Scary October

You don’t have to believe in ghosts to be visited by one, and you don’t have to believe in witches to think that you have personally met one. There’s no way around the fact that strange things happen in this world.

October is the month when weird things just can’t help but happen. I can take my dog out at midnight any other month of the year, and enjoy the starry sky, a gentle breeze, a brilliant moon, and even a gentle falling snow.

On the other hand, go out at midnight in October and expect to hear coyotes howling, dark racing clouds obscuring the moon, the wind causing mysterious bangs and clangs, and the feeling that someone is watching…and waiting.

If you want to “see something really scary” (As they said the movie Twilight Zone) read the possible side effects of the medicine that you take every day. If that doesn’t make the hair on your head stand up, a ghost or goblin doesn’t stand a chance.

Don’t you just love the commercials on TV that tell you all the benefits of a medicine and show happy, tanned, and beautiful people enjoying life. Then in the last half minute talk at warp speed about the horrible things the medicine can do to a person.

 It seems that the scarier the disease, the more frightening the treatment. Makes you wonder which is going to get you first. We made the decision to try a study drug on Jim for his dementia. Knowing Jim’s personality before the disease, we knew that he would be the first in line for an experimental drug for a disease that had no cure. Unfortunately, the drug didn’t help him, but we had to stop it because of the side effects. It was a small study, but when we dropped out of the program, we found out that all participants had stopped the drug.

Jim showed a slight cognitive improvement with Exelon. As the dosage increased, Jim had to be taken to the emergency room because of the side effects. Before the drug cleared his system, he became agitated and was kicked out of the nursing home for behavior.

While Jim was in regenerations, an antipsychotic medication made him so aggressive that he was like a different, scary person. Eric and I took him out of the hospital for a few hours, and he tried to open the van door and mumbled obscenities.

After arguing with the physician, we insisted they take Jim off the medication. Within a few days, he was his old self again.

Prescription drugs are a part of everyday life for those of us who reach a certain age. In the U.S. around 16,000 people die each year from prescription drugs. More than 100,000 people in the U.S. die each year because they can’t afford the drugs they need.

There’s no doubt about it, real life is much scarier than make believe spookiness.            

Copyright © Oct 2023 by L.S. Fisher

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