Mirapex
Last week my father-in-law made his regular trip to the clinic. He is 75 years old so I think trips to the clinic are pretty much a weekly occurrence. Try this and come back next week, try this and come back next week, try this and come back next you. You all know how it goes.
Anyway, while there he requested a prescription for generic Ambien. He had been given samples of the real Ambien and it helped him sleep at night. He pretty much sleeps all day so sleeping all night can sometimes be a problem. He has no problem taking the real Ambien other than the cost. Why pay x for a months supply when you can get the same thing for y? I am sure you all know how that goes also. Members of the greatest generation can raise more than a little bit of hell about the cost of FDA approved drugs.
The doctor was more than happy to give my father-in-law a few free samples of Ambien but when it came to writing a prescription for the generic equivalent he balked. Instead he recommended he try a few free samples of Mirapex.
Papaw, (this is what I call my father-in-law) does not have nor has he ever had the jimmy leg as far as I know. If he does he has never mentioned it. But I always defer to the will of the physician. I figure that surely he knows more than I know.
Well last night I was watching something probably worthless on television when there came upon the screen a commercial for Mirapex. The soft, sexy voice says at the end of the commercial that you need to stop using Mirapex if you find that you have an increased desire for sex and/or gambling. She also whispered that Mirapex could cause you to fall asleep while doing everyday things like driving a car.
WTF!??
I got an immediate mental picture of my 75 year old Papaw falling asleep at the wheel while driving up to Harrah’s in Cherokee, NC with my 71 year old Mamaw in his lap!
What a way to go! Maybe the doctor is smarter than I am.
My experience with the AMA is that they are whores to Big Pharma and I should stay as far away from whatever they’re peddling as I can. But I’m a canary in a coal mine when it comes to side effects, so perhaps I’m a bit overly cautious…
I also noticed that quip about gambling that they’ve tacked onto the end of the Mirapex commercials (I think it was then Dear Hubby uttered a “WTF?” when he first noticed it), and wondered what we human guinea pigs are subjecting ourselves to now in our frenzied pursuit of over-priced, under-insured “health.”
This world just gets more bizarre by the moment…