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.

Ms. Smurf gets a new ride

OK so, here are more tidbits from the week:

The blue fingers have not happened since I posted about them. And now that I think about it...food doesn't seem to be bothering me quite so much these days either. To be honest, I haven't had the balls to eat a banana yet, but so far everything seems to be going down ok. I guess these are good things, eh?

Thursday was a full day. First, Wags had his weekly visit to the vet. More bad news...his hemoglobin dropped yet again. He acts fine, he looks good and doesn't show any noticeable signs that he's (really) heading rapidly toward death. The new plan is iron supplements...

After that, I took my car to the local Ford dealership because the driver's side seat hadn't been acting right. [Kind of a strange thing to do immediately after a bad-news vet visit, but I had to not sit at home staring at my dog.] I've been trying to compensate for this seat issue since sometime in April, but it's been getting to where I have to slide down so far in the seat to hold the brake pedal down, it was really getting just super-irritating. When I'm at a red light, I don't need to be drifting into the intersection because I can't get enough pressure on the brake pedal, doncha think?

Anyway, the service manager messed with it and proclaimed there was nothing wrong with it; I was like,"Yeah, right, well my legs haven't gotten two inches shorter in the past month and I'm telling you the frikking seat will not move me close enough to the frikking pedals and this car is no longer safe for me to drive, so I suggest you get another opinion." Of course, the second opinion was a service technician whose time goes for $55 an hour. Some things never change...

Anyway, since I had to kill an hour, I went looking around the lot to see if there was anything I might like to test drive. Yeah well, you know how this is gonna end, don't you? They had pretty much exactly the car I've been eyeing for the past four years. A Ford Escape Hybrid. Four doors, butt warmers, room for the dogs and well-reviewed hybrid technology. Honestly, the only thing I wasn't fond of was the color (Ford calls it Black Pearl, I say it's more graphite-looking); while not gross or anything, it just wasn't what I would have picked out if I was going to customize my own, y'know?

But, he's an '08, Ford certified pre-owned, nice warranty, fun to drive, I feel safe and the more I look at him, the cuter he gets. Anybody want some company? I feel like going for a drive...

Busy week...kinda

OK, apparently I WAS in a "don't care" mood last Monday, because I completely neglected my blog, didn't I? Sorry.

I'm not going to write a long and wordy recap of the week, rather just little dribbles. Here's the first one, which isn't much but I'm still happy to share it.

I went grocery shopping. By myself. Didn't use my cane NOR one of the scooters provided by Publix.

Seriously, this is exciting!