so. I’m sure the strength and mobility will return; it’ll just take time.

So, remember one thing from my trial: you can have an OPPOSITE reaction to a medication. If it isn’t making you better, it could be getting in the way of you getting better.

About a month ago, I had that very same thought – that maybe the naprosyn was not working. I quickly DISMISSED that thought because it is SUPPOSED to be an anti-inflammatory agent. Ends up that thought was RIGHT!

I wonder where in the universe that idea came to me from?

:o/

cj
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