After 50 years of smoking (I've quit now) and very high cholesterol (I'm on a diet/exercise program for that now), I reached Medicare Age with no need for medications. Until now. I got very short of breath and had mild nausea, and my doc did an angiogram.
Quite fascinating being awake during the procedure, watching the monitor with him as he made a slight puncture in my wrist and snaked a line up to my heart arteries, shot dye through them looking for blockages. Turns out, I had an 80% blockage in a branch artery of the LAD, and my other arteries were clear, except for a 10% block in one and a 30% block in another. But those weren't alarming at my age.
More below the orange thing that divides one section of a diary from another, but not for any structural reason I can fathom.
So, doc put a stent in the 80% blocked artery, and now I feel great. I got a drug-eluting stent, or medicated stent, which requires an extended period of antiplatelet therapy after the procedure, usually a combination of aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix) usually for at least a year.
I am fortunate to live in Chicago and have access to a sweet little non-profit hospital with good doctors and good equipment and labs. I didn't have insurance before Medicare, and this hospital, Thorek Memorial Hospital, is a wonderful place for folks like me. It almost got shut down a decade ago, but has since transformed into the best kept medical secret in Chicago. But I digress.
So, I filled my first month's prescription for clopidogrel at the little Thorek pharmacy at a cost of $8.31. However, Thorek is a 15-minute drive from my house, and Walgreen's is just two blocks away. So I decided to transfer my prescription to Walgreen's.
Fortunately, I thought to ask the Walgreen's pharmacist how much they charge for a month's supply of clopidogrel, thinking it would be a little more expensive. Are you ready for this? They charge $181.00! One-hundred and eighty-one friggin dollars for a script I can get at Thorek for $8.31! And oh, I didn't get the Medicare Plan D for medication, because there's still an out-of-pocket expense with that, and I didn't plan to take enough medication to warrant it.
$181.00 for a month's supply of pills! How the hell is that possible? Billions have been made off Plavix and the generics at this point. So it's not about recouping money spend on research and development. So I says to the Walgreen's guy: "F*ck that mother*kin bullshit, kiss my mother*kin ass!" Yeah, I said that, except pronounced it in such a way that he heard it as "Oh, no thanks. I'll stick with Thorek."
I researched it on the web, and discovered that there's quite a spread in what different pharmacies charge for this product (and I'm sure this is true of other medications as well). What about folks who don't have access to people-friendly healthcare places like Thorek? What are they supposed to do?
And once again, CostCo shows that it's a people-friendly business model. They charge around $10 for a month's supply. AND it turns out you don't have to be a CostCo member to use their pharmacy! I love that company. They popped up quite popular amongst clopidogrel takers on the web.
Another digression: Just as the Occupy Movement was able to create the new meme "99% and 1%", I'd like to create a new meme for our times: People-Friendly Business Model. We desperately need more businesses with People-Friendly Business Models!
This is the first time I've had to be on medication, other than a brief course of anti-biotics. My doc wants me to take a statin for the cholesterol too. But this experience and thinking about these damn pharmaceutical companies makes me more anti-meds than ever. I'm going to focus on diet and exercise.
Dr. Dean Ornish has a program that includes a high fiber, practically no fat diet, that's been shown to not only lower cholesterol, but REVERSE heart disease (plaque buildup). It's so successful that it's one of the few health programs Medicare will pay for! But basically, it's just very high fiber and barely any fat (no dairy, no meat).
My Mom had high cholesterol and refused medication, and lived to be 89, in pretty good health. Most of the folks in my family who were on all the meds died before 80. I think being on too many meds is unhealthy. Just listen to all the side effects on those ads. Side effects are the body rejecting what you put into it. Think of all the people on so many meds and all the side effects going on in their bodies. It's crazy I tell you, crazy.
And, after 50 years of smoking and high cholesterol, I have very little blockage. The doc was shocked. He expected to find a lot of blockage. I think the cleanses I do once a year, my green smoothies made in my VitaMix, my qigong practice all has a lot to do with it. Also, I have low blood pressure and no diabetes (two harsh contributing factors to severe heart disease).
I refuse to be a Medication Zombie whose main function in life is to channel tax dollars (Medicare funds) into the hands of pharmaceutical companies.
Thanks for listening to my rant.
Joy to the world and the word . . .