Alzheimer's To drug or not to drug that is the question.

To drug - or not to drug - that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous doctors, Or to take arms against a sea of troubles, And by opposing end them.

To drug or not to drug that is the question. The answer isn't an easy one but is most important. Consider what your doctor tells you but know you should not use them for your only source of information. They don't have to live with the decision you do. The doctors answer isn't the only answer and it's not always the right answer. Be aware. Be in control. Be enlightened. Be informed. Watch your health care professionals like a hawk.

The doctor wanted to put Edith on a well known prescription that starts with the letter "A". We wanted to start her on the herb ginkgo biloba. The thing is that ginkgo biloba can take two to six months to show benefit. Some people get results after only a week or two. If you don't get fast results be patient it's worth it. The doctor only wanted to try the ginkgo biloba for two weeks. Well after a few more visits to the doctor she convinced us to try the "A" drug. This was a big mistake. It took a friendly, happy and loving person and changed her personality overnight. She became argumentative, belligerent, confrontational and I could come up with a negative term for every letter of the alphabet.

This was not from the progression of Alzheimer's but had I not known what I knew I would have believed the doctor. The family discussed this and we all agreed this was not the way we or she would want to handle her treatment. We stopped the drug known as "A" after one week of hell for her and for us. It took me a month to get her back to the pleasant caring person we all loved. Thank God the effects were reversible.

Edith was started on 5 mg of that drug and the doctor wanted to increase the dose to 10 mg doses by the end of the month. When we got to see the doctor she tried to shame us and told us it was probably to late now for the drug to work at all. As if we took her only hope for a slow progression into the depths of this disease that steals away everything you are. Doctors should stop making statements like that. It's nonsense to say that and doesn't make sense. If it isn't going to work now it wasn't going to work 3 weeks ago.

This was the start of an incredible journey and a great awakening in my own consciousness. My own spirituality became stronger and I found in myself another glimpse of our greater self. If you think you could not do what do or have done you are wrong. I have learned to take back control of our health and be responsible for it. This will empower you and make you stronger and smarter.

Question everything. You won't believe the things that come out of a doctors mouth that they can't prove. If they make an effort to offer proof. Question their proof. They might not like it but who cares what they like. Their ego isn't important your health is. The medical industry is out of control and it's time they know we don't like them doing what they are doing.

No one has more interest in their health condition than the one that is sick. That's why you hear so often of patients knowing more than the doctors that treat them. The ill person often seeks knowledge far beyond what doctors know because they live with their illness 24 hours a day. I learned to look beyond the knowledge that doctors deem credible and question the doctors sources of knowledge. When did they replace the Hippocratic oath with the Pharmaceutical oath and the Insurance Company oath.

Your doctor may not be telling you all of your medical treatment options. You might only be told of treatments your health insurance approves of or covers. You might not be told of the one or more treatments that would be better you. I don't like my choices filtered or censored. I'll decide what's right for me.