For those old enough to know (and maybe should know better), that was taken from the TV show of the 60′s called “Lost In Space”. oh boy, flashback!! I remember being madly infatuated with ‘Penny Robinson‘ (Angela Cartwright), the dark haired young beauty from that show. Still a beauty today!
Enough, aye? Back to my original premise for this entry. Yesterday I went on a bit of a tear regarding another rather big blood vessel breakage in my left eye. It is now full of blood and large floating chunks of busted vein. The view out that eye is murky, to say the best, and the floaters resemble black marker scribbles, except they move about whenever I look around. I can live with it. I cut a piece of black faux-fur and plunk it under my glasses so’s I can look at the computer screen without the distraction of murk interfering.
The rant made me think of the drug I’m taking to help me stop smoking. Champix has received a bad name due to many folks who have had very adverse reactions to it. I’m not talking about breaking into a rash or becoming sexually dysfunctional. This has to do with becoming severely depressed to the point of suicide and physical aggression. Really. There have been “documented” cases of people committing suicide (70+) while on this drug. I used quotes to signify that Champix has never been proven to be the causative agent in any of those deaths.
So, I went off into the world of Google and that newest of Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, and did a look-see for anything Champix and suicide. My-oh-my, but there is a dearth of anecdotal evidence that this smoking cessation aid is bad Bad BAD!! And here I am, part of a Quit Smoking study that is sponsored by (omg!) Pfizer, the maker of Champix. Horrors! I’m gonna die!! No, I’m gonna kill myself!! No wait, I’m gonna go into a flying rage, beat the living crap outa someone, and then kill myself. hm, yeah, that sounds like fun.
When I went in for my interview for this study, the doctor asked if I had any history of depression. I mentioned the one time I went in to the local psychiatric hospital back in ’97 and was diagnosed as being depressed. I didn’t mention the multitude of times I “felt” depressed over the years since then. Hey, why bother? I was never “diagnosed” any of those times! Still, I guess you could say that I have a history of depression, pre- and post recovery. I now wonder whether the doctor would have allowed me to go on Champix if he’d known. Heck, I coulda just sent him off to this blogg to see the fits of PMS and anger I can fall into! hehe…
Blah blah blah. The point being is that with all the negative comments I saw during my research into Champix, I’m surprised (and quite pleased) that I have not become one of those, what? Statistics?? Yes, well, keeping in mind that there were many blog comments that had “I had a few drinks and…” or “I took my pain meds and…” or “I’ve been diagnosed for depression before…”. No where could I find any evidence that there might just be something else causing these psychotic episodes other than the Champix. Shit, I remember getting highly agitated and depressed the many times I tried a cold-turkey quit. Whatever…
I gathered seven different links about this drug phenomenon, and then gathered five different links from my blogg here about my eye issues, all to be hot-linked in various spots throughout this entry. — Hey, I did a lot of work finding those things!! — But, I won’t bore you with them. I’ll just pop one in here for you and y’all can do your own reading. And if anyone has tried the new Microsoft Bing search engine and finds it better than the old Live Search, please comment and tell me what the fuck all the brouhaha is about, k? tnx…
Keep The Faith*