evergreening its not what you think it is

EVERGREENING IS NOT WHAT YOU THINK
no this is not a blog today about organic green living or gardening
or about reforesting the burned out bastrop pines
its about the practice of evergreening

im sure if you have taken any prescription medication you have
been evergreened

not quite sure where the term came from
but i think its from the fact that the drug companies
are always making money from a drug by making slight
changes in it to keep in on patent and to keep it branded and
to keep it expensive

evergreening is where a drug when its close to losing its patent
is changed slightly or combined with another medicine so it
can be continued on a longer patent
prilosec (omeprazole) for stomach acid
was altered to nexium (esomeprazole)
commonly drugs are made extended relief and add xr or er to the name
eg
paxil to paxil xr
verapamil to verapamil xr
ritalin to ritalin xr

what this means is the company can continue to charge higher prices and
maintain profit sometimes for years
and of course we know who pays for all that profit

thats evergreening

in 2010 aricept was evergreened
the aricept patent was due to expire and the aricept was about to go
generic so
a japanese company along with pfizer developed the aricept 23 pill
aricept comes in 5 mg and 10 mg doses and you cant add them
up to get to 23

if your doctor writes for aricept 23 then there is not a generic eqivalent
to that
pretty damn smart huh
and legal

but in my view very shameful
shame on pfizer and shame on the fda and shame on all those doctors
who succumb to the advertising blitz that occurred
yes even major alzheimers groups and medical groups and medical journals
had aricept 23 ads everywhere
yes shame shame

aricept 23 is indicated according to its own website for moderate to severe
alzheimers disease
in a little over 1000 patients there was a slight increase in cognition based
on testing but no clinical improvement was noted by physicians or by the
patients families

that is what its all about
does it work does it make a difference can you see your mom or dad
or brother get better on this
the answer is no it doesnt help better

most consensus is that generic donepezil works just as well with
much less side effects

remember if you have alzheimers you arent going to get better over time
and you will go down hill no matter what is done

aricept slows down the symptoms some at least for awhile
so you get some more time with your family as more like yourself
it doesnt cure it though

warning   if you stop donepezil (aricept) in a patient with alzheimers
you can see a rapid decline in their status as the drug wears off
if it was working to slow things down some

eg if i were to stop my donepezil (aricept) that im on now
i might fast forward up to 5 years so that my family would
notice a significant change in the progression of the disease
im not willing to do this

there was also an increase in side effects to the medicine dose of 23 mg
with more nausea and vomiting and decreased appetite
eating and appetite of course is a big problem with alzheimers patients
as they advance in their disease
many neurological advisors to the fda recommended that aricept 23 not
be approved

well it was 2 years ago and now pfizer has made millions of dollars of profits
off of us
those of us with family members with alzheimers
those of us with alzheimers

yes shame shame

form costoc pharmacy today a 90 day supply of
aricept 10 mg brand is $972.19
donepezil 10 mg generic aricept is $25.40
aricept 23 brand is $909.20

i personally pay cash for my donepezil and get 180 pills for a little over
$30
since my insurance company will only let me get 30 days at a time for $5
i elected to go to costco and get the 180 day supply for cash
i hate going to the pharmacy so now i only go twice a year


yes shame shame
shame on the drug companies
shame on the fda
shame on the doctors who allow themselves to be influenced
shame on the politicians who allow all this to happen
and shame on you and i for not doing something about this

the oganicgreen doctor

power ball, gas

POWERBALL


in case you havent looked at your ticket this morning
the winning number was
5-23-16-22-29 powerball 6

if you live in arizona and missouri i would recommend you
look at your ticket
if you live somewhere else just recycle the paper

the odds of winning was 1 in 175 million
flip a coin 27 times and get heads every time
thats the same odds

so i flipped the coin 27 times and got 13 heads and
14 tails

those are real steep odds but
we bought a lottery ticket anyway
why not right for 2 bucks its worth a try

so my wife she picked the numbers some way
her chances and her method was as good as everyone else
but those two winners
they won and we all lost

however it was fun though just doing it
will do it again if it gets high

you know i didnt win because theres no way i would be
sitting her writing this blog if i had won

well theres always the next one right

GAS
this is not a medically related topic
its for those of you in states with high prices for gas
like california or new york

this weekend i filled my wife shes gas tank with gas
and photographed the price

i had felt like i had won the lottery as i filled up the tank
in her little car
just wish that her tank held more gas

so this is a slight consolation price for not winning the powerball

the organicgreen doctor

im sorry

IM SORRY

i would like to apologize personally to any of you who
ever had a problem getting forms completed at my office
prescriptions refilled questions answered appointments made
referrals done

you see ive gone to the other side
no i didnt change political parties
since im now a patient i have now entered your world
and its not fun sometimes

i think that all medical schools and residency programs
should make all their students and residents become
patients for awhile so they would develop some sensitivity
as to what its like to be one
not fun at times

when i was a resident they did a sensitivity training where all the
male residents had to lay on a exam table and put our legs in
stirrups with the exam door open and stay that way while
people walked by and looked in at you
yes we had our clothes on
it worked though
i did develop a sensitivity for that part of a females experience

