LAST STOP BEFORE TAHOE

Tourists driving from Sacramento or the San Francisco Bay area toward Lake Tahoe often take Route 50. They pass through Placerville (a.k.a. Old Hangtown), then along an area called Apple Hill, filled with many orchards and vineyards. Apple Hill is extremely popular in the fall, when city folk bring their children to stroll through the orchards, sample a wide variety of apples, and buy pies and donuts. So popular that the highway may be crowded in September or October.

Before getting low on gas or groceries, Tahoe-bound people are apt to stop in Pollock Pines. It has everything they are likely to need before starting the beautiful but long drive to Lake Tahoe.

At the west end of town, they can take Exit 57 from the highway, the exit that leads to Pony Express Trail. Yes, this road actually is part of the historic nineteenth-century trail used to deliver the mail by young riders on horseback. Near Exit 57 is one of the original stations, now enlarged and converted to a restaurant called Sportsman’s Hall. Many other stations between St. Joseph, Missouri, and Sacramento survive, but mostly as ruins. Here, you can have a meal while surrounded by photos and artifacts of the trail. (It’s not for foodies, though. The menu is basic meat and potatoes, plus some good pies and pastries.)

Either by going back to U.S. 50 or by staying on the trail and continuing east for a few miles, you can reach the east end of Pollock Pines (Sly Park Rd., Exit 60 from the highway). Along the way on Pony Express Trail are two good motels, a Best Western and the Westhaven Inn. In what passes for a downtown, visitors can shop at a Safeway, a CVS, several small restaurants, beauty shops, auto supply stores, and gas stations. Note: The gas is a bit higher priced here than in Placerville, back 15 miles to the west, but it’s a long drive to the next station! A charming branch of the county library (open Tuesday through Thursday only) and a post office are useful stops for some visitors. Public restrooms are found in the stores and restaurants.

About six miles south of town on Sly Park Rd. is a large reservoir called Jenkinson Lake. Nine campgrounds here have spaces for tents and RVs. Fees for single-vehicle sites range from $32 to $80 a day.  Popular with both tourists and locals, the reservoir offers boating, kayaking, and hiking. You can look at the lake and check the weather on a webcam [http://www.slyparkweathercam.com/] hosted by local realtors.

Once past town, and fortified with gas and food, you can begin the magnificent drive uphill to Lake Tahoe along the American River. Or, you may decide not to leave but to buy a home and settle down, as I did several years ago. Like me, many elderly people choose to retire here among the huge pine trees.

 

Copyright  © 2018 by Carol Leth Stone

 

                                                                                                                                                   

AVOIDING ADDICTION

 

Nearly a year ago I began having pain and weakness in my left arm. As I have advanced osteoarthritis, some pain is never surprising, but this worsened. A doctor prescribed a low dose of Norco that relieved the pain for a while. Then it returned. In the hope of strengthening my arm muscles I spent a month in physical therapy, but the pain continued. I continued taking Norco, then switched to Percocet, a stronger painkiller. Eventually an MRI showed a completely torn rotator cuff tendon and damage to the underlying bones that would require a shoulder replacement. Getting in appointment with a surgeon, scheduling the surgery, and getting clearances for surgery from various doctors took months; during that time I continued taking Percocet for the increasing pain.

Both Norco and Percocet contain opiates, synthetic derivatives of the opium found naturally in opium poppies. (The similar term opioid refers to both the natural and synthetic drugs.) Norco and Percocet also contain acetaminophen, the nonaddictive drug sold as Tylenol. The opiate in Norco is oxycodone, that in Percocet is hydrocodone. Both are prescribed routinely for pain following athletic injuries and surgeries.

As everyone knows now, the United States has an opiate epidemic. People who begin taking the drugs for pain can develop a tolerance for them, craving higher doses to be effective. They become addicted, taking the drugs not just to control pain, but also for insomnia or for generally feeling euphoric. Opiates are widely available and surprisingly inexpensive. (Having Medicare Part D, I have never paid more than a few dollars for a large supply.) Teens who want a high from drugs may simply raid Granny’s medicine cabinet to get a supply.

