Thanks, Allyson. When I think of all the things I can't work out how to do, and the smugness on that doctor's face as she said I looked "too comfortable". Comfortable? Seriously? That's your barometer for a complete stranger whose records you apparently didn't read in any detail?

The social worker they promised me has never called, BTW. I must make a note to remind them about that next time. I mean, if they want someone keeping track of quality of life, why not?

Compazine and some of the chemo drugs are all made by one manufacturer, which shut down to retool its plant after little bits of metal were found in some of its drugs. Most of these shortages come from either the war on drugs or the fact that a large number of drugs and drug ingredients are made by one, count 'em, one manufacturer.

little bits of metal were found in some of its drugs

In their IV drugs? Or was this a plantwide thing? I mean, either way is horrifying, but the idea of that...yikes.

I see that the Zofran manufacturer is GlaxoSmithKline. Who makes compazine? For some reason that's harder to google.

Have you tried a black salon, Allyson? Just a thought.

When i went to the TAM conference, there was a neurologist named Steven Novella who spoke about migraines, and how sufferers are treated like shit and such.

[link]

I wanted to cry, thinking about you. At the end I just waited in the crowd and shook his hand and thanked him for talking about it.

Thanks, Allyson. When I think of all the things I can't work out how to do, and the smugness on that doctor's face as she said I looked "too comfortable". Comfortable? Seriously? That's your barometer for a complete stranger whose records you apparently didn't read in any detail?

Oh yeah, also: wouldn't you look a lot twitchier if you were, in fact, a junkie? Everything I know about drugs and medicine I learned from TV, but still.

Have you tried a black salon, Allyson? Just a thought.

I've totally thought about that! When i used to get the back cornrowed and beaded by a friend at work, she used to say, "white hair is too slippery."

I'm wondering if they'll think I'm a jackass, but I'm going to try it.

I'm a white girl with spiral curls. My mother, a hairdresser, could cut my hair. After I left home, I grew it out because I didn't trust anyone else. Hairdressers always wet it and cut it as if it were straight, and I end up with the poufy pyramid head. After I moved her, I said, "fuck it", went into a Haircuttery and asked for someone who could cut curly hair. A black girl named Teresa came over, took me to the back, and gave me one of the best haircuts I ever had. Alas, she isn't there anymore.

I'm going to start putting together clippings on pain treatment and minorities. I'm not going to actually flash any of it in front of doctors or nurses who give me grief (I mentioned it to one nurse once, and she kept saying "Of course, that's what you perceive..." and it drove me batshit.

But instead of reading and forgetting, I might as well put them together in one place, and maybe if it informs me when I'm talking implicitly rather than explicitly, well, there you go. I did meet another black woman with chronic pain problems (regimen very similar to mine) who had grievances very similar to mine, and we spent about an hour or so swapping stories. Never had occasion to discuss it with anyone else on the suffering end of it, though. So my anecdata is limited.

I have curly hair today. It's 80 degrees. There's a correlation. I also went shopping and bought a new summer hat and found absolutely nothing I even wanted to try on. I am in serious need of summer clothes and there's nothing at all I want in the stores right now.