wish we had done one to be a patient though and all it entails

again i repeat im sorry

heres the story
one good thing since ive retired and i dont know if its my diagnosis
or if its my medication aricept (donepezil) that i take for possibly
having alzheimers disease i dont ever get mad at anyone or anything
anymore
well i do get mad at the cowboys longhorns and razorbacks

since im on medical disability from my diagnosis i have to get
annual paperwork completed by my neurologist to maintain
my coverage
thats when i enter your world now my world

first let me say that i sent my forms to my neurologist
it took longer for the us mail to get them to dallas than
it did for the neurologist to take the forms complete them
and send them to my insurance company
she did her job and did it well

i will admit that i use to hate doing forms
in fact my nurse did most of them for me
i reviewed them and then signed them

i do regret not having more sensitivity to those patients
especially those with disability insurance claims both short term
and long term that affected their livelihood
the sports form i usually would do fairly quickly

im sorry though to the rest of you

i think thats why i suffered through a 3 hour ordeal yesterday
trying to track down my forms

first i sat down and reviewed all my paperwork to make sure i
had sent it all in correct
and had completed my part

usually i receive a phone call in a few days and a copy back
to me but this time it didnt happen

so phone call to neurology office
push one for english and two for spanish
done
listen to our menu for it may have changed
if this is an emergency call 911
heck i almost called 911 before this was all over with
listen to 4 choices
now which one is the right one for me so i just stayed on the line
some one answered what do you need told her then was put
on hold for 4 minutes listening to good music but it had a
bad scratching sound like a finger down a chalkboard
that was a long 4 minutes

then a person finally came on the line who im sure had a line of
people waiting to talk to her
told her my story
no she said they must have not received it if they had it would
be entered
you need to just send them back in to us again
no way you can kma if im doing that again

she was going to end it there but i was persistent and got her
to agree to send a message to the nurse to call me back

yep should have played my doctor card but i didnt

sure hated to do that leave a nurse message as i knew how
that worked
they only call when you are napping are on the toilet or someway
stepped away from the phone no matter how short of time it is
then you call back and you get to do this all over again

finally i called medical records
had to do all this over again
push 1 or 2 for language of choice
listen to our menu blah blah blah
punched one and punched one
told him my story and he said yes we have your stuff but
its from the insurance company and they have to pay $45 to send
the stuff off
i knew then that something was wrong
bet he wishes he had not answered my call
so after 15 minutes with him he admits he has all 6 pieces of paper
and the neurologist filled them out not soon after she got them
again she did her job well

well sir you have to sign a special roi thats release of information from
us as we cant accept the insurances roi and well need our money
first to get it release
and your insurance is responsible for paying that
but they have to pay us first
not good that took 3 months last year and a trip to dallas to
get this all straightened out

so the plan was i had to fill out this form and fax it to them
then i could call and give them credit card info and they will
mail it to the company
i   would not ever see that money for sure refunded
and i have 2 days to get all this to nebraska

what a mess this is
it shouldnt be this hard now days with our electronic medical record
and emails and texting and tweeting

now after two hours on the phone most of it on hold
i called the agent who handles my claims
you got it
push 1 or 2 for your language
listen to the menu as it may have changed
blah blah blah
if you know your parties extension push it now or listen to our menu
of extension numbers
pushed that one and then theres everyones voice mail came on one
at a time
luckily for me my guys name started with a c and was number 10
what happen to nice friendly operators anyway

yep got a voice mail
ive stepped away from the desk so please leave me a detailed message
i did but didnt say what i wanted to say
you &%^$# &^(*@)(*%$##)@!$% cant you do any of this right

WARNING DONT WATCH VIDEO IF YOU ARE SENSITIVE

but i didnt as i thought of that movie where the guy sent back his 
pancakes because they werent cooked right
oh the things that was done to those pancakes before he got
them back with a big smile
yep when i want to go off on someone i always remember that

you always wait until you get what you want then go off on them

finally after 3 hours i get a phone call from the agent
yes we have your forms and your claim has been continued
into the future

so yes the neurologist got them and sent them off
yes they are in my record
how they ended up in medical records is  mystery to all involved
why the insurance company has to pay for the forms is not known
they dont and i dont

what a waste of my time and everyone involved

yes im sorry
they my office may have put you through all this in the past

sometimes i dont like the other side very much

the organicgreen doctor

leaves

LEAVES
i wish to thank those of you that have donated
leaves to me for use in my compost pile and
my organic garden

each year i collect bags of leaves
lots of leaves
last year it was somewhere between 75-100 bags of
leaves that would have gone into your land fields

a cardiologist i knows wife is a big organic farmer
and whom i will let remain nameless
they drive around the neighborhood where they live
and steal bags and bags of leaves
ok im a sucker for leaves also and have been known
to stop and fill the car trunk or truck with bags of leaves

over a two year process these leaves go from your yard
to my chicken coop area to my compost piles and then
into my garden beds
the chickens shred the leaves and add nitrogen to the
carbon from the leaves ie they take dumps of poop
while playing in the leaves

this picture is from an aerial view of our property
taken a few years ago
the black tank is one of my rainwater tanks thats used
to irrigate the garden with
i have since moved them to a higher elevation behind
my barn so ill have greater pressure for my drip irrigation

the white stuff in my garden is row cover thats used
when the temperature is cold
this picture was taken in the early winter before my winter
garden started growing well

