I’ve always been rather fond of today’s word.

fey \FAY\ adjective
1 a chiefly Scottish : fated to die : doomed b : marked by a foreboding of death or calamity
2 a: able to see into the future : visionary b : marked by an otherworldly air or attitude c : crazy, touched
3 a: excessively refined : precious *b : quaintly
unconventional : campy
Merriam-Webster’s.com

Mental illness is infrequently presented well in books and TV, but there is one type of presentation that I’ve found fascinating.

The first time came across it was in the Margaret Weis and http://www.trhickman.com/ series “Death Gate Cycle”, where the wizard Zifnab (Zifnab is what brought this to mind. There’s just something pleasing about the name.) spouts off crazy ideas and concepts that are recognizable to the readers as quotes and ideas from modern books, movies and television. It was as if Zifnab couldn’t function well in his world, because he was channeling ours.

The second was in the Deep Space Nine episode, “Far Beyond the Stars“, where Sisko has an experience that displaces him in time and space. He is no longer Captain Benjamin Sisko in the 24th century, but is instead Benny Russell, a science fiction writer in the 1950s. Upon being given a picture of DS9, Benny begins to write the stories of Sisko’s experiences, and then begins to see flashes of Sisko’s world. These flashes, combined with the racial segregation of the 1950s,make it harder and harder for Benny to function in his own time. (If you’ve never seen “Far Beyond the Stars” I highly recommend it. Avery Brooks did an amazing job in both acting and directing.)

The third was an episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, “Normal Again“, where Buffy is led to believe that the past six years of her life have been nothing but a schizophrenic episode. In that case, Buffy couldn’t function in the “real” world because she was entirely immersed in another world or reality. As with “Far Beyond the Stars” Buffy cannot function well in either world during the disruption. Although what I found most intriguing about this show was its ending, which left it open as to which reality was true.

Of course there are significant differences in the three examples. Zifnab was channeling the distant past, Benny was channeling the distant future, and Buffy an alternate reality, yet the idea behind each was the same: individuals tune into a reality other than ours, and it drives them mad.

It leads to the interesting idea that those who are classified as insane might simply be channeling other times, places, or realities. Like watching ‘General Hospital’, while getting the sound from ‘Days of Our Lives’. Of course for most people scizophrenia is a chemical disorder that for many can be treated with medication. But it’s intriguing to think that there are alternate realities, other worlds, and that there are people who are blessed or cursed with the ability to see through space and time, into those other realities.

Teresa, over at Making Light, has just had an unfortunate/horrible/vile mixup with her prescription medication.

I’ve taken various prescription medications for various problems at various times throughout my adulthood (all of which made me glad to have health coverage that paid for prescriptions drugs) and never really thought much about it.

Which is quite odd, considering that for many people, such medications keep them alive and functioning in a way that would have been impossible a century ago. (See the recent article in US News about FDR’s heart disease.)

Three incidents in the past made me think more seriously about the medicines that we take for granted. The first was when my grandmother got her blood pressure prescription filled while visiting my Aunt. (Point: It was not her regular pharmacist.) She got the pills home and thought that they looked different–they were–they were the wrong pills. If she hadn’t noticed, well, things could have been bad.

The second was my great-aunt Sophie going into the hospital after her heart slowed to a dangerous level. She was taking several different medications, all of which affected her heart, and they call combined to cause a serious problem.

The third incident was when my husband’s grandmother went to a gerontologist. One of the things she had to do was to take ALL of her meications with her. The gerontologist was able to drastically cut down her medications by cutting out some medicines entirely, and suddently she felt better than she had in a long time.

The point of this is that it is impossible for a doctor to know everything about all the medications out there. The problem is even worse if a person goes to several doctors for different problems. A specialist may be familar with the drugs to treat the disorders of their speciality, but is probably not familar with drugs used outside their speciality. And if the patient does not get all their prescriptions filled at the same pharmacist, the problem is that much worse.

If you consider this with the fact that prescription drug errors are on the rise, you are looking at a serious problem, whose best solution is for patients to be proactive: to check their prescriptions carefully each month, to make sure that all doctors they see know they full range of medications they are taking, to make sure that their pharmacist knows ALL the medications they are taking, and to ask the pharmacist about OTC drugs that may interact with prescription medications.

