Mother's Little Helpers

blog de la resistance has been silent for a bit, but there's a good reason. Virus. As in invade the body, bore into sinus passages, attack gray matter, flatten in bed, bad-ass virus. With a little help from my friends Nyquil, Tylenol and Greatest Husband's homemade chicken soup, I'm back to a vertical position and feeling the old sass in my veins again. Which brings to mind the last cyber communications I had before delirium set in - BlueGal's discussion on the evils of big pharmaceuticals and our societal dependence on pills and drugs for everything what ails us. As much as I love to hate the drug companies - especially their advertising methods which are nothing short of immoral - I admit to being a healthy, if not robust consumer of big Pharma products and byproducts in the form of everything from treating insect bites to keeping my cholesterol level low enough to brag about. My medicine cabinet overfloweth. The practice of modern medicine has decisively shifted from hospital/surgical care to the dispensing of pills and vacines. Not necessarily a bad thing, it seems to me, to treat conditions prophylactically and minimize expensive utilization of hospitals and emergency rooms. For example, my recent allergic reaction to aspirin was controlled by a self-administered dose of OTC benadryl thus saving me a trip to the ER. On the other hand, the pharmaceutical advances that I am eager to take advantage of require a certain degree of education, access to information, access to a physician, health insurance and money. In other words, the big "C" word, "Class" becomes the dominant and relevant variable when it comes to my health. Last week, I took the position that our pill-popping culture was not in itself a sign of Evil Big Pharma manipulation, but that the issue was one of access, availability and drug company profits. Was I wrong? I'll be posting more thoughts on this all week long. Go on, now. Discuss amongst yourselves. It's time for my little blue pill and a nap.