About Me
- Name: Sagepaper
- Location: United States
An only child and service-brat, I was born in Panama. We lived on Indian Reservations when I was two to four-and-a-half -- crucial years for social development. Culturally, I am a mixed-up White Eyes from Mescalero. I began college at fifteen, enjoying a luxurious seven years of rigorous liberal arts education. Since graduating with a B.A. in Psychology, I have avidly read non-fiction, adding enormously to my formal education. Disabled by Tourette's Syndrome and other conditions, I live in Atlanta's suburbia. My father and husband are both physicians, and share a consulting business. (I am very proud of what they do, but I mention their occupations because people cannot seem to move to another small-talk topic if I simply say I am disabled. They must be told an occupation, and will start asking about family members to get one.)
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Herein find essays, musings, Haiku, and other traditional poetry.
Thursday, May 24, 2007
Deplin = Depression Remission!
About a month ago, I awoke to a pretty day. The weather had been nice for a week or so, and I had been cheered by it. On this day, though, I did not just smile at the memory of enjoying such beautiful days. I was softly filled with happiness. The emotion was elating in itself, and wonderful combined with the beauty of my backyard.
I was happy.
I easily recognized the feeling, even though I had not experienced it once in the last three to four years. My depression has been varying degrees of controlled, or not, throughout my adulthood. I have not, however, had any remission. I have been a difficult patient to manage. My psychiatrist and I have tried every possible combination of treatments available. Numerous medications left me worse-off, sometimes permanently, than I had been. Others could not be tried because they were contra-indicated by other conditions.
Two or three days before I awakened to happiness, my doctor had given me a thirty-day sample package of Deplin. It was a brand new product, and I was going to be about the fourth of her patients to try it. The first Guinea pig was a lady who was an even more difficult case than I. After years of treatment, including fairly consistent close supervision, she was much better, required less supervision, and appeared to be rapidly headed toward being a fully functioning outpatient. Despite my run of bad luck with trying the the latest and greatest side-effects on the market, I was eager to try the Deplin.
Deplin is not a drug, although it requires a prescription. It is called a "medical food." I have never studied chemistry, but could sort of follow the explanation about it being some mirror image of a rotated variant of an altered molecule of a specific type of folate, or something like that. I guess, in even less sophisticated terms, I would call it a designer vitamin. You will not find this at your local health food store.
Folate, especially this patented and highly potent version, is essential to the production of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine: the three neuro-transmitters (brain-soup ingredients) most critical to the disease-process and treatment of depression. Taking Deplin gives the brain a supply of an essential ingredient needed to produce adequate amounts of these neuro-transmitters.
A simple across-the-board increase of the supply of those particular three neuro-transmitters would not conscientiously address the complexities of tampering with the brain-soup. For example, Deplin would not create the proper proportions of the soup ingredients for each patient, nor address the matter of how the levels of these chemicals affect the levels of other important neuro-transmitters. Taking Deplin alone could actually cause or exacerbate a chemical imbalance in the brain. The soup might have a stronger "flavor," but it might be more potently "foul." Deplin is, therefore, approved for use only as an "adjunct therapy." The proportions of the neurotransmitters must be managed with other appropriate medications prescribed for mood disorders.
I hope my explanation has been accurate and useful. I am excited, not just for myself, but also for the millions of fellow sufferers in our nation. Since starting the Deplin, I have heard of nothing but additional cases of "miraculous," swift reductions and remissions of depression upon starting Deplin.
If Deplin is so strongly effective across-the-board, I believe its success will actually be seen in the economy. Depression is the most common mental illness. Depression can remove people like me from the workforce entirely, severely impair the efficiency and job performance of the afflicted, cause absenteeism and tardiness among such employees, and the presence of depressed workers can even harm morale among healthy co-workers and subordinates. If there is a "cure" for depression, a huge economic drain on our GDP will be replaced by a surge in per capita production. Nice!
Now we come to an ironic issue I face. My date of disability was, as SSA readily admitted, set arbitrarily. I have until April of next year to request a reconsideration. If I can show a significantly earlier date of disability (I can), I will receive a small additional lump-sum payment, and a substantial increase in my monthly payments. I have put off pursuing this for three years; I was too depressed to do anything about it, even though I knew how important a matter it is. It has only been a few weeks since a started taking my daily dose of Deplin, but so far I have improved to the point that preparing my appeal seems like a straight-forward, easily manageable matter.
In fact, I might simultaneously begin the process of applying for a Return-to-Work trial period. Once granted, you may work, with your disability check reduced (often to nothing, but you keep Medicare) by your earnings. You have up to thirty-six months to call-off the experiment, stop working, and return to receiving your ordinary monthly checks.
If you are able to continue working beyond thirty-six months, you have the option to continue on Medicare. The premiums are subsidized during some phase of the Return-to-Work program; after that, you must pay in full. Many who successfully re-enter the job-market find other, more affordable medical coverage, despite a history of having been on Social Security Disability. Personally, I would need to continue my Medicare coverage. It is generous with mental health services and prescriptions, which comprise the lion's share of my high annual out-of-pocket medical expenditures. Typical private insurance policies have sharply curtailed mental health coverage, offering little per incident and a tiny lifetime allowance. In fact, my constellation of diagnoses would probably preclude my even obtaining a useful private insurance policy.
