Chronic Tonic?

Ugh. Yesterday I had the displeasure of shelling out another $400 in co-pays for three prescription medications. And that's just for one month! On average, my monthly co-pays are about $600 for the seven total pharmaceutical meds I take, or $7200 a year.

Add the new supplements I'm taking (10) and two compounded medicines and I don't even want to calculate the cost of being chronically ill. But the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (part of the C.D.C.) does. They explain:

• More than 75% of all health care costs are due to chronic conditions.
• Four of the five most expensive health conditions (based on total health care spending in a given year in the United States) are chronic conditions.
• The top four chronic illnesses are heart disease, cancer, mental disorders, and pulmonary conditions. 
• Cancer is the most expensive and heart disease the second most expensive.
• A 2007 study reported that seven chronic diseases – cancer, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, pulmonary conditions, and mental illness – have a total impact on the economy of $1.3 trillion annually. 
• By the year 2023, this number is projected to increase to $4.2 trillion dollars.
• Chronic disease reaches into our homes, our hearts, and our wallets. 

No kidding!

But when they cite the trillions of dollars of impact on our economy, aren't they talking about us? It's the money WE pay that keeps these medical industries in business, particularly the pharmaceutical companies. 

As my readers know, I embarked on a journey of integrative/functional medicine about six months ago. Of course, it started with changes to my diet and continues with therapies and supplements that, according to the Institute for Functional Medicine is "healing-oriented medicine that takes account of the whole person (body, mind, and spirit), including all aspects of lifestyle."

Moreover, "it emphasizes the therapeutic relationship and makes use of all appropriate therapies, both conventional and alternative." It's personalized medicine that seeks to not only discover a diagnosis or diagnoses but also seeks to answer the question: Why does this person have this illness? 

They summarize: "The answer to this question is revealed by discovering the antecedents, triggers, and mediators that underlie symptoms, signs, illness behaviors, and demonstrable pathology. Further, medical genomics can identify the phenotypic expression of disease-related genes and their products, affording another lens through which to view illness. Chronic diseases cut across multiple organ systems, and this calls for a systematic method of viewing each patient."

Well, isn't that what I've been saying in much less clinical terms? The toxic stress of my childhood experience pre-disposed me to develop serious and chronic illness. Finding a solution or combination of solutions to live a quality life is the never-ending challenge. 

So, I'm straddling the bridge right now - still following 'doctor's orders' and taking traditional treatments and participating in never-ending tests yet also incorporating my integrative/functional medical doctor's orders and adding  dietary supplements and lifestyle changes while keenly focusing on what meds I can afford to lose and which new treatments I can afford to keep! 

It's enough to make me go mad! 

But I will persevere and accomplish what seems to be out of my reach; impossible. I'm trying as hard as I can and I know you are, too. Running backwards? It's an apt sub-title to my book. It's one of the hardest things to do every single day. But I'm not quitting. Nope. It's just not an option. 

There is a Safe Place for children - in Philadelphia!

Hey PHILADELPHIA! Congratulations!

I am so happy to read about Safe Place: The Center for Child Protection and Health and Cindy Christian, M.D. who won this year's international Ray E. Helfer Award for physicians dedicated to treating and preventing child abuse. The Ray E. Helfer Society's mission is "to help prevent and reduce the harm resulting from child maltreatment, by advancing the work of physicians in the areas of education, clinical care, research, and advocacy."

Dr. Christian of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) was recognized this month for developing and then bringing to doctors' offices "an educational program to help 'front line' healthcare providers recognize and respond effectively to child abuse and neglect cases." She also co-edited the third edition of the classic text Child Abuse: Medical Diagnosis and Management and has made significant additions to the knowledge base of child maltreatment prevention.

Moreover, Safe Place is staffed by an interdisciplinary team of physicians, psychologists, social workers and other hospital personnel designed to provide the best care to children and families dealing with child abuse or neglect.

Hooray team! Could we ask for anything more?

Cooperation among health care providers and those who work to protect children in all cases is key to recognizing and eliminating this epidemic in our society. Have no doubt, people, it is epidemic. According to The Children's Wall of Tears founders Jane Lemond Alvarez and Leo Alvarez, 2500 children are killed each month at the hands of parents, caregivers and/or boyfriends and girlfriends of the parents.

And my own research reveals that those who are maltreated or abused as children are pre-disposed biologically and physiologically to adult physical illness. (See The ACE Study), I hate to keep repeating the same thing over and over again, but we all need to stop the cycle at its core - at home and in the courts who return children to their abusers over and over again.

Thank you, Dr. Cindy Christian and Safe Place. Let's see if this model can be copied all over the world!

Celebrate Everything!

Is it so hard? We are supposed to find the wonderful things in every day - even if they're small. Waking up. The sun shining. A hot cup of coffee. A snuggle from a pet. A crisp newspaper. And that's just the first 15 minutes.

But it is difficult to notice every tiny thing that crosses our path that should or could make us smile. Sometimes, at the end of a day, we have to really search for it - that thing that uplifted us, even if for just a brief moment.

Children who are abused often retreat into themselves and/or a land of fantasy. The folks at Voices Amplified work tirelessly to help children speak of abuse. It is never easy. Since the maltreatment I suffered as a child was emotional rather than physical, it's even harder to recognize (say, as a five-year-old) that you are being abused. It is simply normal. I can only imagine the sheer pain of children who are physically or sexually targeted. That is why I just completed my application to become a Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) for children in the foster care system. I want to help be their voice, especially when they are battling against danger they may not even recognize.

As a child, my outlet was the creative arts. The family members that are still in my life say I do as an adult exactly what I did as a kid - I write and draw pictures. Fancy that ... I write and draw pictures - still. The fact that I could do it for a living was a tremendous gift; so out of pain grew beauty. I am thankful.

When I first started writing my memoir, I was grumbling and griping to a graphic designer friend how hard it was to get started. He sent me this in an e-mail: "One woman. One brain. Two hands. 26 letters." I wrote it on a sticky note and still have that faded scrap of paper near my desk. It always makes me smile. Only 26 letters? I can conquer the alphabet, I thought.

In my area, a woman recently knifed her seven-year-old daughter up to 30 times before slicing her own throat, killing herself. The child survived. Today, it was revealed that many years earlier her sister had shot her own five-year-old son to death and then turned the gun on herself committing suicide. Psychologists trying to explain the very rare phenomenon of a mother taking the life of her own child along with her own say that the perpetrator has a sense of protecting their baby because they don't want to leave them without a mother. It sounds preposterous, doesn't it?

Why Would Mothers Want To Kill Their Children

The final sounding bell in this article, however, is that the survivor - the child - whether it be of attempted murder or abuse - always thinks: "What did I do wrong?" This can not be. I remember trying to be a better daughter; a jester of sorts to cheer up my downtrodden mother, gifting her with all that I had - my stories and my drawings. Even a brief smile from her would please me.

This blog was not supposed to be so dire. I do believe that there is something in each day that reminds us how wonderful and short life can be. So, in the meantime, I have decided to simply celebrate everything! Can you do it, too? Throw a party! Get yourself some pampering. Take a child out for a day and talk to him/her; really have a conversation. It could start with: "What do you see today that is truly beautiful - something that you would like to put in your pocket and keep forever?"