Hep O'Trouble

Your only knowledge of the drug heparin may come from the fairly recent overdose of Dennis Quaid's twin babies with the drug in an LA hospital. Or maybe you've read in the newspaper that contaminated heparin has found its way into the US from China. The FDA is trying to determine if this contamination was the cause of 19 deaths and hundreds of allergic reactions.

Normally I'm able to let these stories go in one ear and out the other. I've even stopped reading every breast cancer article that comes out. But I'm not exactly comfortable knowing that a drug I had injected into my chest inches from my heart every week for several months is the subject of federal investigation. (Heparin is an anticoagulant; I was given it to prevent blood from clotting in my port. To this day, the smell makes me want to vomit) I'm not real crazy about the fact that it's made from pig intestines, either, but that seems slightly less important in the grand scheme of things.

We now know that it's not safe to get toys, pet food, people food, toothpaste and a commonly used prescription drug from China. Just a thought, but maybe it's time we started making these things in the US again.