here is the layout of my garden
the chicken coop is on the far left side the metal roof
is visible
the coop has about 10 ft x 40 ft area thats connected
to the coop
10 chickens equal 40 ft apiece when they are locked up

however there is a chicken run that is c shaped or horseshoe
shaped that wraps around my 900 square foot garden space
the garden space extends from the right of the aerial picture
to the edge of the coop area
the chickens have free run of this c shaped area during the day
they will dig scratch shred the leaves that i have spread out
along this c shaped run

also they love to dig in my compost pile that is 4 ft x 20 ft x 2 ft
they can reduce a 3 ft pile of composting leaves etc to almost
nothing in a few weeks

i leave the leaves in the chicken runs for about 6-9 months
they add the nitrogen poop to the leaves which they eventually
shred down to nothing and also add feathers as the molt them
each year

then once a year i rake this all up and place it in my compost
pile which they continue to jump in and reduce its size even more
we also add kitchen scraps and newspapers to the compost pile
and add any leaves or grasses or plant trimmings from our garden
or yard

what i have left is this great mixture of materials that makes the
best compost ive ever had

then i spread this in a 3-4 inch layer over my garden beds usually
in the winter so it can mature until its planting time in the spring

the end result is this bed of winter greens which we use
almost on a daily basis in the winter time in our kitchen
and a spring summer fall garden that provides much
produce all year

so again
thanks to all of you leaf donors
be sure and donate or use your leaves yourself

the organicgreen doctor

lost and found, football

LOST AND FOUND
i wrote recently about losing my billfold
and all the hassles that went along with notifying
everyone that it was lost-banks credit card companies
social security health insurance flex account card
and drivers license folks just to name a few

had to get a new picture taken with my glasses off
since they are using facial recognition software
now at the department of public safety

got all that done
it took up a lot of time
then i kept a close watch on my credit cards bank accounts
credit agency listings
so far nothing had shown up

remember hours were spent taking care of this
some on hold with agencies listening to bad music

plus with a diagnosis like i have you start wondering
well has the time came when i start losing stuff
and cant find it

heck last week i couldnt find my keys for a day
i always hang them on a key rack we have inside
our kitchen
we both know thats where we hang our keys
nope they werent there

my wife she put them on top of my portable radio i
use when i work outside
at least thats what i tell people

then someone told me about the time they lost their keys
they found them later sitting on top of a coke can in
the refrigerator

these things just make you wonder though

well remember the duct tape chair that i blogged about that
im so proud of since
i was known also as the duct tape doctor

for thanksgiving this year
which by the way has now turned out to be the best
my wife she did a deep cleaning of the house
and yes that included cleaning up my duct tape chair

as she was cleaning out underneath
why she was under there i dont know
 she noticed a fringe of brown stuck up in the pipes
underneath the chair

yep there was my billfold
with all my important stuff in it
all unfolded hanging on those pipes

now how in the world did it get there
must have been that mouse that i saw run across
the room that time

FOOTBALL
sorry but the cowboys horns and hogs all three
suck this year

thank goodness for
johnny football
go aggies
that sure hurt to write that

the organicgreen doctor

happy thanksgiving

HAPPY THANKSGIVING


may each of you have a happy thanksgiving tomorrow
and have the beginning of a great holiday season

tomorrow we will be celebrating thanksgiving with a
turkey dinner
ill cook the turkey using a sage lemon recipe that worked
well last year
kept the turkey real moist
then of course well have all kind of fixings to go with it

afterwards we have been know to watch football the
rest of the day

read this morning if you are the one that cooks thanksgiving dinner
and do most of the work that you  will burn over
700 calories doing that

however

most of us will consume 3000-5000 calories each
and the food that has the most calories in it that we
will eat will be

pecan pie


so if you cook the turkey you will be able to offset the
pecan pie calories

guess thats what ill do

do have a happy thanksgiving
and think of those things to be thankful for this year

the organicgreen doctor

holiday beans

HOLIDAY BEANS

these beans are called christmas lima beans
they are the best beans ive ever eaten
i discovered them from an organic seed company that
featured them in their catalog last year

in this picture from my recent crop they were picked early
so some were immature and dont have the color
that the mature bean does

in fact last year when we were at the farmers market
in san francisco at the ferry building the company
that i bought the beans from off the internet was there
and i bought a package of them
here is their website

we brought them home and cooked them
but they sure are better when you pull them
fresh off the vines and eat them that day

those vines are huge
they grow over ten foot high and are real thick
and look good in the garden
i actually use them to shade out the peppers from the
hot summer sun

last year i planted them but the freeze wiped them out
before they produced their large bean inside its pod
they are really made for a warmer climate

so when i plant them i know its a gamble because if
we get an early freeze they will get wiped out
even if i cover them with a thick row cover

its kinda sad because you plant them in april and
you nourish them all summer and fall just hoping
that the weather will cooperate until they all
mature

this weekend we got down to 29 degrees here since we
are in a low spot near the river and the vines
were all frozen as were the basil tomatoes peppers
and squash
luckily we had picked everything anticipating the freeze

these beans are large like the big butter beans we use to eat
when i was a kid

these are different because of the purple striations throughout
the bean and are different
because the flavor is so good

