Ulla’s Health Recovery Campaign

In March of 2016, after a lifetime of vibrantly good physical and mental health, a preventable tragedy struck Ulla. 

This is Ulla’s story…

She went to her Kaiser Permanente primary doctor for a referral for treatment of symptoms of Neuropathy. The substitute doctor declined the referral until Ulla tried a medication. Ulla said she had been medication free for her entire life and was wary. The doctor prescribed a psychotropic medication, Cymbalta “off-label,” which is known to alleviate Neuropathy symptoms – – and the nightmare began. 

In two days, Ulla’s lips and tongue swelled. Her primary doctor reduced the dosage but the damage was done. Even though she discontinued the Cymbalta, the symptoms worsened, culminating in hives which lasted 30 days, causing an almost total loss of sleep. The diagnosis was allergy. The treatment was Benadryl.

During this time, Ulla visited the ER five times and no doctor considered calling in an Allergist. If they had done so, they would have learned that their diagnosis was wrong, as an Allergist confirmed much later. It was not an allergy to the Cymbalta, it was an auto-immune response, which could have been treated with a common over-the-counter pill called Zyrtec. Instead, Ulla’s 30 day sleep loss from the hives caused by the Cymbalta brought her to the ER for the 5th time. Again, instead of an Allergist, a Psychiatrist was called in and he prescribed another psych med, Seroquel, again “off-label”, for sleep. Ulla is an R.N. and she protested but she was desperate to sleep. The Psychiatrist gave her 350mg, which is seven times the initial dose recommended by the makers of the drug. This was a disaster. Within days, again, Ulla developed horrendous symptoms which led her to severe mental illness and six hospitalizations in locked facilities in only 3 years. Kaiser Psychiatry’s only answer for mental illness caused by psych meds was more psych meds – – TWELVE more psych meds – – all of which are designed to alter brain chemistry.

Today, every aspect of Ulla’s personality is reversed. Her prognosis is unknown. She is presently in her sixth hospitalization in a locked facility, this time for treatment of a life-threatening eating disorder that developed after her fifth hospitalization. After several grievances filed with member services, Kaiser Permanente, finally and much too late, determined that Ulla is an “outlier,” meaning psych meds don’t work for her as they do for others and they have begun tapering her off them. Despite the difficulty and danger of tapering psych meds, this is good but it may be far too late for Ulla to fully recover. If even one of the ER doctors who saw her in those 5 ER visits had called in an Allergist, Ulla would have taken the Zyrtec, her hives would have cleared up, her normal sleep would have returned and she never would have received the near-fatal dose of 350mg of Seroquel.

Kaiser members are required to sign an Arbitration Agreement, forcing them to arbitrate any claims. This arbitration clause is patently discriminatory against any member who can’t afford to pay thousands of dollars for an attorney and expert witnesses. Those who arbitrate must contend with Kaiser’s Policies, Standard of Care and an award cap which are protective of Kaiser’s profits to the detriment of their members.

The funds we hope to raise will be earmarked for two explicit purposes:

1. To create a fund to help with the cost of needed tests and treatments not offered by Kaiser, as well as in-home care for as long as it is necessary.

2. To engage a publicist and explore opportunities to get Ulla’s story to the public to advise them about the dangers of psychotropic medications, their careless off-label use and their side effects, especially so-called “suicide ideation and behaviors.”

Ulla has devoted her entire adult life to helping many thousands of people – – as a Registered Nurse, author, lecturer and over forty years as a master Yoga teacher. Now, sadly, the time has come to reach out for help and support.

Thanks very much for your consideration.

Please go to the GoFundMe page if you wish to make a contribution.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.