Polly

Thank you for this ! My total cholesterol is high, in spite of taking cholesterol-lowering drugs (not statins), but my triglycerides are low and HDL high. Can you tell me what a good ratio of HDL:triglycerides is? Or where I can read further? By the way, another thing the doctors don't seem aware of is that the drugs they prescribe to prevent migraines (depakote and other epilepsy drugs) deplete vitamin D. After a year of (unsuccessful) treatment to control my migraines, I had no detectable vitamin D in my blood. (And I was in considerable pain!). Polly

I just got on SSDI this year. The time from application to receiving my first check was 4 months. Yes, get a lawyer. The amount they get is 25% of your back pay, but it is limited to $6000. Once they decide the date of your disability, then they throw out the next five months to calculate when your benefits begin. You get a check for that period, and SS deducts the lawyer's portion and sends it to him/her. You may also have to pay any other expenses (like a consultation with another doctor or something). Once you've applied, you'll be sent a package of questionnaires. You fill them out and send them to your lawyer, he/she approves them or suggests changes/corrections and then they're sent to the Division of Disability Services in your state. Then an exam might be scheduled. Mine was at an exam-mill (a place that does only these exams, they bring in doctors, the doctor I saw was actually a pediatrician, she probably does these exams one day a week to supplement her own practice). It was about 30 minutes. It was all pretty simple and painless. The hardest part was admitting that I should do it. Hope this helps, Polly

Congratulations, David ! -Polly

Hi Robbie, I stopped too - it made me very sick.

"Low Dose Naltrexone" is made by a compounding pharmacy from regular Naltrexone. You can read about it here: http://www.lowdosenaltrexone.org/ Naltrexone comes in 50mg pills. My doctor told me to take one every other day, but he thought they were capsules. I took 50mg the first night but was somewhat frightened by it (I've had a lot of bad medicine reactions, so it might have been just that anxiety). I asked if I could go down to 25mg per night for a week, then I'll go to 50mg daily. The first 50mg dose had me back on the feet the next day! (From fibromyalgia pain so bad that I could barely manage to walk) At 25mg, the pain is coming back in late afternoon. It's done nothing for the phantom eye pain and hallucination. Hope this helps! Polly

I'm starting Naltrexone today. My doctor has told me to take 50mg every other night for the first week, then 50mg daily. I'm hoping for relief from fibromyalgia, phantom eye pain and headaches; and praying for some decrease of my hallucination. Joe and Robbie (and anyone else), how are you doing? LarryC, my doctor (neurologist) is very familiar with the use of Naltrexone to treat pain; it didn't take any convincing. (And if it doesn't work, we'll go back to his drug plan, which we'd talked about for an hour before I mentioned the Naltrexone.) Polly

Hi Joe, It's wonderful to hear that you're experiencing some improvements! I have one question - why did you choose Naltrexone instead of Low Dose Naltrexone? I've been reading about LDN and wondering if my doctor would agree to try it. Like you, I've been on medications which have been disastrous for me; the very low probability of side effects with LDN appeal to me. Polly

I've been taking Ambien for some years. I only take half a tablet and it has an amnesia effect; you don't remember the time just before you fell asleep. This is great for me because when I turn off the lights and close my eyes I see all this dark and light crap and I get really panicked. But with the Ambien, I don't remember the panic when I wake up.

Ah, puppies make everything better... even HPPD !!