Karen Floyd's Western Colorado Specialty Pharmacy is a Resource for YOU No Matter Your Location

Whether you live in western Colorado/the Grand Valley or elsewhere, the link to Karen Floyd's website for Western Colorado Specialty Pharmacy will be a good educational trip for you (see below).  

Karen and I go go 'way back' to 2009, when Lumigrate was just getting to be on the Internet and 'out there' to help increasing numbers of people, and she was also to the point of 'materializing' the business she had started planning after she had retired as a pharmacist for the state of Colorado, which had closed a large 'regional center' here in Grand Junction for people with profound brain/mental health conditions. I have not asked if she had wanted to retire that early; I have thought many times about how the old systems were shutting down and making opportunities for those which are more 'modern', such as a compounding pharmacy in Karen's case! By total 'coincidence', she had found space located nearby where our office and studio space was that first year and a half, before Lumigrate had to downsize and be a home-based business.  

Karen was interested in a book on fibromyalgia by my former integrative medicine MD, Milton Hammerly, which has a section about Myer's Cocktails, a form of IV nutrition that was part of my chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia 'recovery' back in 1997, prior to Dr Hammerly's writing the books he has on the overlapping conditions of diabetes, PCOS and fibromyalgia. Unfortunately, in the late 1990s, Medicare made drastic changes in how they reimbursed for therapy services, and 50% of therapists were not employed as therapists in 1999, I have heard.  I was employed using my new-in-1996 OT degree, but it was for a small, private driving program/business so I was working for about 60% of what I had previously and did not have the money to pay for things insurances did not remimburse for.  I learned my lesson with THAT, as I saw my wellness go 'back down the drain'.  Once I got it back in about 2005, I felt compelled to create Lumigrate and bring the concepts to increasing numbers of people through the Internet.  And in time, we can hope the consumers demand the things that will help them be paid for by insurance.  So that is how someone like Karen and I are 'in this together'.  

Many things did not go exactly as 'planned' by me for Lumigrate, BUT THAT IS OKAY, they went differently and now that we've been up three and a half years, we've gotten our groove down and it is a much GRATEr groove than I'd foreseen/planned.  The need for an MD to contribute information about the hormone system and environmental medicine lead me to find Wm. Marc Spurlock, MD of Dallas, whose  "Renewed Vitality" clinic provides some of our information.  (You can find the links to each provider's website in their signature area and we work to utilize people who have beneficial websites for people to further their education.) 

Karen's Western Colorado Specialty Pharmacy is NOT 'the first' compounding pharmacy in town, however.  Thankfully, a RPh named Mitch Sprier, who had worked right across the street from me in Colorado Springs for the two years I struggled finanicially through working at the small (and very good) driving program, had come here to open his own business just after I moved here.  After being here a year, I was VERY frustrated with the medical providers I had initially found after moving here, they were well-intentioned but not progressive. I'd come to expect 'more' from providers, because I was seeing that my health level was going up and down hand in hand with the knowledge of my providers about what fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue 'was'.  

Mitch's pharmacy was a huge success and was bought up by a large drug store chain in 2007/8, which overall was great because more people became aware of the concept and compounded, biologically identical hormones as an option. In 2007, when a group of us 'progressive providers' were talking about moving into communal space 'all under one roof' with a collaborative care team approach for our patients, where I'd be picking up the educational materials and presentations and putting them on a website for all to learn and benefit from, as well as case examples. I'd continue in the role I had evolved to be in advising and consulting with medical consumers about the occupation of their health care and eductor/navigator.

I have confidence in guiding people on this topic to look at her website and considering going from there to her doors (or phone to call and inquire) due to knowing Karen for a few years now, with impressive growth after opening in a difficult time and market.  Additionally, I hear from innumerable people about how much they value her  contribution to their wellness after they stopped in to inquire about something, or began utilizing her expertise and products of one form or another. She offers much in the line of supplements and recently told me of the continuing education she has been partaking in out of state -- she's a very hard working professional!

You'll see that I feel so strongly about compounding pharmacy being part of YOU and your health care team, that it's one of the disciplines we selected to have on the visual model.  

Naturally, I can utilize this link/topic when advising local clients requesting consultations as a functional adviser about the local and nonlocal providers and resources they might consider, as I help them navigate through the occupation of their health care, but it applies to others elsewhere who might want to look to find 'their Karen or Mitch' in their community.  Keep in mind we also provide information here about ITC Pharmacy which has about 20 years of growth ahead of Karen and they have patients in all 50 states and BOTH Karen and ITC have the ability to connect people with a nurse practitioner who is located near ITC in the Front Range of Colorado who I have utilized since 2011 for providing my prescriptions for hormones, including thyroid. My providers will work collaboratively through email or phone when needed to find consensus if I'm unclear about something and it is possible to have a 'virtual' integrative medicine center's collaborative care approach as our You model has indicated since day #1 in 2009! 

Live and Learn.  Learn and Live Better! ~~ Mardy

www.gjcompounding.com/