I don’t know why, but I like to watch the show “Intervention” on A&E. On this show, addicts are told they are being filmed for a documentary about addiction, while their families are filmed telling how their loved one’s addiction has affected their lives. At the end of the hour, the addict is brought into an intervention with a professional intervention specialist and their entire family, and they are always asked if they are ready to go to a rehab center right now. Most of them say yes, but I have seen a couple of episodes where they refused.

What I wonder about the show is who pays the fees. The intensive therapy required for inpatient service at drug treatment centers (the show features other addictions too, but usually it’s pills, alcohol, drugs, etc) is very expensive, no matter where you go, but the places featured on Intervention are frequently rather posh. While they undoubtedly do great work, and there are plenty of rich people who need help too, I still wonder about all the lower-class people who are addicted to drugs and simply can’t afford to get help or attention from a national television show.

I was surprised to see an opportunity to come up for a paid post about a product for pet depression, stress and anxiety. I didn’t realize there was a market out there for this! The product is called Anivive, and it’s an all-natural supplement for animals. We have an anxious cat - Mischa licks himself till he bleeds in various spots, and the vet diagnosed it as anxiety, but we were never able to give him the Prozac. Anivive is a liquid that you put into your pet’s water bowl, which is much easier than trying to give them a pill. A single bottle is supposed to last a month, although given that we have four cats sharing the same water dish we’d probably end up needing a bottle per week. But still, if it keeps him from licking himself raw, and maybe makes him less aggressive toward the other cats, maybe it’s worth a try.

I had a mostly positive experience with my doctor this morning. I walked in there knowing exactly what I wanted, and I walked out with what I wanted. The purpose of the visit was to discuss my chronic urticaria and see what the options were, but what I really wanted was a prescription for 5mg of prednisone. I have a three-year-old prescription for it, and I have found that if I take one when the hives are really bad, they will settle down for a while. Most doctors won’t hand out steroids like candy, but I think my doctor understood that I knew what I wanted - I’m not sure if she realizes I know more about chronic urticaria than she does, but she did give me what I wanted.

My appointment was at 7:30am, which was not fun because I was out very late last night meeting an online friend who was in town from Minneapolis. I am probably going to take a nap after work, because tonight I have to drive to New York. We have tickets to a special showing of Perfume: The Story of a Murderer, which we got because A is involved with a perfume group online. So yes, a nap is definitely in order before all that driving.

Since its first prescription in the 1930’s, dextroamphetamine has been used by a broad variety of people. Children and adults have been prescribed the drug for treatment of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, but it has also been used recreationally as speed because it is part of the amphetamine family.
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I get my medications - there are a lot of them - by mail-order pharmacy. At the beginning of the year, my insurance company switched from using Express Scripts for that service to using Medco Health. All of my prescriptions transferred properly, except one: fexofenadine, the generic for Allegra. Due to complete incompetence on the part of Express Scripts, I am now down to a week remaining of that medication and I have to jump through very twisted hoops to get it. Here’s the e-mail I just sent to my physician:
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