Thanks for the kind words Dr Smith, I was kind of attacked by pain when I restarted the meds and as the steroid also causes some depression I was crabby and feeling pretty sorry for myself. Things seem to have leveled out to former levels now and I'm doing better except the shingles have reerupted... I ran across a couple of sites that called shingles a SE of Spiriva ?!..the gift that keeps on giving...but I do have mild symptoms.

I know they feel that the benefits of the meds outweigh the risks and SE for me, its just pretty hard to swallow when the pain levels have such an impact on my life. Pulmo was angry with me a couple of appointments ago and said, "These meds aren't keeping you alive, they are just for your comfort and you can stop them all if you want to" ..huh? We don't have a very good relationship.

I know Drs are busy and get a lot of info from drug reps, there was one at the office when I went in last week. My pulmo has also been a paid contributor at pharma conferences. As someone who grew up in the 60's I try to separate my residual anti establishment additudes from clinical observations but its hard. More .

I am learning things and getting closer, when I first got neuropathy symptoms I could barely walk sometimes. The neurological insights here have really helped. Mrs D mentioned 'rebound constriction' in another thread, that is really severe with Spiriva and I think I will try very slowly weaning off it to see what happens. I do listen to my body and its saying "Bad juju" on that one. Its hard to titrate.

I ran across something that said researchers in Cuba (Cuba has research?) have isolated a bronchdialating compund from banana peels, I wonder if it really works or if they were just trying to market all those banana peels.

I know a really funny joke about the generic name for Viagra but I don't want to get banned.

thanks again for the thoughts,
judi