This is news which qualifies as Tech News and it’s a definite disaster for people like me. I will go so far as to admit that it might not have made this space if it hadn’t had a personal impact, but it really is important:

Merck has taken the arthritis drug Vioxx off the market. Period.

And yes, it means that for the entire Planet Earth (and beyond), there is no more such a thing as Vioxx. So, unless you’re hooked up to someone with a personal stash of pills, it is now impossible to get.

For most young people this is a yawner. For a lot of people affected by arthritis, young or old, it’s like having a broken leg (or arm or shoulder or…) and someone takes all the crutches off the market.

Yes, it’s just that serious. You have to be subject to the constant pain of arthritis in order to understand the scope of this. People may think that you have to have an active lifestyle before any pain from arthritis becomes a limiting issue. I can assure you that’s not true. Oh, it’s not always as bad as some of the ads for various medications show. You know the ones- the old lady or gentleman with the crippled hands, but when faced with a day without the only drug that seems to be effective against the pain I have to go through, getting out of bed in the morning just became something I’d rather not do.