BLOOD PRESSURE RISING

WARNING: RANT AHEAD

A few weeks ago I tried to get a refill on a prescription for my low dose blood pressure medicine, but my request to my mail order pharmacy had been ignored when I was on vacation.  I returned home early this month and tried again, and finally heard from my (newish) doctor that he would refill it but I had to come in for a recheck on BP and labs.  OK, fine.  Made the appointment and went in.

First the nurse confessed there was a screw up along the line and my meds should have had a whole year of renewals instead of none.  Uh-huh.  Agree.  Then as she reviewed my med list she rattled off a bunch of supplements I had been taking but at my last visit the doc told me to stop some of them.  Guess they had not made that note in the electronic records (which were supposed to make things oh so much easier!)  When I told her he took me off them, she sort of rolled her eyes and said she still takes the supplements she wants to; she tries never to go to the doctor; her supplements are her business, etc etc.  Hmmm...team approach to health care?  When I laughed and said I would follow her advice, she did try to backtrack, but the damage was done.  Nurse undermining doc -- noted.

Then the doc came in and immediately after saying hi, without taking a breath, started telling me about his recent trip to NYC.  He went on and on about this and that person, event, meal, site, death in family, family birthday, Uber experience, income inequality in NYC, tips for being safe on the street, price of restaurants, gentrification of Brooklyn and his dislike of Queens ....  Interspersed was some minimal attention paid to why I was there, but really I learned MUCH more about his life than he about mine.

He reviewed the lab results and I think he was ready to leave me on the lower BP med dosage, in spite of my numbers being intermittently a little high and also seemed to want to ignore my rising cholesterol numbers since going off the previously prescribed statin from which I had some minor side effects.  He also said those labs shouldn't really have been done yet, since he'd need to repeat them in a few months, but he was out of town and, well, someone approved them.

I was actually glad we had the labs because with the new results I insisted he take the numbers seriously.   I have a family history of cardiac disease and vascular dementia/stroke and I want to be well-controlled, not borderline.  He said OK, but not to worry about dementia because most people don't get it and all you have to do is challenge your brain with new learning which is why he is learning French and then he showed me he has the French version of Harry Potter on his Kindle.  Sigh.

What I think should have been a 15 minute visit strung out to 40, but there was the value added travelogue and brain exercise tip, so no complaints.  And I got a good laugh out of the whole experience.  (Also, after two visits with this guy I'm looking yet again for a new doctor.)

Since that appointment last Friday I've waited for an email from the pharmacy to let me know my meds were on the way....thinking he'd called them into my mail order place.  No word yet, so today I went online to check.  No orders pending.  Then I thought maybe he called them into the local pharmacy so I called them.  Sure enough they had his order.  I asked why I hadn't received a call from them.

The tech on the phone said, "We didn't fill the orders because we didn't know if you wanted us to."  What?!?  Of course I wanted them to fill my prescription.  She said they often just wait to hear from the patient.  I was so confused, I let it go, telling her to fill them asap!

But the more I thought about it, the madder I got.  What the hell?  I called back for an explanation of the delay and the protocol for filling prescriptions.  A new tech told me they often get orders from docs that people do not intend to fill at that pharmacy if the patient isn't already in their system.  They don't have the staff or stock of medicines to fill orders that will never be picked up.  So they just hold the order until the patient calls in...eventually...as I did.

I let her know I've been using that pharmacy for 30 years on and off and I definitely should be in the system.  Turns out they were recently sold to another outfit and my information was there, but "old".

I fell into the category of "don't do anything until the desperate and/or irate patient figures out we aren't filling their prescription."  "We will go ahead only when the patient calls from their deathbed  due to untreated this or that because BY GOD WE, THE PHARMACY,  WILL NOT TAKE 2 MINUTES TO CALL AND GET THE PATIENT'S OK TO FILL A PRESCRIPTION CALLED IN BY THEIR PHYSICIAN!"

I do not have dementia (no foreign language study notwithstanding) and I speak English; I have a college education and fair degree of confidence in dealing with authority figures.  And I know how to navigate an infuriating health care system (with persistence).  What of those who have any number of difficulties that preclude figuring all this out?!?  I sort of ranted to the pharmacy tech that I hear loudly and clearly that it is obviously the patient's responsibility to coordinate their health care needs among all the various entities involved.  She basically agreed, but assured me I'm now current in their system.

I simply cannot fathom trying to negotiate all of this as a person who is critically ill, disabled, alone, hearing or vision impaired, mentally ill, maybe with a touch of dementia, whatever....  You have to be the picture of health to get appropriate health care!   And I'm not dealing with some back country mom and pop GP office.  This is the largest multi-specialty clinic in the region, with the ridiculous marketing slogan, "We're Here for Your Health".  Are you?  Are you really?