i have cooked them just in enough water to cover them good
until they were tender
no seasoning no salt no pepper no salt meat no bacon no pig feet
just plain ole beans

they taste like they are well seasoned and were cooked in ham

yes they are worth the gamble every year to see if they will beat
that first freeze

my contribution to the early christmas season celebration
move over black friday

the organicgreen doctor

its not nascar, bumblebee football

ITS NOT NASCAR
in the us nascar is king but in the world grand prix formula one
racing rules
its like american football then theres world soccer

over 500 million people watched the formula one race
yesterday in austin texas on a cloud free sunny day
the inaugural race here

a total of near 120,000 filled the cirucit of the americus here
to watch the race
a total of 300,000 for the three days

here is a picture that was sent to me after i wrote about
zoom zoom last week

once on the 130 toll with its 85 mph speed limit and the
other on the speed of the formula one cars
some one said that what impressed them was the speed
that these car do in the straightaways

we were given grandstand seats for saturday
price $1000 each
we actually gave them away to two teenage kids who
are friends
what a day those two had there
after the race there there was a concert country western of
course to get people to hang around so that the numbers
leaving the track would not be as heavy

downtown they had a fun fest that was a success
my wife she and her fearless friend went in the mass of people
saturday night
sixth street was packed-if youve been to austin you know that street
what she noticed was there were so many foreign languages spoken
the crowds were not rowdy just a lot of fun
almost polite

the traffic was apparently well controlled
i guess with 500 buses hauling people back and forth that
helped a lot and helicopters

of course in austin some people biked there
they even had special lanes for the bikers
only in austin

now the airport is packed as people from all over the world
return to their countries
with a good impression of this area
heck one of the formula one race drivers decided to buy a
large ranch while he was here he liked it so much

what a great weekend for austin texas as it presented itself to
the world
more people were watching than were watching football yesterday

austin is ready for next year
maybe ill keep that ticket next year

BUMBLEBEE FOOTBALL

how embarrassing is it for those pittsburgh steelers to wear those
dang bumblebee uniforms
looks like they belong in a honey commercial
while some one sings the song buzz bobby buzz bobby

now that they lost last night maybe theyll retire those outfits

dang those cowboys they looked so bad but they won
guess thats what counts
wish they wouldnt mess with their fans like that

thanks baylor for beating kansas state
youve ticked them off for the rest of the season
especially when they play the longhorns

if i could pay to go watch one team this year
if i had a choice
i would go watch the washington redskins just to watch
rg3 do his magic
every time i see him play on tv it makes me sick that
the longhorns missed out on him when they tried to recruit
him as an athlete
im sure he was insulted
he paid texas back though the last two years he played them
yep rg3 is the real deal
lebron and rg3 are the two athletes i would like to see live
(well actually i have seen both live)

the organicgreen doctor

alzheimer worm

ALZHEIMER WORM

there he or she is the alzheimer worm
yesterday i got to hold a petri dish full of these
alzheimer worms
i wrote about them recently when i wrote about my composting
worms i had put in my garden

holding that petri dish up to the light and seeing those
little worms that were the size of this .
i will admit that i was in awe
i did get sweaty and my heart rate picked up as i
held that dish

why

what if they held the answer that we have all been looking for

it will be pure science by researchers like those at this
ut lab i visited that will provide the answer or the piece of
the puzzle that is needed for a cure or treatment for
alzhiemers disease

the worms called scientifically c.elegans
are transparent so that you can actually see with a microscope
the neurons that run down their bodies
there are a limited number of them so if one is damaged
you can easily see it

they also have only a limited number of genes i think it was 230+
so when you add a research gene its easily identified on the
worms limited genome
humans have millions of genes

these worms only live 7 days so when a gene for alzheimers is
inserted into their genome its affects will be noticed in 3 days
in humans it will be 20-30 years
in research rats it will be months and sometimes several years
before the genes effect show up

these researchers inserted a alzheimer gene into the worms
genome that produces a protein that accumulates in humans
who have the gene and they develop alzheimers

remember this process occurs over years in humans
but in only 3 days in the alzheimer worm
so its easy to try different treatments to see if those drugs or
chemicals or foods can prevent the protein from forming
thus potentially preventing or slowing down alzheimers

they also have been able to attach fluorescence to these genes so
they will fluoresce hopefully purple since thats the alzheimers
associations color
if this alzheimers protein is produced

then it can be identified simply with the microscope instead of doing
a more lengthy and expensive procedure to identify the protein

in fact hundreds or thousands of chemicals or compounds could
be tested at one time and if there is fluorescence then that can
be measured easily

so drugs or chemicals that are new or old drugs could quickly
be evaluated and within 3 days you will know if they have
potential to work against alzhiemers disease

one drug that was tested was the anticancer drug bexarotene
when it was applied to these alzheimer worms the protein
was not produced and there was no degeneration of
neurons in the worms ie those worms didnt get alzheimers

transfer that to humans
if you gave bexarotene to humans in the early stage or even
earlier than that then they would not develop alzheimers
or develop more alzheimers
hence a cure or treatment for this disease

in fact in 2013 this drug bexarotene which is generically
available now will be tested in a study with humans next year
so we should soon have an answer on this soon

