Get Hep

I've been watching the unfolding drama: tainted drug supplies, multiple deaths, international fingerpointing, lax inspection. At the very least the furor over Heparin manufacture in the last few months has outlined a disturbing trend. Heparin is a life-saving drug that figures into treatments for dialysis (and, like me, for patients with Mediports) every day. If something is that vital to survival for people whose health is already compromised, why isn't more done to control its manufacture and its safety? I must say that finding out where Heparin comes from, pig intestines, isn't disturbing in any way to me; lots of valuable medicines come from animals. Finding out how Heparin is processed, again, might not be of concern; good for those enterprising Chinese families who make the effort to provide the raw material. Finding out that the supply chain is so limited gives one pause - why do we have only two manufacturers in this country? Finding out how few checks and balances are in place is frightening. Finding out how little the FDA can do to perform the necessary inspections is infuriating. I think it will be interesting to see what happens next.

Yesterday Saint H and I put up the martin gourds for this season; keep your fingers crossed that this will be the year for our colony to start. We have 16 tree swallow eggs and 4 bluebird eggs in the nest boxes here. We walked through the woods, finding blue and yellow violets, May apples, Solomon seal, and bellflowers (as well as poison ivy, Virginia creeper, and garlic mustard). Much to my surprise, about 50 trees have survived years of standing water in the south field - they're not big, but they look pretty robust. I wish I had the stamina and determination that plants show!