Posted by Jack Boyd (152.163.213.73) on September 05, 1999 at 09:20:09:
I would love to find out as much as I can about clusters and what they are all about.I would love to see big bucks devoted to pure research into cause. I know that pure reseach will lead to better treatments and maybe a cure. But I, for one, am not holding my breath waiting for some miraculous cure, or magic bullet.
Give me Drugs!!!
I came of age in the 60s and never dropped acid or took cocaine. I smoked pot twice. When it comes to clusters:
Give me Drugs!!!
I hate to take medicine of ay kind. I almost never go to the Doctor and I do not believe in treating symptoms. I have allergies pretty bad. I will never take allergy medicine. I do not take novacaine when I have a cavity drilled. When it comes to clusters:
Give me Drugs!!!
I am a bit of a purist. I like to know what is at the core of an issue. I like to now what really causes things. When it comes to clusters:
Give me Drugs!!!
Treating symptoms without finding the underlying cause can be pretty risky business. If you have excruciating pain from a cancerous brain tumor and all you do is treat the pain you have a missed opportunity to treat the cancer early. If you have real bad and sudden hypertension and all you do is treat the symptoms, the cause might be a kidney problem that can be fixed and you have a mised oportunity. When it comes to clusters:
Give me Drugs!!!
Clusters are unique. How can something this painful not be doing any real damage? As we all know, it is actually benign. We are not damaging any vital organs, nor are we losing brain cells. So?
Treating and managing the pain is a very reasonable approach.
Give me Drugs!!!
There are not many of us. Clusters are pretty rare. There will never be a lot of health care dollars devoted to pure research, because they are rare and are benign. We will get our drugs and these drugs will
be stumbled upon by Doctors. Try this, now try this, now try this, how about a little of this - did that work?
This brings me to my final point. We will be the definitive word in cluster treatment. Pretty scary thought, huh? No one else will do it for us. We will be the clearinghouse for information on therapies.
No one will do it for us.
Give me Drugs!!! ( that work and have no side effects )
Addendum: We can do this and still encourage and help others to do pure research. I am just trying to be realistic.