Monday, September 22, 2008

2 miles

I did something today, that I've not done since I was probably 17 years old. Abbey and I ran 2 miles together. She was nice enough to run with me (she runs more regularly and usually farther than 2 miles). Back when I was 17, I was running cross country in high school. I wasn't a very good runner, but I liked getting into good shape for basketball season (I wasn't a great basketball player either, but being 6th or 7th guy off the bench meant I usually scored a few points each game).

The temperature outside today was in the mid 70s. At about the 3/4 mile point, I was aware that the flesh of my right leg, the lower femor area was growing numb. A mile later, both knee areas were numb and my forearms, especially my right forearm was very numb. Abbey helped walk me to our home. Climbing the stairs, my head was spinning.

Fortunately, Abbey turned the shower water on at a room temperature for me. Conditions normalized after about 10 minutes of not-too-warm water runner over me. I ran two miles!

Abbey is always doing things to assist me. Recently, she picked up my meds for me. When I got home, she handed me the box of Interferon-B, noting that the box color changed. She wasn't sure the box contained the same meds I usually got from the pharmacist. I told her, they must have changed the price. I've noticed when the box colors change, the price is usually increased. When I looked at the receipt, yup, the price was increased from $2240 per month to $2369 per month. Same meds, different color box colors, no more effective, just more expensive. I wonder how many other people using biological drugs witnessed the color of their med box change this month? This is at least the second time the box color has changed since the start of the year.

If only Abbey had the power to cause congress to pass a law that created an FDA approval route for generic biological drugs -- the patent on Interferon-B is expired -- she'd do it if she was a member of congress. My parents saw Barack Obama in Green Bay today -- I'm confident that Barack Obama would create an FDA approval route for generic biological drugs.