Short-term effects of opiates include sleepiness, pain relief, and euphoria. These result from the release of large amounts of dopamine in the brain. Dopamine is a chemical that links brain cells chemically and is responsible for desire and general feelings of happiness. Though those effects can be positive, dopamine can also lead to unpleasant side effects such as nausea, paranoia, and extreme drowsiness. Like alcohol, opiates can interfere with the ability to drive. When I was taking Percocet, I felt rather sleepy and stupid much of the time. Simple arithmetic and memory tasks were hard for me.

Long-term effects of opiates comprise constipation, abdominal bloating, vomiting, and damage to the brain and liver, as well as dependence (inability to feel well without the drug). Dependence can continue to addiction and to further increase in need for opiates.

Even addiction to Norco or Percocet can be serious, but if a person goes on to use the most potent opiate drugs such as heroin, the results can be catastrophic, even fatal. Norco and Percocet are swallowed as tablets, but heroin is injected into veins.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)[i], in 2016, more than 64,000 deaths were related to overdoses of opiates and related drugs (mainly Fentanyl).

After my shoulder surgery I received another vial of Percocet for the pain that followed. Not wanting to become an opiate addict, I cut back to the milder Norco after a couple of weeks. Now, five weeks post-op, I take only one Norco tablet a day, and am gradually cutting back even more. I often treat pain with ice packs, Tylenol, or a small glass of wine. As the healing proceeds I will soon be taking no opiates at all.

Though the outcome has been good in my case, I think it could have been better. Mild painkillers like acetaminophen or aspirin can control mild pain. (Large amounts of acetaminophen can cause liver damage, however.) Some people can benefit from cannabis or acupuncture. Ice packs or meditation are even better. If the opiates had been expensive, I would have been less likely to use them often. (I also have to take a very expensive drug for a pancreatic disorder, and am careful to buy only the minimum amount needed!) Medical providers and the DEA could benefit patients and have an effect on the opiate epidemic by heeding these suggestions.

                                                                                                                                                   

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[i] https://www.drugabuse.gov/related-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates; accessed 3-14-18.

A DANGEROUS GENERATION GAP

I’m tired of hearing accusations by the elderly and by Millenials that the other group is hogging all the resources. My group (I am 80) is the frequent target of attacks on “entitlements.” Having paid for Social Security and Medicare for all my working years, I do feel entitled to use them now that I need them. They are not welfare! I’m also concerned about medical insurance in general. When I was young, healthy, and childless, I paid premiums that benefited the elderly, the sick, and families. How dare younger people object to helping me now?

Millenials have their own financial problems, of course. Tuition, even at state universities, is beyond the reach of many families now. (My family was extremely poor, but they managed somehow to put me through an excellent private college back in the fifties.) Competition is fierce for jobs that enable even well-educated young people to earn enough to buy homes and start families. For those with little formal education, life can be very hard.

It may seem at first that the divisions between the elderly and the young are simply a result of a shortage of resources.  Not everyone can have a bigger “piece of the pie.” However, the United States seems to have enough money to cut income taxes for wealthy individuals and corporations, to spend billions of dollars on military adventures, even to build an enormous wall between our country and Mexico.

How has the split between the “haves” and “have-nots” grown so wide? When I was a child, there certainly were wealthy and poor people, but there was an enormous middle class that had comfortable but unostentatious homes, enough food, and access to good educations. Today, in driving our RV around the country, I've seen huge areas where people are living in shacks or in tents under bridges, and other areas (often surrounded by high walls with locked gates) where elaborate homes are crowded together. What I think of as a middle-class home is quite rare.

In the years after World War II, many affordable suburban communities appeared, allowing returning G.I.’s to achieve what was then considered the American Dream—a house with two or three bedrooms, one or two bathrooms, and a small yard. (I have lived in both Park Forest and Daly City; those communities are still very livable today.)

Today, developers instead construct gated communities of very expensive homes that have few of the parks and other assets families need. They remind me of medieval fortresses.

On the other hand, our growing homeless population (including some of the Millenials and some of the elderly) cannot find decent places to live. People who have graduated from college and just entered the work force may be crammed into apartments or houses with many others; old people may end up in substandard nursing homes.

A country that can spend billions of dollars on a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants could invest much more on simple affordable housing, tuition grants, retirement communities, lower cost medical care, and other things that would benefit all age groups. The growing resentment between the elderly and the young is unnecessary, and we need to work together instead. We must resist our common enemy.