At least, that's the view from here...©

NEWS HEADACHE? TAKE A PILL.

I'm a little addicted to watching a few of the "talking heads" explain the latest political intrigues to me.  Around dinner time I switch on the TV and catch the nightly Rachel Maddow Show, sometimes with a bit of the shows on either side of hers.  I realize these are considered "left-leaning" and that's OK with me because they also include guests who are Conservatives, or experts in their fields, or other journalists.  I think Rachel's logic and mine are akin and I admire her curiosity and determination to "get to the bottom of this" -- whatever the topic.  She's been doing some very insightful commentary and airing some very intriguing investigative journalism lately.

Still, politics these days gives me a headache.  And a heartache.  I can easily tip into a state of overwhelm, dismay, disgust, and dis-ease about what is happening to our great Republic.  Nothing looks promising right now and I still don't understand those who support this Administration nor why.  It makes no sense to me at all.  And I've been trying; I really have.  Just don't get it.  Wired differently, I guess.

So, when I'm watching sometimes I start to feel a little woozy; a little itchy; a little nauseated.  Then  I realized it might not be the content of the program, but the ads.

In just a little over an hour, I saw a plethora of commercials for treatment of these ailments:  nerve

pain, diarrhea, psoriasis, Alzheimers, Hep C, constipation, dark spots, cold sores, dry skin, nasal congestion, arthritis, heartburn, chemotherapy side-effects, erectile dysfunction, incontinence, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, over-active bladder, insomnia.  I listened to the symptoms which defined each of these, how they impacted the lives of those suffering these ailments, and then listened to how a pill or medication or treatment would relieve this suffering, then to the side-effects of the medication which were far worse than the original ailment.  A steady diet of these ads and soon my health anxiety is through the roof (but not to worry, there is a pill for that.)

I've taken to recording the shows, so I can zip through the commercials because I will not be convinced to turn off the TV.  I am "old-school" that way (and judging by the ads, anyone watching is considered in the "older" demographic anyway, so I'm right where I should be) and I like switching on the "nightly news".

Plus, anyone who says (among other despicable things) that the media/press is the 'enemy of the people' is permanently on my shit list.  I have a lifelong, unyielding trust in the "mainstream media" -- those news outlets that I believe are dedicated to finding the truth, to reporting with integrity, to informing the public in a nonpartisan, non-biased manner.  I trust long-standing publications like the New York Times, the Washington Post, the network newscasters, the unbiased cable outlets, NPR, PBS, BBC, political magazines of long-standing, and even some newer online journals and outlets. It's easy to tell which are biased and which way.  I read the Leftist ones with as much skepticism as those on the Right.  What's suddenly wrong with being "mainstream"?  What's wrong with looking at an issue and seeing both sides and coming to an informed conclusion based on facts?  When did that become something to deride?

Maybe it's a medication side-effect.

At least, that's the view from here...©

BLOOD PRESSURE? IS THAT THE PINK ONE?

Oh, how frustrated I used to be with my mother for not knowing what medications she was taking!  How could she be so out of touch with her own health care?  How could she just 'hand it over' to the doctor and not even know what medicine she was swallowing into her body on a daily basis?  How irresponsible!  She knew, of course, there was the "little yellow pill", "the one I cut in half", and "the light blue capsule".  And she had some idea of which body part or organ each pill was meant to medicate.  But the names of them?  Nah...not important.  Oh, how frustrating!

This morning I went to the dentist for my semi-annual teeth cleaning.  They always do a medication update and today was no exception.  Except....do you think I could recall the names of the four medications I take daily????  Now, in my defense, I have had a recent health issue which necessitated changing one of my medications a number of times to get the most effective one, eliminating one all together, and starting a new one.  So, really, who can keep up????

When asked what I was taking, all I could visualize was "the little round pink one, the big long white one, the oval green one, and the bright yellow one".  Oh, how humbling!

I rushed home, wrote down the names of each, and tucked the list into my wallet.  Just as I'd done for my mother.  I also asked, for the 1000th time, a silent plea of forgiveness from my mom for my many occasions of impatience and self-righteous youthful judgements over the years.  I get it now, Mom.

When we know better, we do better.  Too bad she's no longer here to be the beneficiary of my increasing wisdom.  But on some level, maybe she knew even then....she had a mother too, and was not as patient with her as she could have been either.  This is a lesson seemingly learned only from humbling experience.

At least, that's the view from here...©