the alzheimer worm research which is not published yet implies
that it may work
from the research lab to the clinical trials
thats how this mystery will be solved

thanks to the research scientists at ut austin for giving me a tour
of their lab
and giving me some hope for the future

the organicgreen doctor

real zoom zoom

REAL ZOOM ZOOM
this weekend i was feeling so hot
zooming along with my speedometer set on 85 mph
as the landscape zipped by real fast

then as i got close to the airport i saw the exit to
the circuit of americus racetrack and then saw its
tower and 3.47 mile track
this brought me down to earth to reality

this weekend 120,000 people will be sitting in those
stands watching those formula 1 grandprix cars
zip around that track at up to 220 mph
thats almost three times the speed that i was going
and was feeling real good and real cautious at the
same time

the new 130 highway that allows 85 mph driving has
had a problem with feral hogs running across the
highway at night
heck theyve had all that landscape to themselves
for awhile

i can only imagine what those 220 mph cars could
do to a feral hog
if they save the hogs tail they can turn it in for cash

there will be an estimated 300,000 people dumped
into the austin area this weekend
party city is definitely going on downtown for sure

they have leased 500 buses to haul folks back and forth
heck some people will be hopping on helicopters near
their hotels and skipping all those traffic jams to land
on a special helipad at the race

figure those folks got more money than they know
what to do with

the 20 minute ride to the airport will take its estimated
up to 3 hours to get there

the traffic congestion starts today and intensifies this weekend
if youve been through austin on i35 you know its bad already
at times
this will be the worst of the worst

my wife she and i had elected to stay away from the area
however
i have a meeting today with a ut researcher who is working
on the alzheimers worms
(more on that meeting tomorrow)
think it may be on the perimeter of the streets that will be closed

my wife she and her fearless friend will be going into the eye of
the tiger on saturday to a festival downtown
theyll never learn

ill be on the perimeter north of austin doing my habitat for
humanity thing then later watching college football on the
comfort of my couch at the country n

yes real zoom zoom
wish i could watch it live though
maybe ill glance at it on speed tv during the commercials of
the football game

the organicgreen doctor

zoooom zoooom

ZOOOOM ZOOOOM
thats the sound the car made this weekend
on the way back from lost maples

when i was growing up in southern arkansas
my younger brother the one with alzheimers and i went
together and bought a used ford fairlane two door
car that was two toned blue and white
it had one of those big engines in it that let you go faster
quicker than you really needed to be
a 350+- or a 457+-
whatever it was it was definitely more than we needed

around there we all knew where the good straight aways
were so we could zoom zoom and see how fast it could
go from a dead start

with some screeching tires

we didnt have to worry about police as there were never any
around
testosterone was really flowing high during this time

think the fastest we were ever able to go was 110+ on that
straightaway
move over nascar

(sad though that old car was destroyed one real foggy morning
while only going 30 miles an hour when i hit a large black angus
bull
at least i was not going fast)

so back to this weekend
ive been looking forward to this for several weeks
they put an extension to the toll road from austin to san antonio
you start out at 70 then 75 then 80 and then now
you can go 85 mph

yes thats 85 mph and its all legal
dang wish these things had been around when we had that old fairlane

so on the way back from lost maples we took our less scenic route
and went i10 to the new toll road extention near sequin texas
hopped on that road
pushed it to 5th gear
and zoooom zoooom
there i was up to the maximum speed limit

that felt so good
made me feel like a teenager again
my wife she sure kept an eye on me

(do you wonder how that picture of the speedometer was taken
you dont want to know)

know what route ill be going on from now on when i drive south
zoooom zoooom

the organicgreen doctor

mary

MARY

mary is not her real name
its been close to 20 years since i first met her
as my patient

she was a single mom working to make it and to
maintain her health insurance which she would
need frequently over the next several years

no matter what happened to her she always had
this smile she would flash at you with her
sense of humor
even when things were going not too good in her life

she was always an inspiration to me and i used her
story frequently to encourage patients not to give up

mary wish i could use her real name was diagnosed with
an aggressive form of breast cancer at the age of 33
she had a teenage daughter at the time
not sure at her diagnosis if she was single yet or whether
the separation occurred after the diagnosis

she fought the diagnosis and the disease by herself

when i first met her she wore a wig as she had lost all
her hair from the chemo
and had had a bilateral mastectomy and
had had bilateral breast reconstruction that was
successful in their appearance

she continued to work as she needed her insurance and
had to raise her daughter

later she developed metastatic lesions
the biggest was a grapefruit size lesion in her pelvis
treatment did not make that lesion go away

she found someone who would aggressive treat this
lesion that involved surgically removing the lesion and
leaving her a large hole in her pelvic bone

over the time that i was her physician she did not have a
recurrence in that area or elsewhere

but she had severe daily pain in that area
a lot of nerves go through the pelvic area

she was the first patient and the only patient that i took care
of that required such large doses of strong meds to control
her pain
i never thought twice about writing those prescriptions
im sure some dea person somewhere was monitoring my
prescribing such high doses

over the 7-8 years i was her primary care doctor she never
had a pain free day but she had a day and several more

she was able to watch her daughter finish high school
attend college
get married and
provide her with grand kids to enjoy in her last years

