wax is back at the dentist.

300 Finns die a year from bleeding ulcers caused by overdose on OTC pain meds because doctors won't prescribe anything stronger, even for chronic pain sufferers. By contrast, there are about 1-2 deaths in the same period from addiction to the stronger pain meds.

Last night Wax was whimpering, gasping, hyperventilating, doubling over and writhing with pain. She couldn't get out more than two or three syllables without stopping to gasp. If I were a millionaire, I'd start a non-profit lobbying group on the spot. Also, I'd slash the dentist's tires.

attn: uk residents

Text of the request from smallbeer: Put on your Batman capes, because there's justice to be done:

http://pnhlondon.wordpress.com/

That blog belongs to a UK citizen who has a rare, chronic and severely debilitating illness, PNH. Recently, a drug was developed that will allow people who suffer from this condition to manage their symptoms and live relatively normal lives. The drug has been approved for use in the UK (as well as many other countries), but the small number of UK patients who need it and who went through the lengthy drug trial to test it are in imminent danger of being denied access to the drug because it's expensive. Details about PNH, its effects and the changes that this medication brought about in the lives of people taking it are in the linked post.

If you are a UK taxpayer, please take a moment to sign the online petition:

http://www.gopetition.co.uk/online/20877.html

And then please take a moment to write a note expressing your support for a Health Ministry decision to fund this drug for patients who need it to live. You can write to the Health Minister here:

Dawn Primarolo MP
PO Box 1002
Bristol
BS99 1WH

or

Dawn Primarolo MP
House of Commons
London
SW1A 0AA

(email) primarolod@parliament.uk

or phone her office here: (tel) 0117 909 0063; 0117 909 0064.

A friend of mine is a PNH patient. I would be very grateful to you if took a moment to act on this as soon as you can. If you aren't a UK citizen, but have some UK citizens on your friendslist, please make a post.

dinosaur relevance theory

A very special Dinosaur Comic strip, via languagelog, that could be really useful to the way members of my mother's family and my spouse's family tell stories and jokes, if they absorbed it! He's dead now. These maxims are pretty useful though! Check out the whole post from languagelog: In real life he is a charmer, of course.

In other news, I've been proofing all morning for a friendly Australian resident in Stockholm who, like me, has taken up translating Swedish into English as a side supply of cash. She seems pretty cool, but she's making the kind of mistakes I made in my school assignments a couple of years ago. ("It's not about hugs... it's about oral sex.") And lediga doesn't mean relaxing, it means available or free. Would've been pretty funny if the translation had gone out like that... to Thailand where they're probably planning to translate it from English again using Babelfish or something. Actually, that sounds awesome. *____*

DENTIST UPDATE:

Thanks to everyone who has offered support, frowny faces, illegal drugs, and legal support in the event I do decide to go after the prick dentist's car. Wax recovered herself to chew them out over the phone when they opened today, went back to see them at noon, and received additional minor dental surgery and better pain medication. She is now sleeping, although even this codeine-based one wears off too fast because it's interacting with her other medication. Still... she's pretty much high, and also her entire face is numb, and she's slept most of the afternoon, so things are definitely looking up.