Years ago I was diagnosed with a condition, and my doctors prescribed human growth hormone and testosterone for its treatment. Under medical supervision, I have continued to use both medications.
I should get a few ribs taken out, because I'll be in a corset for the rest of my life.
Today about 95% of the prescription drugs sold are Maintenance drugs-drugs that treat only the symptoms of a disease, and that you are expected to take for the rest of your life.
When I was 11, I spent eight months in the hospital with rheumatic fever and almost died.
How bitter were the Prozac pills of the last few hundred mornings
When you're clinically depressed the serotonin in your brain is out of balance and probably always will be out of balance. So I take medication to get that proper balance back. I'll probably have to be on it the rest of my life.
Chemotherapy can be a long, tough haul - for me, it went on for six months - and the best doctors and nurses become, if only for that period of time, as essential in your life as friends or spouses.
I have been on the same dose of anti-depressants for 15 years, and my nerves still go up and down in cycles; but my nerves are cycling at a lower level than they were before.
In 2013, after a challenging two years of long-term IV antibiotics and six weeks at a clinic in florida, I received the 'Star Light' award from the Lyme Research Alliance for my advocacy and strength to light the way of Lyme disease awareness.
I was depressed after the transplant because it's very tough to understand the trauma you still face. I remember emptying a big bag of medication and just crying and thinking, 'For me to survive another day, this is what I've got to take. For the rest of my life. I'm not sure I can continue.'