mary died last week
i presume it was from the recurrence of the breast cancer
but im not certain of that

she was an inspiration to me and to others who heard her story
she fought hard to live as long as she did
she was not afraid to try new aggressive treatments to live

there will not be a week that goes by that i wont think about
you mary

am glad you had the time you had and thanks for allowing
me to be part of your life

the organicgreen doctor

rememberence, lost, romo gumbo

REMEMBERENCE

yesterday was veterans day
a day to remember those who have served in the military
especially those who lost their lives
these guys and gals are the ones that served to protect us
including protecting our right to vote last week

am thankful for the safe return of my nephew from his tour in
afghanistan
thankful for another nephew who served in the navy
thankful to my three brothers who served in the military
and retired after 20 years service
my rainwater brother my historian brother and my
older brother
thankful to my moms brother who served in the military
during world war 2
he was wounded while in the pacific war

thanks to my historian brother for reminding our family
members about our connection to this veterans day

LOST
my wife she and i go to lost maples state park
in the hill country just southwest of san antonio every year

if we catch the leaves just right
if the cold has hit some and
if the weather is just right
then the leaves on those maples can be as beautiful as
those you see in maine and vermont

see they are the same trees those maples
they got lost in this canyon in the hill country
thus the name lost maples

we always meet my two brothers and their wives there
and have 3 days together

my wife and i usually hike the first day
this year we did a hike up the western side for 5-6 miles
its interesting to see the difference in the vegetation and leaves
each year and
to see how the terrain has changed

this year the leaves were much greener and since we have
not had a lot of cold weather yet there was not much of the
beautiful leaf changes that you usually see

if you are a newcomer to lost maples go to the maple trail
at the start of the east trail
its only about an half mile walk
then go to the west trail and walk to the ponds
you can usually see a good variety of leaf changes on these
two walks

for those who are ergonomically challenged these are the best
trails to walk

ROMO GUMBO
im a big cowboy fan
its been a rough 15 years

we have romo gumbo
if youve eaten gumbo you know they have a little of everything
in there
it can be too hot and spicey or it can be too greasy or it can
be too gooey or sometimes it just seems to be just right
thats the way romo and the cowboys were last night
just right

despite how bad theyve played this year they still have a
chance to make it to the playoffs

hope the cowboy cook saved the recipe from last nights game

shout out to those aggies
great game with the bama guys
guess im glad yur in the sec now

good job longhorns of honoring darrell k royal this weekend
with that first wishbone play
am sure dkr would have liked that
good game horns

the hogs well there is always next year with yur new coach

the organicgreen doctor

darrell and frank

DARRELL AND FRANK

darrell is darrell k royal
frank is frank broyles
many of us know them as football coaches

those of us who are hog fans know who dk royal is
as
he brought his longhorns into fayetteville arkansas
in december 1969
in the battle of the century there in front of a full stadium and
in front of the then president nixon who was helicoptered in and was
there to present the national championship to the winner

it was james street the qb for texas who made a pass that
ended the hogs chance for their only national championship

yes all hog fans know who he was
even those born after that fateful game may know who he was

frank was the arkansas coach
of that fateful hog team that lost that day

they were competitors but they were good friends
good golfing buddies

both are legends at their schools and will always be
frank and dkr

they were also tied together in another way
a more tragic connection
that connection is alzheimers disease

franks wife barbara had a gradually onset of this disease that
eventually took her in 2004
coach broyles wrote a book called the
coach broyles playbook for alzheimers caregivers
it is a popular book for those families and caregivers affected by
this terrible disease

in fact i used it frequently as did some of my family members
in dealing with the terrible progression of the disease in
my mother

i kept it readily available in my office for others to read

so it this alzheimers monster hit frank broyles hard and took
his wife away from him
then
his good friend darrell k royal it hit him and took him away also
as the monster got him a few years ago

apparently dkr was witty to the end
he died last week after a fall
thats common a fall or infection to be the reason for the end
my moms was an infection

dkrs family have become advocates and big supporters of
the alzheimers association
something that happens to you when this disease hits your family

they have started a fund called
the darrell k royal fund for alzheimers research

so theres these two icons of college football
who are tied together by this sport
their friendship
and
by alzheimers disease

rip dkr

the organicgreen doctor

stolen tools,anthill garden

STOLEN TOOLS

last week the site where the habitat for humanity is building
a house had its tool trailer broken into and several hundreds of
dollars of tools were stolen from the shed

luckily they had insurance on it but there is a high deductible
that needs to be covered
if you have a few bucks you can donate to help this worthy
cause go to the habitats website and donate online
some people are donating $5 or $10 or $15

sure hope those thieves get whats coming to them
bad karma
also i hope they got the nail gun with the short in it and the one
that jams all the time
hope it catches fire when they use it