Well, that is the topic which seemed to me worth the first headline. I hope this might help someone else. Please spread the hopeful word about Deplin!
I was happy.
I easily recognized the feeling, even though I had not experienced it once in the last three to four years. My depression has been varying degrees of controlled, or not, throughout my adulthood. I have not, however, had any remission. I have been a difficult patient to manage. My psychiatrist and I have tried every possible combination of treatments available. Numerous medications left me worse-off, sometimes permanently, than I had been. Others could not be tried because they were contra-indicated by other conditions.
Two or three days before I awakened to happiness, my doctor had given me a thirty-day sample package of Deplin. It was a brand new product, and I was going to be about the fourth of her patients to try it. The first Guinea pig was a lady who was an even more difficult case than I. After years of treatment, including fairly consistent close supervision, she was much better, required less supervision, and appeared to be rapidly headed toward being a fully functioning outpatient. Despite my run of bad luck with trying the the latest and greatest side-effects on the market, I was eager to try the Deplin.
Deplin is not a drug, although it requires a prescription. It is called a "medical food." I have never studied chemistry, but could sort of follow the explanation about it being some mirror image of a rotated variant of an altered molecule of a specific type of folate, or something like that. I guess, in even less sophisticated terms, I would call it a designer vitamin. You will not find this at your local health food store.
Folate, especially this patented and highly potent version, is essential to the production of dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine: the three neuro-transmitters (brain-soup ingredients) most critical to the disease-process and treatment of depression. Taking Deplin gives the brain a supply of an essential ingredient needed to produce adequate amounts of these neuro-transmitters.
A simple across-the-board increase of the supply of those particular three neuro-transmitters would not conscientiously address the complexities of tampering with the brain-soup. For example, Deplin would not create the proper proportions of the soup ingredients for each patient, nor address the matter of how the levels of these chemicals affect the levels of other important neuro-transmitters. Taking Deplin alone could actually cause or exacerbate a chemical imbalance in the brain. The soup might have a stronger "flavor," but it might be more potently "foul." Deplin is, therefore, approved for use only as an "adjunct therapy." The proportions of the neurotransmitters must be managed with other appropriate medications prescribed for mood disorders.
I hope my explanation has been accurate and useful. I am excited, not just for myself, but also for the millions of fellow sufferers in our nation. Since starting the Deplin, I have heard of nothing but additional cases of "miraculous," swift reductions and remissions of depression upon starting Deplin.
If Deplin is so strongly effective across-the-board, I believe its success will actually be seen in the economy. Depression is the most common mental illness. Depression can remove people like me from the workforce entirely, severely impair the efficiency and job performance of the afflicted, cause absenteeism and tardiness among such employees, and the presence of depressed workers can even harm morale among healthy co-workers and subordinates. If there is a "cure" for depression, a huge economic drain on our GDP will be replaced by a surge in per capita production. Nice!
Now we come to an ironic issue I face. My date of disability was, as SSA readily admitted, set arbitrarily. I have until April of next year to request a reconsideration. If I can show a significantly earlier date of disability (I can), I will receive a small additional lump-sum payment, and a substantial increase in my monthly payments. I have put off pursuing this for three years; I was too depressed to do anything about it, even though I knew how important a matter it is. It has only been a few weeks since a started taking my daily dose of Deplin, but so far I have improved to the point that preparing my appeal seems like a straight-forward, easily manageable matter.
In fact, I might simultaneously begin the process of applying for a Return-to-Work trial period. Once granted, you may work, with your disability check reduced (often to nothing, but you keep Medicare) by your earnings. You have up to thirty-six months to call-off the experiment, stop working, and return to receiving your ordinary monthly checks.
If you are able to continue working beyond thirty-six months, you have the option to continue on Medicare. The premiums are subsidized during some phase of the Return-to-Work program; after that, you must pay in full. Many who successfully re-enter the job-market find other, more affordable medical coverage, despite a history of having been on Social Security Disability. Personally, I would need to continue my Medicare coverage. It is generous with mental health services and prescriptions, which comprise the lion's share of my high annual out-of-pocket medical expenditures. Typical private insurance policies have sharply curtailed mental health coverage, offering little per incident and a tiny lifetime allowance. In fact, my constellation of diagnoses would probably preclude my even obtaining a useful private insurance policy.
Well, that is the topic which seemed to me worth the first headline. I hope this might help someone else. Please spread the hopeful word about Deplin!
Sunday, May 20, 2007
I'm Back
My last post was in September of 2005. I doubt you will find much that is of interest in the archives, but they are here. I don't know how frequently I will be posting, but I hope to update this at least once a week. We'll see...
In addition to current material, I have quite a few older writings I wish to copy into electronic format. I will probably post many of them. Awhile back, I started writing autobiographical snippets. I intend to include some of these. Most of the writings I will be gathering are poems. Warning: these will not be my better specimens, since I have already typed in the ones I most liked. The worst are completely undated. I wouldn't "sign" them with my initials and the year.
In addition to current material, I have quite a few older writings I wish to copy into electronic format. I will probably post many of them. Awhile back, I started writing autobiographical snippets. I intend to include some of these. Most of the writings I will be gathering are poems. Warning: these will not be my better specimens, since I have already typed in the ones I most liked. The worst are completely undated. I wouldn't "sign" them with my initials and the year.
