Prescription Processing Problem: Another Month, Another SNAFU

Good news: After spending more than two hours on a round trip to St. Cloud, Minnesota, I got the signature needed and have my medication.

Bad news: Filling that particular prescription got bungled, again.

The 'Vexed' part of this post appeared on my Google Plus account this afternoon. (June 4, 2013)

Vexed

A frustrating situation. A medication that I need is 'controlled,' so the pharmacy isn't allowed to fill the prescription until the day after I run out.

The situation would be acceptable, but quite often the request for a refill gets lost in a bureaucratic system. I'm inclined to believe everyone I speak with: the pharmacist who sends the request, the office staff who don't ever see the request: everyone.

However, I am left without a needed medication.

It happened again this month, so I am off to a city that's about an hour's drive from here, to personally carry the signed paperwork back to the local pharmacy.

My sincere hope is that the paperwork actually gets signed and processed today.

If I sound vexed: you're quite perceptive.

'Protected' from a Prescription

The medication is a controlled substance: Methylphenidate. It's a sort of generic Ritalin, can be habit forming, and certainly shouldn't be misused. I understand why some reasonable precautions need to be taken when distributing the drug.

However, losing the authorization form on a regular basis seems to go somewhat beyond 'reasonable precautions.'

I keep taking methylphenidate because I need it to keep my brain working properly: and because I am an irascible old coot who is too stubborn to let a routine bureaucratic SNAFU get in the way of my health.

Not everyone who needs medications is like me, though. I've wondered how many cases where someone 'stopped taking his meds' and died as a result are cases like mine: where the poor soul got tired of monitoring a 'routine' process.

Related posts:

• "Flu Shot"
  (October 26, 2012)
• "Prescriptions, Panic, and Points to Ponder"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (September 14, 2011)
• "Brilliant, Talented, and On Medication"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (November 30, 2010)
• "Mostly Medical"
  (June 15, 2010)
• "Medication for Depression? Yeah: The Catholic Church is Okay With That"
  A Catholic Citizen in America (February 25, 2010)
  Particularly
  • 'Relying on God:' and Not Being Stupid

Flu Shot

I got my annual flu shot yesterday. It's a routine I started a few years ago.

The year I missed the influenza inoculation was the same year I experienced a modestly spectacular encounter with the flu. That may have been a coincidence, but then again maybe it wasn't.

I need to find out if I have been inoculated against shingles. I think I took care of that. If not, it should be done.

As usual, folks at the pharmacy where I got the shot were very earnest about getting full health insurance information from me. I think it's a cultural thing. I was born during the Truman administration, but my attitude is rooted in an older tradition.

By the time the fellow who does the injection came, and asked - again - about insurance, I'd become a bit 'earnest' myself. I told him:

"The insurance won't pay it. Nobody else will pay it. Somebody's got to pay it: so I'll pay it."

He told me that he remembered me from last year. I believe it. ;)

Another Weekend

I'd have liked to have been out grilling burgers this noon, but between a light fever, a mild winter storm, and a sensible wife - I've deferred the experience.

Here's what the grill looked like a week ago, after my son shoveled it out:



Last weekend, and this, #1 daughter is here visiting. With her cat, Twitches. Kitten, actually. Cute little thing. Lively, too.



Twitches did a very thorough job of cleaning out that bowl last Saturday.

That 'vest' she's wearing is an Ace bandage. Twitches has a patch of very tender skin on her shoulder - which the bandage and gauze underneath protects. She does not - emphatically not - like the bandage. Or, rather, does not like the process of changing the dressing once or twice a day.

Overheated Van, Common-Sense Advice

Yesterday afternoon didn't go quite as-planned.

I thought I was going to drive to St. Cloud, get a copy of my son's birth certificate so that he could get a photo-ID - which in turn would make it possible for him to get tested on a computer maintenance course he's taken - and pick up medications for me.

That was the plan.

I was a few miles out from Sauk Centre when I heard a 'beep' from the dashboard. Never a good sign. The oil warning light was on, and the gauge was climbing to the top of its range.

Several miles later, after coasting in neutral, accelerating to highway speed and repeating the cycle on the shoulder - hazard flashers on, of course - I made it up the Melrose exit, about ten miles from Sauk Centre.

I'd figured how long it would take me to get to St. Cloud at that rate - and the Stearns County offices would have been closed by then.

I called home (sensible act) and told my wife what had happened. I then opined (not-so-sensible thing) that I could get the van back, the same way I got it to Melrose.

I then felt very 'married,' when my wife told me in even, deliberate tones: "Call - Flowers." So I called Flowers Collision service here in town - and eventually got a tow back to Sauk Centre.

I still think I could have coaxed the van back into town - but asking for help was a lot more sensible.

No wonder I've heard that men live, on average, ten years longer if they're married.

I'm Not a 40-Year-Old Kid Anymore

Around midnight last night, our phone service went out. So did our Internet connection. Around 1:30 a.m. I decided that getting sleep was more important than waiting out the service interruption. ("No Phone, No Web, No Internet: Not a Single Webcam Live" (Small Town America: Minnesota (June 29, 2010))

I slept until almost noon.