ANTHILL GARDEN
first there was raised garden beds then
square foot gardens then
keyhole gardens then
now we have what i call the anthill garden

the austin paper had an article about this the last weekend
here is the link to that article on the anthill garden

i call it the anthill garden cuz thats what it looks like
a row of anthills like you see in africa

the official name is hugelkultur
looks german to me

first you take logs and line them up along your bed lengthwise
some people dig a trench to put them in or dig the beds down
1+- feet
on top of these logs you add sightly larger limbs
on top of these add twigs and leaves
on top of this do layers of leaves compost dirt
on the very top layer add several inches of top soil
and build it up to about 3 feet

how this all works is that the logs and limbs slowly decompose
over a long time and gradually release nutrients to the soil
the logs provide carbon and the compost provides nitrogen
these logs and limbs also hold moisture in them

this mound or anthill helps hold moisture in our dry conditions
we seemed to have developed here in central texas

i plan on taking one of my 4ft x 12ft beds and
dig out my soil to 1.5 feet
add rows of logs from the trees that have died on my property
from the drought the last 2 years
add layers of limbs and twigs
then add layers of newspapers over that and then layers of
compost and dirt with a top icing
of good country n soil

i think this year ill plant my tomatoes in these mounds or anthill
rows and see what happens

viel gluck

the organicgreen doctor

tgio

TGIO

thank goodness its over
thats what all the kids in america will say this morning
when they turn on pbs to watch big bird on tv
like millions of kids have done for years
(why did mitt have to say that and scare all those kids)

really im glad its over
now i can friend some of my facebook friends
however when i looked at facebook this morning
i may need to reblock a few folks

yes karl rowe obama won
fox news tried to convince you last night
but you wouldnt listen

we the american people have spoken
that how our system works


one of the happest folks are those people who live in ohio
no political ads
no robo calls and other calls
i was with someone in a meeting yesterday from ohio
she has an ohio phone number
she got over 20 phone calls yesterday asking her to be sure
and vote

i hope the republican party will take time and look at itself
in the mirror and see why they lost
one thing they will notice is that everyone in that mirror is white
and mostly male
surely they must realize there needs to be movement to the
more moderate views of their party
ive alway told everyone if the republican party will do that
they probably will never lose an election

if mitt had won and he remained the moderate mitt
he would probably had been an eight year president
he would have done a good job as president

america is changing
we all need to accept this and start working together

you can not alienated women
all of us men know that
you make them mad and youll pay for it

the meeting i was at had some republican women who
opposed their partys stand on social issues related to womens
health and womens rights

you also cant alienate people of color
the hispanic and asian populations have increased over 40%
over the last several years

those things important to them can and may have swung this election

yes we all have to change
whether you won or lost this year

i sure hope now as we approach that cliff
that congress and the president can work together to
fix what needs fixing to keep us from falling off the clift

yep tgio i hope for the future

the organicgreen doctor

todays the day

TODAYS THE DAY

well the people have spoken
in dixville notch new hampshire at least
their ten voters voted just after midnight
obama 5 romney 5

im afraid that dixville notch new hampshire may be right on
for the popular votes this year
it could be one of those 50/50 elections

i voted earlier 1 week ago and my wife she will
vote first thing this morning when our polling place
opens at 700 am
no she will not be canceling my vote out but
we will be canceling some of your votes out
well at least two

it is disturbing to me that some of our states have made
it difficult for people to vote and to early vote
as shown in florida this weekend
it even took a court order in some places to keep those
early voting places open
i would think that florida would not want any more
blemishes on their voting procedures

heck those politicians who tried to limit voting looks like
they also limited some of their own parties voters

just like you dont tick off your wife when shes cooking for you
(you never know what could happen to that  food)
you dont tick off the voters by affecting their ability to vote
its a right that we have in our past history fought so hard
to establish and maintain

i hope it comes back to haunt them in future elections

here in the county where austin is located you can go to
any polling place and vote even if its not in your precinct
what a novel idea
so if youre stuck at work and cant get home through all
that traffic you can vote anywhere

yes dont restrict anyones right to vote whether they agree
with you or not

my prediction is based on watching balanced news shows and
looking at polls and not taking into account each parties polls
which are skewed to favor them

the popular vote will be close
its possible with the hurricane sandys effect in the northeast
causing problems with voting that romney could win the
popular vote and lose the electoral vote

obama will win the electoral vote by a narrow margin
as the polls all lean towards him in most of the battleground
states

congress will end up with the senate staying democratic by a
narrow margin
the house will stay about the same

the result may be
more gridlock

if so this gridlock thing is a bad thing
and nobody will really win tomorrow
we will all lose

i sure hope not

the organicgreen doctor

done, help out, what time is it

DONE

were done with our walks to end alzheimers
combining the three walks our team did we had
successful walks
we had a close to 50 people walk with our teams

i especially enjoyed talking to participants and listening
to their stories
many were tearful ones

this one family had family members who had the disease and
walk in the temple bell county walk every year
they raise more money than any other group

this last year one of the relatives made a quilt of the walk
tshirts for the last few years
now im not a quilt expert like dr bates from the suture for a living
blog or my rainwater brothers wife or my older brothers wife
but the quality of workmanship on this seemed
to be a top notch job

then when you talk to the family and listen to their story
it makes the quilt look ever better

HELP OUT
i donate our donation money all to the alzheimers association
because of all the good work its done in alzheimers education and
in getting the government to fund and pass new laws affecting
alzheimers patients and funding

well i do donate occasionally to some kids ball team or band
or elementary school fund raising

but when things come along like katrina did and like the
sandy hurricane thats devastated the northeast
i always do a donation to the relief effort through the red cross
the government cant do it all

please donate to the red cross for its relief effort for those
affected by sandy
donate here at www.redcross.org/lp/sandy

