05-10-2017, 12:43 AM
Popster: beautiful, sad, heartening, angering...story..what else can I say? But Thanks. Had no idea my simpleton's question would invite so much elaboration. But this forum and its members keep surprising, again and again.
Before I ever knew anything personally about drugs, I remember my grandpa's medicine shelf in the kitchen cupboard: Always prescriptions for Blood pressure meds, Motrin (before it was OTC), Darvocet and Valium. He had a heart attack at 55; at 60, a bleeding ulcer and aortic aneurysm; then at 65, the brain hemorrhage that killed him. He used to go on tirades about the doctors and their pills. Called his own doctor Jesse James. But I guess he still had some faith in the system...and he was in pain a lot. He had had rheumatic fever as a teen. Always had severe arthritis in his knees and back. He was a steel worker and a loving, generous man to me. Now I really do wonder if I might have had him around a little longer without those pills.
Before I ever knew anything personally about drugs, I remember my grandpa's medicine shelf in the kitchen cupboard: Always prescriptions for Blood pressure meds, Motrin (before it was OTC), Darvocet and Valium. He had a heart attack at 55; at 60, a bleeding ulcer and aortic aneurysm; then at 65, the brain hemorrhage that killed him. He used to go on tirades about the doctors and their pills. Called his own doctor Jesse James. But I guess he still had some faith in the system...and he was in pain a lot. He had had rheumatic fever as a teen. Always had severe arthritis in his knees and back. He was a steel worker and a loving, generous man to me. Now I really do wonder if I might have had him around a little longer without those pills.