Which brings up an interesting point: I've noticed lately that I don't bounce back from late hours and other stressors quite as fast as I used to. Maybe it's time for me to admit that I'm not a 40-year-old kid any more.

Oh, Wow! Earth Day #40: I was There in the Beginning

I've spent a great deal of time this week, getting ready for the 40th Earth Day.

I remember the first one. And I remember the wonderful swell of emotion I experienced, seeing that big theta fluttering over the campus.

Other people saw it, too, by the way: it was on a flag that looked sort of like the American flag. As I'll say in another blog, a Wikipedia article asserts that the 'ecology flag' came after 1970. The person who wrote that could be right.

Like so many other memories of that groovy period, mine aren't entirely precise. I wasn't part of the drug scene: and I'm very glad that I came out of the sixties and early seventies with pretty much the same neural equipment I had coming in.

No great virtue on my part: I didn't see how stirring your brain with a chemical egg whisk would improve its performance; and with a brain wired like mine, all I needed to take a trip was ease up on the brakes. Which is another topic. (Drifting at the Edge of Time and Space (March 7, 2010)

So, I've been indulging in a walk down memory lane, with nostalgic Pilot shades over my mind's eyes.

I've also been doing my small part to raise the level America's awareness of lint:

• "Lemming Tracks: STOP THE WASTE!!! RECYCLE EARTH'S PRECIOUS LINT!!!!"

Friday Morning: No School.

Sauk Centre schools were smart.

No school today.

We got another automated phone call this morning.

Snow plows have been by here, this morning: But out in the country, this almost-a-foot of snow that we got is almost certainly making travel an adventure.

~-~-~

Yesterday's post now
'New and Improved: with Photo!'

Wednesday: of Computers, Sons, and Possible Security Risks

I got a surprise this morning, when I tried using the main computer.

It was running, of course, since it's the device I use to run my "outside" webcam.

It would have been, anyway, since our son gets up well before he needs to, and likes to use that computer. It's a great deal faster than his laptop.

When I sat down at the keyboard, the main computer was logged into our son's user and - more to the point - quite insistent about being given a particular DVD.

I finally convinced it that I wasn't putting the DVD in place, and tried to log out.

"Tried to log out." Twice. Each time, one of those little announcements went up that a DVD movie launcher wasn't shutting down.

I could have spent hours, trying to figure out exactly what caused the problem, or I could just cut power to the computer.

Simple choice: I cut off power, restarted the thing, and no more problem.

Some good came of the annoyance: I

• Got an opportunity to practice patience
• Had to look up potential security problems for this sort of situation
  • ...and as a result found something I could use for a post on another blog

I doubt that anything unpleasant has happened to the computer as a result of its use as a DVD player, but I'm going to have a chat with our son, when he comes home from school.

We're Told That: Obesity is Rampant, World-Wide, Putting Our Children's Health in Peril. So, Traditional Games are Banned in Recess

What is wrong with this picture?!

I'm not making this up. "USA Today's" " 'Not it!' More schools ban games at recess" tells about the latest thing in education: getting rid of dangerous things like "tag" and touch football.

This year, playing tag at recess was banned at elementary schools in Cheyenne, WY, and Spokane, WA. Soccer and touch football are verboten at other schools. They're following the lead of schools in

• Wichita, KS
• San Jose, CA
• Beaverton, OR
• Rancho Santa Fe, CA

Years ago, dodge ball was too rough and dangerous.

Now it's tag that's too risky.

This does not make sense.

• Obesity is a Global Crisis!
• Our Children's health is in peril!
• We must encourage our children to exercise!
• Don't play tag, touch football, soccer, or dodge ball at recess!

If this keeps up, kids will be required to line up during recess, do isometric exercises, and close their eyes tight - so that the weaker kids aren't traumatized by seeing others doing better.

This isn't an issue here in Sauk Centre, yet. Tucked away here in central Minnesota, we aren't at the cutting edge of crazy ideas.

Playing football and dodge ball aren't among my precious childhood memories. Being a cripple took the edge off my appreciation of these games. On the other hand, I wasn't particularly traumatized. My classmates were quite willing to let me opt out of the games - and I found a work-around for Phy Ed's dodge ball requirement.

I dodged until I was in a corner or against the wall, turned, and let the ball bounce off me. Hitting a stationary target that's waiting patiently to get hit isn't much fun, so I didn't have to worry about more than about one bounce-off.

Of course, American culture wasn't as nervously risk-averse then.

The idea that tag is too dangerous for kids to play brings up an interesting question: What kind of world do educators think they're preparing kids for?

If you live in one of the more cautious parts of the world, and think there's something crazy about banning children's games, you're not alone. The American Association for the Child's Right to Play (IPA USA) is the USA affiliate of International Play Association promoting the child's right to play.

It's nice to know that America isn't the only place with crazy people making decisions for the rest of us.

My rant's over. If you're still reading, thanks for indulging me.