Geni Swing Guitars

Spider Jam

This must be a mistake! How could his drug costs rise from $150 a month to $1101 in just three weeks? My hands shook while I read the pharmacy bill.

There was no mistake. The bill I held recorded the drugs ordered by my fathers Alzheimers' care unit. In only three weeks at this eldercare facility, his drug expenses had soared an incredible 734%. Ironically, his quality of life had plunged about the same percent. Walking and talking when he entered, he now spent his days confined to a wheelchair, unable to walk, drugged into a persistent stupor.

"I've got to do something." The thought haunted me all day.

Then, that evening, an incidental trip to the grocery delivered the help I needed. It came in the form of a thick paperback book, The PDR Pocket Guide to Prescription Drugs (PDR Pocket Guide).

The PDR Pocket Guide provides tons of information for all prescription drugs on the market when it was printed. Specifics include:

• generic equivalents,
• why the drug is prescribed,
• how it should be taken,
• when it should not be taken,
• side effects and special warning, and
• possible interactions with other drugs and food.

The PDR Pocket Guide is available through Amazon.com, or you might find a copy like I did at your local grocery or bookstore. Jam-packed with almost 1700 pages of information, this paperback is a surprisingly affordable $6.99.

Using the pharmacy's bill as a list of medications, I read the PDR report for each drug my father was using. What I found astonished me.

Two of fifteen drugs prescribed were being used "off-label" (not FDA approved for the condition it is used to treat). One of those was specifically contraindicated for use with Alzheimer's patients. Two more were from drug families that I had previously identified as causing allergic reactions in my father.

When I was young, my father used to kid me by saying, "Up with this I will not put!" Up with this I wasn't about to put either, so I called his doctor.

"My father is allergic to Furosemide."

He bristled. "Where did you get an idea like that?"

"Furosemide is a sulfa drug. He's allergic to sulfa drugs."

"I never heard anything like that about Furosemide," he barked. "Who told you that?"

"The PDR Pocket Guide."

"Well, the PDR has a lot of stuff you don't need to know." His arrogance grated on my nerves.

"No more Furosemide." Now I wasn't asking, I was demanding. "You've seen his rash. He didn't have it when he came to the care unit."

"You're not qualified to say what he should or should not have."

"What am I doing," I wondered, "arguing with a doctor who should be helping?" I wish I'd spoken the words I thought next. "Bye-bye! You're fired!"

But, in that moment, I resolved to be fully in control of all my father's drugs. I would learn everything I could and provide drugs direct to the facility. . .or not. There would be no more ordering drugs without my specific authorization

I enlisted the expertise of a pharmacist I found just down the street. She graciously took time from her crowded day to answer all my questions and explain anything I didn't understand. She took a brief history of my father's illness, made note of his allergies, and offered money-saving suggestions. She focused on providing excellent service. In short, she was, and is, an angel.

I immediately began to look for another physician to take over my father's care, but I was too slow. Within a few weeks, my father died of complications from a massive insulin overdose.

Was my experience unusual? Probably not, according to a study from the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey (MEPS). On the subject of the increased cost of pharmaceuticals for people over-65, the study's author, Marie Stagnitti, MPA, reports:

Every year from 1997-2000, the average out of pocket expense for prescription medicines for those with a purchase and age 65 and older was more than three times as high as the average out of pocket expense on prescription medicines for those with a purchase and under age 65.

The potential for overmedication in the elderly is clear in Stagnitti's chart showing an average 23.5 prescriptions in both 1999 and 2000 for the over-65 group that used prescription drugs. The number of prescription drugs used by the under-65 group seemed high to me as well: 9.5 for 1999 and 10.1 prescriptions for the year 2000.

Overmedication is not only crushingly expensive for our elderly, it represents a real and present danger. You can do something about it. Please, learn about and oversee medications. You will help elders save money. You might even save a life.

About The Author

A native Texas, Phyllis Staff lives in Dallas with her family. She is a writer and photographer whose work has appeared in scholarly journals and popular magazines. She is the CEO of thebestisyet.net (http://www.thebestisyet.net) and author of How to Find Great Senior Housing: A Roadmap for Elders and Those Who Love Them (2nd edition).

pando19@direcway.com

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Refurbished Line 6 Spider Jam 75W 1X12 Guitar Combo Amp $499.99 The 75W Line 6 Spider Jam combo amplifier provides guitarists with hundreds of coveted guitar amp and speaker tones and effects. And Spider Jam also offers easy sound-on-sound loop recording with Line 6 Endless Jam tracks performed by top studio musicians. The well-endowed Spider Jam amp gives you the tools you need to hone your guitar skills, write songs, and play with the pros. Professional drummers, bassists, and guitarists with countless platinum albums to their credit have filled the Line 6 Spider Jam with over 100 pulse-racing Endless Jam tracks and drum grooves. Exploding out of the Line 6 amp's 12" Celestion speaker and 2" tweeter in vivid, uncompressed audio, these tunes were recorded at legendary studios around the word ensuring the best possible sound quality. Plus, the Line 6 Endless Jam Engine keeps all the jams sounding fresh, keeping guitarists engaged for fun days of engaging practice. Ideal for songwriting and recording, Line 6 Spider Jam captures jams, solos, and song ideas, internally storing up to 100 CD-quality recorded jams, with over 24 minutes of recording time. Line 6 Spider Jam is capable of supporting more than a single instrument, or an instrument and a microphone. The 75W Line 6 amp offers an XLR mic input with a dedicated volume knob perfect for vocals, and a 1/4" aux input perfect for a second instrument like a keyboard or bass. These 2 inputs share a dedicated set of effects plus preamps, compressors, and a 3-band EQ. Spider Jam also boasts a 1/4" headphone out that doubles as a POD 2.0-style direct out for effortless, hassle-free direct recording. As a member of the famous Line 6 Spider III family of guitar amplifiers, Spider Jam shares some popular family jewels like 200+ artist-created presets, 150+ song-based presets, 12 original Line 6 amp models, from Clean to Insane, and 7 stunning Smart Control FX, including reverb, delay and more. The Spider Jam's 12" Custom Celestion speaker ensures brilliant guitar tones and an integrated accurate chromatic tuner is always at the ready. Amp Models: Clean Red LED: Crisp, shimmering clean tones and warm jazz tones. Green LED: Glassy clean tones like those from the late 60s/early 70s. Inspired by a '73 Hiwatt Custom 100. Twang Red LED: Classic, glassy high-end with some snap and bite. Inspired by a Fender blackface '65 Twin Reverb and a blackface '64 Deluxe Reverb. Green LED: Swingin' rockabilly tone a la vintage tweed. Inspired by a '53 Fender tweed Deluxe Reverb, a '58 Fender tweed Bassman, and a '60 Gibson Explorer. Blues Red LED: From gritty, swampy clean tones to syrupy smooth drive tones this was inspired by a mix of a '65 Marshall JTM-45, a '58 Fender Bassman, a '63 Fender Vibroverb, and a Supro. Green LED: Early British rock tone made famous by the Beatles and the Stones. Inspired by a fawn Vox AC-30 with an updated and expanded tone control circuit. Crunch Red LED: Classic crunchy tone popularized by many early metal bands. Inspired by a '68 Marshall