WHAT TIME IS IT

when i go to the alzheimers research center for my followup
visits i do the same neuropsychological tests every time
one of the things i have to do is draw a clock put in the numbers
and draw in the time
glad i didnt have to do that yesterday

yesterday i got up at 4 am
i felt so good because as ive written before this damn aricept
im on messes with my sleep big time
i was so proud i slept in (for me thats sleeping in)
so i did my computer and reading routine
checking my watch several times then
i looked down at the time on my computer
it had set itself to the new time as had my cell phone
damn it

my wife she makes lunch for us on saturdays and sundays
as my reward for being good all week dong my honeydos
the problem was when she got up she moved the time forward
ie she sprung forward instead of falling forward on our clock
in the kitchen
so we had a brunch on sunday instead of lunch

i hate the time change
wish they would leave it alone like in arizona
just make sure that there is the mostest daylight in
the late afternoon and not the morning

so what time is it
my body says one thing and my clock says another

the organicgreen doctor

last walk, bad dream

Walk to End Alzheimers
we are also walking in the bell county/temple 
walk to end alzheimers on saturday november 3 2012

you can walk free but a donation to and or joining
my organicgreendoctor team is appreciated

LAST WALK
tomorrow is the last of the three walks we are doing for
the alzheimers associations walk to end alzheimers

last weekend at the austin walk there was an elderly man
probably in his mid 70s
he was in a wheel chair
i first encountered him on the walk up one of the small
hills that the walk had on it this year

he was faced backwards and was pushing himself up the
hill in the wheelchair
a younger man i presume it was his son was helping to
guide the wheelchair up the hill as the old man provided
all the power with his legs to get the chair up the hill

i offered to help pull him up the hill
his presumed son said no he wants to do this himself
he struggled and sweated and was short of breath but he
got up over that hill and coasted down the other side

i understand his motivation
probably he was walking for his wife is my guess
i was walking for my mom dad and younger brother
and for myself

what an inspiration this old man was
i understand

BAD DREAM
ive written before about my vivid dreams that are caused by
the aricept (donepezil) that i take for my diagnosis of
mild cognitive impairment that may be due to alzheimers disease
and how they are never bad ones

well i had a bad one

last night i was in the denver airport
guess denver because of all the talk about colorados role in
the election as a swing state

met little abbie and her family there guess because someone
had written me a message that they had read the blog about
her and how it was such an inspiration (her blog is the one of
my popular blog posts on the list to the right of this blog)

also ran into several patients of mine at the airport
some had medical problems that they needed help with
so i stopped and spent time with them to help them get
the right advice on where to go to get the right care and treatment
for their problems

guess thats because i had a patient a teenager i had talked to
this week about a medical problem she had and was able
to give some advice about what evaluations she needed to have done

i of course have to be careful since i have given up my license and
cant legally practice medicine anymore-thanks to my diagnosis and
my personal choice to end my career

so there i was in the denver airport actually with a group of former
patients that were all flying on the same plane back to austin that
i was to fly on

i use to have an old silver metal briefcase that i got when i was in
college from my historian brother and i used it all the way
through college medical school and my early practice
think something james bond would have carried stuff in in his
early movies
ive since donated it to one of my former patients who needed an
old briefcase for a school project using it as a star wars or something
like that prop

in my dream i put my wallet my cell phone my jacket and my airline
ticket in that old briefcase
i sat it down as i ordered a drink
when i got ready to board the plane i couldnt find my briefcase

so there i was in the denver airport without a wallet or id without a
cellphone without a ticket and if you are like me you have no idea
of anyones cell phone numbers
i know mine and our home number and no one elses
not even my wife shes number

what was i going to do

what i did was woke up suddenly and couldnt go back to sleep
i had wanted to finish this dream to get a better outcome

yep
bad dream

the organicgreen doctor

smaller is better

Walk to End Alzheimers
we are also walking in the bell county/temple 
walk to end alzheimers on saturday november 3 2012

you can walk free but a donation to and or joining
my organicgreendoctor team is appreciated

SMALLER IS BETTER
no this isnt about what you think
its about living space

yesterday as i worked at the habitat for humanity house
putting up osb siding on the house i peered through the
house at the layout of the house and then stepped back
out onto the street and looked at the house and its lot

what have we done in america
to need all these big houses and big lots

these habitat houses are small and efficient
the layout utilizes every bit of space
why do we need all that other room that we all seem
to want in our homes

the houses are more expensive
utility bills are higher
the taxes are higher
upkeep is higher
we have a lifetime of debt
some never get out from under it and
in this recession their houses were the reasons they
went under financially

we have a 2800 square foot house and could easily
get by on half that amount
heck theres parts of the house i hardly go into unless
we have company
ive been in house trailers and in cabins and in apartments
that are built efficiently using smaller spaces

in new york there is a company that now builds small
efficiency apartments that have got their inspiration for
its design from trailer houses
new meaning for trailer trash i guess new york style

seriously we do need to rethink how we are doing things
here in america
as our national debt grows and our personal debt grows
we need to change a lot of things we are doing in order
to survive in the future

we could start with downsizing earlier in life
maybe downsizing from day one

the organicgreen doctor