And the elderly who are taking multiple medications should consider seeing a gerontologist, because as we age, our metabolism changes, and a dosage that may be acceptable for a 40-year old may not be correct for a 70-year old.

So take her post, and this one, as a reminder to check your medications every time you pick them up, and to let your doctor know about all medicines you’re taking–even over-the-counter drugs and vitamins.

It could be worth your life to do so.

1 bag Irish Breakfast Tea
1 Clove
Small portion cinnamon stick
Boiling water
Steep 3 to 5 minutes
Remove teabag, clove cinnamon
3 tsp sugar
Cream, to taste

Taking a minute or two to get caught up…

I received e-mail from Howard Chalkley last month, who kindly linked to my book pages. His weblog, where he occasionally talks about books, is hchalkley.blog.

I also discovered that a weblog called Reasonable Liberalism that had linked to me.

From Gina:
Go to: http://mappoint.msn.com/DirectionsFind.aspx
1. In Start and End, pull down “Address in” and choose Norway. 2. In
Start, enter “Haugesund” into City. 3. In End, enter “Trondheim” into
City. 4. Press “Get Directions”

Engrish.com

It’s like walking through the foreign food aisle of Jungle Jim’s, only better!

Secondly, I’m listening to The Splendid Table and she just had on Russian Anya Von Bremzen, to discuss blini, which are (I believe) a traditional Russian pancake, made from a sponge (no, not THAT type of sponge). What caught my fancy was something about traditional Russian blini made for Shrove Tuesday, and how Russian grandmothers would sneak their sponges out to the woods, to absorb th powers of the full moon.

Firstly, I was listening to the State of the State speech, followed by the Republican response. Can ANY West Virginian politicians speak normally? Everyone who spoke seemed to mumble or lisp or have some weird extra-strong accent.

Happy Year of the Rooster!

Although some believe the year of the Rooster may be bloody, I hope for a happy, prosperous year, with lots of good luck for everyone.

ADDENDUM the First: I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A as in neighbor and weigh.

(sigh)

Happy Mardi Gras!

(Or Happy Fat Tuesday as it would be translated. For obvious reasons, Mardi Gras sounds better.)

A rather ecclectic collection of books that I’ve finished recently, but hadn’t gotten around to posting.

The Ethics of Star Trek Judith Barad with Ed Robertson

This book was definitely a disappointment. I’ve read The Physics of Star Trek and The Metaphysics of Star Trek both of which I found interesting. Perhaps because of this I had high hopes for this book. I was, unfortunately, disappointed.

Read More about The Ethics of Star Trek

Mere Christianity C.S. Lewis

I realized that I’d actually finished this book several months ago, but managed to forget that I had done so. Take that as you will.

Mere Christianity puts forth some interesting arguments, but I find that although they may have been convincing at the time C.C. Lewis wrote them, I found them less so, in the 21st century.

Read More about Mere Christianity

An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life The Dalai Lama

Unlike the previous book I read by the Dalai Lama, this book only took me about nine months to read. They’re not long books, I just tend to set them aside for something else, and then have to go back an re-read portions to get caught up again.

Read More about An Open Heart: Practicing Compassion in Everyday Life

I read this story with wonder and awe. Not because of the amazing medical technology necessary to cure the condition, but because it’s a folktale come to life. Mermaids–one of the wonders of the ancient seas. Looking at that picture I have to wonder if I’m looking at the source of those tales.

Of course the implication for those involved when the first baby was born were probably not very good. A superstitious people would see not a medical flaw, but a sign. A punishment from the gods, perhaps. Or more likely a sign that the mother, despite denials, had been unfaithful, and with some sort of sea creature no less.

Reading the story I feel as if I’ve found the tiny nugget of truth in the story. The truth that may be embedded in every folk tale.

From such a birth the tale would expand. Each storyteller would elaborate a little more, until the original story was unrecognizable. And then tales would branch off from there, until we end up with Hans Christian Andersen.

However, before you laugh at our superstitious ancestors, and take pride in how much science and education have allowed us to progress. Take a quick look at Snopes and ask yourself if we’re really that different.

Kudos to Tom.

You can melt down, but you can’t melt up. You can get fed up, but you can’t get fed down. But getting shot up may lead to getting shot down.

Reminds me of an essay or poem or joke I’ve read, but can’t remember precisely.

Better see if maybe I did save that receipt.

Sometimes I feel like an indificul, but I don’t think that’s what they meant here.