A different day

[susandennis]

My doctor says I'm going to live... He said that he couldn't hear anything horrible in my lungs but because of the emphysema, he's inclined to be more concerned than he would be otherwise so he wanted me to take course of antibiotics. I demurred*. (*As in made a big ugly face and said nooooooooooooooo.) So then he dropped back to well, how about I give you a paper prescription and you wait two or thee days and if you aren't better, then get it filled and take it and... if after the antibiotics, you still aren't better, call me and I'll give you prednizone.

Fair enough. Oh and he told me to get religious about the albuterol inhaler. 3 or 4 times a day without fail. And codine cough syrup which tastes so disgusting. There's a big overdose warning on the bottle. NFW could I drink enough of that shit to overdose. It's gross.

It's probably been a hundred years since I got a paper prescription. Apparently the little notepad with scribbles is not a laser printer on fancy counterfeit-proof paper. I came home and dosed up on albuterol and codine and called Capital One.

My credit card was declined at the drug store. WTF? And at the pay to park. Really WTF? So after fighting my way to a human and repeating my name, birthday and secret 3 digit code to FOUR FUCKING different people, turns out their 'please confirm this transaction' emails have been going into spam. So they just shut me down when I didn't reply. I'm ok with that. My bad. Gmail now knows to raise the flag when one comes in and my card now works.

And then I hit the road. I went to Walmart. Didn't buy a thing. I went to DK Market and they didn't have what I wanted either. Drowned my sorrows in some Popeye chicken and went on to 99 Ranch. There I replenished my stash of this candy that ljtourist turned me on to and laid in a supply of butter crackers.



Then on to JoAnn's Fabrics. The store down where I was is huge compared to the one here in town. And I found some nice cotton knits. It was busy but the people working there were nice and friendly and full of good humor making the whole experience lovely.

My cough laid low while I was out and is cranking up now. It's weird. But, Sunday, yesterday and today... it cranks up about 4:50-5 pm. It's a cocktail hour cough!

For the record, I do intend for it to be gone before Friday when I would get the antibiotics. And I would only take them to get to the prednizone.

I'm doing this test for the City of Seattle. A driving app is monitoring all my driving. One of the things it tracks is distractions. How often and how you using your phone while driving. So far, I've scored 100% in no distractions and I didn't want to fuck up my record. So I mounted the phone today and didn't touch it. I had the map/trip up when I started the car. Then I used voice to ask it to please read my Audible book which it did, no sweat. EXCEPT, while it had the Audible screen up, it gave me my directions with a picture in a picture!

I had heard about this new feature but never seen it. Very cool. Also I had planned out my trip to four different places before I left home and 'sent it to phone'. Because I was not touching the phone, I couldn't kill the trip like I normally would, once I got close. And, low and behold Google maps figured me out. Even tolerated two unplanned stops. It just kept on going until I had been to all of the originally planned places and then asked if I was going home.

Impressive.

I was smart enough to snag extra chicken at lunch. Dinner's now all set.

Comments

[jaywil.livejournal.com]

Codeine cough medicine is the only thing that stops my "cough my guts out cough"! I also take Breo inhaler which has a steroid component and it has really been great. No problems for a year. I'm glad you went to the Doctor!

[susandennis]

cool. My daily inhaler is Anoro. The ones with steroids drove me nuts - my voice was always hoarse or absent and they caused bruises on my hands that looked horrible The Anoro is more expensive (like 10%) and works better for me. Until this hit, I had zero COPD symptoms so I'm working to get back to that :)

[jaywil.livejournal.com]

The hoarseness is an issue for me also but has gotten much better. They aren't cheap but do work and at least you have an option that you know works for you!

[susandennis]

Today my doctor asked me about the Anoro (which was prescribed by my lung doctor). He said 'is it expensive?' I assured him that anything with the last name of Inhaler is very expensive.

But, you are right. They do work!

[kayre]

Wow... you can't even get a paper prescription in New York state any more (but you can opt not to pick something up immediately).

[susandennis]

Interesting... I was watching some show on TV where an addict pick pocketed a doctor's prescription pad. Made sense to me at the time. Now, I'm like... what???? get with the times, TV doctors!

[kayre]

I can understand the reasoning... but it's frustrating if one wants to compare prices. And if you do choose not to fill a prescription, my pharmacy at least becomes a terrible nag (no profit for them when it isn't filled!).

[susandennis]

I use Humana Pharmacy (mail order) and you talk about nags... I have a backup phone - an old candy bar type on a voice plan from T-Mobile of 30 talking minutes for $3 a month. It's for just in case. BUT I recently changed my phone number at Humana to that phone number... I only even turn that phone on once a month - nag away, kids!

[apel.livejournal.com]

They still give you paper prescriptions here in California. Even in Silicon Valley! I got one less than 2 weeks ago.

The doctors have little grey prescription pads here. They look like they'd be dead easy to forge just using Photoshop and ordinary printer paper.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

I saw that show too (or at least, one with that plot point), but now I can't remember which one it was.

[susandennis]

I think it was Chicago Med so maybe it's an Illinois thing OR maybe it's old people in the writers room :)

[rsc.livejournal.com]

Oh, right -- the manipulative patient that stole Reese's prescription pad.

But I think I saw yet another show in which a flood of illegal oxy was traced to a doctor who claimed some of their prescription forms had been stolen. I'm thinking either Chicago P.D. or Major Crimes.

[susandennis]

Oh... ok so now my vote is Chicago PD because I don't watch it and now I have a vision of the Idea Board that that franchise and someone used one of the ideas and forgot to remove the post-it and it got reused by another Chicago X.

[rsc.livejournal.com]

When the fortunately short-lived "Chicago Justice" was announced, jwg was predicting that "Chicago Sanitation" would be next.

[susandennis]

Oh I'm totally setting up a TiVo wishlist for that one! Garbage guy finds a prescription pad that someone threw out by accident.

[zyzyly.livejournal.com]

My former mother in law is hooked on the codeine cough syrup, and will accept no substitutions. It's her only vice.

I support your decision to forego the antibiotics for now. If he didn't take a sputum culture to see if there was anything that antibiotics would be effective against, the it's better to wait and see. Hope you feel better soon!

[susandennis]

Thanks for your vote of no on the antibiotics. It makes me feel better about pushing back.