Hey Big Pharma! I'm Hungry!

Drug companies seem to be very interested in getting in front of patients to try and sell their medicine, right? Usually they sponsor a meeting where they share FDA-approved slideshows of FDA-approved data for an FDA-approved marketing dollar amount. In my 18 months as a speaker for one of the pharmaceutical companies, I traveled to most everywhere east of the Mississippi to deliver my own (also FDA-approved) talk about my experience on a particular drug for MS. And most of the people who attended were repeaters who just came for the food. And I'll bet the money in any pharmaceutical company's Marketing budget for all these meetings can support a small country.

At this moment it is time for me to make dinner for myself and my husband and do you know what? I'm exhausted. Pulling out pans and mixing ingredients and serving up a meal is just not in my physical bandwidth right now. Not to mention cleaning up afterward, holy cow! I'm wiped out just thinking about it, really. So, we are probably going to settle for PB&J or a can of Campbell's soup (possibly even just a spoonful of peanut butter and some Saltines). Then something dawned on me.

I think the MS Community as a whole agrees that a proper diet goes a long way toward fighting the ravages of MS, right? So, consider this. You want to be different from all the other MS drugs out there? Think outside the box. Sponsor cooking lessons that teach MSers how to eat as healthy as possible with the least amount of effort possible. Sure, present your dog and pony show, I know the FDA requires that, but take it a step further. Help attendees cook their own meals to eat! Show them handicap-friendly utensils. Or even better, build a network of kitchens to cook MS-friendly meals that patients/family/caregivers can order and either pick up themselves or have them delivered (like, to me tonight). Something like this would definitely call tons more attention to whomever did it.

I think this idea has a lot of potential, don't you? If a kitchen in my town would put together some healthy meal alternatives, I'd be first in line, no doubt.

Bye, Agnes

So, it's been one week ago today that we sent Agnes The Rescue Kitty on her way to wherever kitties go when they die. I am still amazed and disappointed by anyone who will abandon an animal they've had for the animal's entire life, leaving it alone and trapped in a filthy house.

I've located an address for a family member of theirs and I intend to notify them of her passing. But I'm struggling with how to word it without saying, "Hey assholes, remember your cat who you deserted? The one you told me to put down 3 1/2 years ago? Yeah well, she died. You happy?"

I might come up with an actual obituary-type thing, mentioning all of the funny shit she did when we moved her in with us. I really, really, would like to think these people still have some guilty feelings buried somewhere and, boy, would I enjoy bringing them to the surface.

Vindictive? Me? Yeah, OK, I'll own it.