She’s tried all kinds of medications for reflux over the years. The last one that was prescribed for her was Zegrid, but that is no longer covered by insurance because it is available over the counter. I still don’t understand that logic. We pay a bit more for it now since it’s not covered, but it still seems to do a good job.

Things that seem to help in addition to the medication are:

• Avoiding carbonated beverages
• Reducing caffeine
• Avoiding late night snacks

My wife has a terrible time following any of these tips. Thank goodness for medication.

The first one was at The Lupus Magazine, and featured Jenny. Here’s the link if you want to check it out – From Figure Skater to Opera Singer – The story of an inspirational Soprano. I don’t feel like I’m in a good position to comment regarding the interview, but I think it was really nice of them to give Jenny the opportunity to talk about her experiences and what she hopes to accomplish.

The other interview was Larry King’s interview with Lady Gaga. If you had told me a year ago that I would talking about Lady Gaga at all right now, I wouldn’t have believed you. I really didn’t know anything about her back then, other than I was too old and square to be interested in some new pop icon. This is an interesting and intelligent young woman. I’ve thought so ever since I saw her interview with Barbara Walters, and I enjoyed this interview with Larry King as well. Will her comments have any impact on lupus awareness? I don’t know. Maybe. We shouldn’t underestimate the power of pop culture. Lady Gaga spoke about lupus as an illness that should be taken very seriously. I don’t see how that can be a bad thing.

I’ve heard some of the tracks of the songs she’s been working on and I think it’s a great project.

Things just continue to pile up. We’ve had car trouble in the thousands of dollars, because of maintenance and accidents. Stuff is falling apart around the house. Jenny had a severe reaction to Arava which was very scary. My work is insane, and when I say insane, I mean crazy, like dressed up like Mayor McCheese shooting up a Burger King crazy. It’s all too much for me, I guess.

Knowing that it is never smart to ignore symptoms, I went to the doctor to see why I’ve been having chest pain. I went expecting to hear, “Oh, you are stressed out. You are fine.” That’s what I expected, but that’s not the answer I got. I got, “Oh, well, you may be having some issues. You need to go to a cardiologist.”

Seriously? Now? I don’t have time right now.

It is essential that lupus patients remain aware and proactive when dealing with new symptoms or old symptoms that return with regularity. A trip to the doctor may be inconvenient, but it could save your life. Sometimes when the ostrich sticks its head in the ground, it gets run over by a jeep.

The lesson for the week is don’t get run over by a jeep.

It’s getting close to Mother’s Day and I thought I would dedicate the 100th post of this blog to my wife and all the other mothers out there with lupus.

My wife does her best to be a good mom, and though she may not always feel successful, I think she’s wonderful.

This blog celebrates my Jenny and all the Jennys out there in the world that try and balance their life while dealing with chronic illness.

A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts. ~Washington Irving

Happy Mother’s Day Jennifer, a few days early.

I’ve never really understood this concept. So a doctor prescribes a patient a particular kind of medication, let’s call it Loopie, just for fun.

So Loopie is a special medication that is available only by prescription and costs quite a bit of money. Thank goodness that the health insurance I pay for every month covers this very special drug, Loopie, and I only have to pay a fraction of the price to get it. Now, someone decides that Loopie isn’t quite so special anymore and they start selling the drug over the counter for a fraction of the price that my insurance company was paying for it before.

Yay! I think. Now, it will be much cheaper for my insurance to cover the cost of this great medication, Loopie OTC. However, the insurance company says, now that anyone can get Loopie, we don’t see why we should have to pay for it. Pay for it yourself.

Wait a minute, insurance company. If you were willing to pay the pharmaceutical company $200 for the month supply of Loopie you used to require me to pay $20 to pick up from the pharmacy, why is it that you aren’t willing to pay at least a portion of the $25 that I now have to pay for Loopie OTC?

Am I alone on this one?

There is so much about this topic that disturbs me, I’m not sure where to begin. Well, let’s start with the obvious one, that lupus is still considered by many to be a joke disease. Why? Well, I think people joke about things that don’t make sense to them and Lupus certainly doesn’t make much sense. Some people we know who have lupus have such a mild case that they appear to others as not being sick at all. On the other hand, someone we knew just lost their battle with lupus. I don’t know how to fix society’s perception. American society appears to be much more interested in being entertained than being educated.

When a society makes political decisions based on entertainers masquerading as journalists, the eventual conflict for ratings and viewership can only result in a political system forced to make decisions based on the amusement of the masses and the economy of YouTube viewership.

Every day that a person turns on the radio and listens to someone like Rush Limbaugh tell them how to be a real American or feels like they are politically involved because they watch The Daily Show, this economy of stupidity will continue to perpetuate itself until this country is reduced into neatly identified marketing groups of lemmings running blindly toward their edu-taining talking head of choice.

I wish I had some easy solution, but sanity is not very entertaining.

There’s just so much to do and so many activities going on around here. It’s hard to stay sane sometimes. It’s like that for everyone, I suppose. Having to be concerned about Jenny’s lupus just makes everything that much more difficult.

I’ll tell you what. Since I’m so burned out right now, I will just post a lolcat.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I know lolcats are dumb, but sometimes they make me laugh when nothing else will.

I’m really tired and this is a very lame post.

Just a short online search revealed a very interesting link to a web chat transcript on The Lupus Foundation of America site. Dr. Laura Coleman is a registered dietitian, and had this to say in response to a question regarding specific foods causing a lupus flare:

As for whether there are any specific foods that trigger a lupus flare, the answer is unfortunately rather vague. Some foods may trigger a flare for some people but not others, and some people may not have problems with any foods at all. That being said, patients can pay attention to their diet, and if a specific food is suspected of triggering a flare, they should require that a pattern of ingestion followed by worsening occurs at least 3 times before eliminating a food from the diet. Even if it appears that a food is causing some trouble, it could be that another factor, such as the source of the food, use of chemicals or other preservatives, or even the interaction of several foods, is the problem.

I recommend that you read the entire transcript, which is available here.

I also found a very helpul site on Food Allergy, which offers some useful advice.